Genesis 48:1-12

Manasseh and Ephraim

1 Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.

2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.

3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty^[a] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me

4 and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’

5 “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.

6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers.

7 As I was returning from Paddan,^[b] to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

8 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?”

9 “They are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”

10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.

11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”

12 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.

Genesis 48:1-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 48

Joseph, hearing that his father Jacob was sick, paid him a visit, Ge 49:1,2; at which time Jacob gave him an account of the Lord's appearing to him at Luz, and of the promise he made unto him, Ge 49:3,4; then he adopted his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and blessed them, and Joseph also, Ge 49:5-16; and whereas he crossed his hands when he blessed the sons of Joseph, putting his right hand on the youngest, and his left hand on the eldest, which was displeasing to Joseph, he gave him a reason for so doing, Ge 49:17-20; and then assured him that God would bring him, and the rest of his posterity, into the land of Canaan, where he assigned him a particular portion above his brethren, Ge 49:21,22.

Cross References

• 1. S Genesis 41:52; Hebrews 11:21
• 2. ver 8,9,11,14,20
• 3. S Genesis 17:1
• 4. S Genesis 28:19
• 5. S Genesis 28:13; S Genesis 32:29; Genesis 35:9-12
• 6. S Genesis 12:2; S Genesis 17:6
• 7. S Genesis 12:7; S Genesis 28:13
• 8. S Genesis 15:7
• 9. S Genesis 41:50-52; Genesis 46:20
• 10. 1 Chronicles 5:1; Joshua 14:4
• 11. S Genesis 29:32
• 12. S Genesis 29:33
• 13. S Genesis 25:20
• 14. S Genesis 42:38
• 15. Genesis 35:19; Ruth 1:2; 1 Samuel 16:4
• 16. S ver 2
• 17. ver 10
• 18. S Genesis 33:5
• 19. S Genesis 24:60; Genesis 27:4
• 20. S Genesis 27:1
• 21. S Genesis 27:27
• 22. S Genesis 29:13
• 23. S ver 2
• 24. S Genesis 44:28
• 25. Genesis 50:23; Job 42:16; Psalms 103:17; Psalms 128:6
• 26. Genesis 50:23; Job 3:12
• 27. S Genesis 19:1; S Genesis 33:3; Genesis 37:10

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "El-Shaddai"
• [b] That is, Northwest Mesopotamia