Genesis 48

After these things, someone told Joseph, “Your father is ill.” He took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him. Someone told Jacob, “Your son Joseph is coming to you.” Israel gathered his strength and sat up on the bed. Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make you a community of peoples. I will give this land to your offspring after you as an everlasting possession.’ Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are. The offspring born to you after them shall be yours. They shall be called by their brothers’ names in their inheritance. As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died to my sorrow in the land of Canaan, along the way, while there was still some distance to go to Ephrath. I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.” When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?” Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” He said, “Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.” Israel’s eyes had grown dim with age, and he could not see. Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. Israel said to Joseph, “I did not expect to see your face, and now God has let me see your offspring too.” Joseph took them away from his father’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. Joseph took both of them, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right, and brought them near him. Israel stretched out his right hand and placed it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, though Manasseh was the firstborn. He blessed Joseph and said,
“May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has shepherded me all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the young men.
May my name and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac be called upon them, and may they multiply greatly in the midst of the earth.” When Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him. He took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great. Yet his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.” He blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. I have given you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”

Rights and attribution