Manasseh and Ephraim

¹After these things Joseph was told, “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.[#tn Heb “and one said.” With no expressed subject in the Hebrew text, the verb can be translated with the passive voice.]

²When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has just come to you,” Israel regained strength and sat up on his bed.[#tn Heb “and one told and said.” The verbs have no expressed subject and can be translated with the passive voice.; #tn Heb “Look, your son Joseph.”]

³Jacob said to Joseph, “The sovereign God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.[#tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.]

⁴He said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will multiply you. I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants as an everlasting possession.’[#tn Heb “Look, I am making you fruitful.” The participle following הִנֵּה (hinneh) has the nuance of a certain and often imminent future.; #tn The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive carries on the certain future idea.; #tn The Hebrew text adds “after you,” which has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.; #tn The Hebrew word אֲחֻזָּה (’akhuzzah), translated “possession,” describes a permanent holding in the land. It is the noun form of the same verb (אָחַז, ’akhaz) that was used for the land given to them in Goshen (Gen 47:27).]

⁵“Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are.[#sn They will be mine. Jacob is here adopting his two grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim as his sons, and so they will have equal share with the other brothers. They will be in the place of Joseph and Levi (who will become a priestly tribe) in the settlement of the land. See I. Mendelsohn, “A Ugaritic Parallel to the Adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh,” IEJ (1959): 180-83.]

⁶Any children that you father after them will be yours; they will be listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance.[#tn Or “you fathered.”; #tn Heb “called” or “named.”; #sn Listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance. This means that any subsequent children of Joseph will be incorporated into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.]

⁷But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).[#tn Heb “upon me, against me,” which might mean something like “to my sorrow.”; #map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.]

⁸When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?”

⁹Joseph said to his father, “They are the sons God has given me in this place.” His father said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”[#tn Heb “my.”; #tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the imperative.]

¹⁰Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of his age; he was not able to see well. So Joseph brought his sons near to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.[#tn Heb “heavy.”sn The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information that is important to the story. The weakness of Israel’s sight is one of several connections between this chapter and Gen 27. Here there are two sons, and it appears that the younger is being blessed over the older by a blind old man. While it was by Jacob’s deception in chap. 27, here it is with Jacob’s full knowledge.; #tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn Heb “them”; the referent (Joseph’s sons) has been specified in the translation for clarity.; #tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.]

¹¹Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see you again, but now God has allowed me to see your children too.”[#tn On the meaning of the Hebrew verb פָּלַל (palal) here, see E. A. Speiser, “The Stem pll in Hebrew,” JBL 82 (1963): 301-6. Speiser argues that this verb means “to estimate” as in Exod 21:22.; #tn Heb “your face.”; #tn Heb “offspring.”]

¹²So Joseph moved them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.[#tn Heb “and Joseph brought them out from with his knees.” The two boys had probably been standing by Israel’s knees when being adopted and blessed. The referent of the pronoun “his” (Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.]

¹³Joseph positioned them; he put Ephraim on his right hand across from Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh on his left hand across from Israel’s right hand. Then Joseph brought them closer to his father.[#tn Heb “and Joseph took the two of them.”; #tn Heb “and he brought near to him.” The referents of the pronouns “he” and “him” (Joseph and his father respectively) have been specified in the translation for clarity.]

¹⁴Israel stretched out his right hand and placed it on Ephraim’s head, although he was the younger. Crossing his hands, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, for Manasseh was the firstborn.[#tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-concessive here.]

¹⁵Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my fathers

Abraham and Isaac walked –

the God who has been my shepherd

all my life long to this day,

¹⁶the Angel who has protected me[#sn The Samaritan Pentateuch reads “king” here, but the traditional reading (“angel”) may be maintained. Jacob closely associates God with an angelic protective presence. This does not mean that Jacob viewed his God as a mere angel, but it does suggest that he was aware of an angelic presence sent by God to protect him. Here he so closely associates the two that they become virtually indistinguishable. In this culture messengers typically carried the authority of the one who sent them and could even be addressed as such. Perhaps Jacob thought that the divine blessing would be mediated through this angelic messenger.; #tn The verb גָּאַל (ga’al) has the basic idea of “protect” as a near relative might do. It is used for buying someone out of bondage, marrying a deceased brother’s widow, paying off debts, avenging the family, and the like. The meanings of “deliver, protect, avenge” are most fitting when God is the subject (see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of √גאל,” Congress Volume: Copenhagen, 1953 [VTSup], 67-77).]

from all harm –

bless these boys.

May my name be named in them,

and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.

May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him. So he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.[#tn Heb “it was bad in his eyes.”]

¹⁸Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”

¹⁹But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.”[#tn Heb “fullness.”]

²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying,

“By you will Israel bless, saying,

‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.[#tn The pronouns translated “you,” “you,” and “your” in this verse are plural in the Hebrew text.]

²²As one who is above your brothers, I give to you the mountain slope, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”[#tn The pronouns translated “your” and “you” in this verse are singular in the Hebrew text.; #tn The Hebrew word שְׁכֶם (shÿkhem) could be translated either as “mountain slope” or “shoulder, portion,” or even taken as the proper name “Shechem.” Jacob was giving Joseph either (1) one portion above his brothers, or (2) the mountain ridge he took from the Amorites, or (3) Shechem. The ambiguity actually allows for all three to be the referent. He could be referring to the land in Shechem he bought in Gen 33:18-19, but he mentions here that it was acquired by warfare, suggesting that the events of 34:25-29 are in view (even though at the time he denounced it, 34:30). Joseph was later buried in Shechem (Josh 24:32).]