Genesis 48

¹ Some time later, Joseph was informed, 'Your father has been taken il .' So he took with him his twosons Manasseh and Ephraim.

² When Jacob was told, 'Look, your son Joseph has come to you,' Israel, summoning his strength, satup in bed.

³ 'El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in Canaan,' Jacob told Joseph, 'and he blessed me,

⁴ saying to me, "I shall make you fruitful and numerous, and shal make you into an assembly ofpeoples and give this country to your descendants after you, to own in perpetuity."

⁵ Now your two sons, born to you in Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, shal be mine; Ephraim andManasseh shall be as much mine as Reuben and Simeon.

⁶ But with regard to the children you have had since them, they shall be yours, and they shal be knownby their brothers' names for the purpose of their inheritance.

⁷ 'When I was on my way from Paddan, to my sorrow death took your mother Rachel from me inCanaan, on the journey while only a short distance from Ephrath. I buried her there on the road to Ephrath --now Bethlehem.'

⁸ When Israel saw Joseph's two sons, he asked, 'Who are these?'

⁹ 'They are my sons, whom God has given me here,' Joseph told his father. 'Then bring them to me', hesaid, 'so that I may bless them.'

¹⁰ Now, Israel's eyes were dim with age, and he could not see. So Joseph made them come closer tohim and he kissed and embraced them.

¹¹ Then Israel said to Joseph, 'I did not think I should ever see you again, and now God has let me seeyour children as wel !'

¹² Then Joseph took them from his lap and bowed to the ground.

¹³ Then Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim with his right hand so that he should be on Israel's left,and Manasseh with his left hand, so that he should be on Israel's right, and brought them close to him.

¹⁴ But Israel held out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and his left on thehead of Manasseh, crossing his hands -- Manasseh was, in fact, the elder.

¹⁵ Then he blessed Joseph saying: May the God in whose presence my fathers Abraham and Isaacwalked, the God who has been my shepherd from my birth until this day,

¹⁶ the Angel who has saved me from al harm, bless these boys, so that my name may live on in them,and the names of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac, and they grow into teeming multitudes on earth!

¹⁷ Joseph saw that his father was laying his right hand on the head of Ephraim, and this he thought waswrong, so he took his father's hand and tried to shift it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasseh.

¹⁸ Joseph protested to his father, 'Not like that, father! This one is the elder; put your right hand on hishead.'

¹⁹ But his father refused. 'I know, my son, I know,' he said. 'He too shal become a people; he too wilbe great. But his younger brother wil be greater, his offspring wil be sufficient to constitute nations.'

²⁰ So he blessed them that day, saying: By you shal Israel bless itself, saying, 'God make you likeEphraim and Manasseh!' putting Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹ Then Israel said to Joseph, 'Now I am about to die. But God will be with you and take you back to theland of your ancestors.

²² As for me, I give you a Shechem more than your brothers, the one I took from the Amorites with mysword and bow.'