Genesis 48

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

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

3Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and he blessed me.

4He 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 to your offspring after you as a permanent possession.’

5Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you here in Egypt, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are.

6Any children born to you after them will be yours. In their inheritance they will be listed under the names of their brothers.

7As for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died on the way in the land of Canaan, while we were still some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

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

9Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” Israel said, “Please bring them to me, so that I may bless them.”

10Now Israel’s eyes were dim with age, and he could not see. So Joseph brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.

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

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

13Joseph 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 close to him.

14But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, though he was the younger, and he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head. He crossed his hands deliberately, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.

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 to this day,

16the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—may he bless these boys. May my name live on in them, and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude on the earth.”

17When Joseph saw that his father had put his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he was displeased. He took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.

18Joseph said to his father, “Not that way, my father! This one 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 people, and he too will become great. Yet his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.”

20So he blessed them that day and said, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim ahead of 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.

22And to you, above your brothers, I give one ridge of land, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”