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time later Joseph was told, “Your father is unwell and getting weaker.” So he set out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel summoned his strength and sat up on the bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. 4 He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. I will make you a community of peoples, and I and will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you’.
5 “So your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as belonging to me; Ephraim and Manasseh are now mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Children born to you after them will be yours, and they will be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their hereditary entitlement. 7 As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died while we were still on the way, a short distance from Ephrath in the land of Canaan. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?”
9 “They are my sons, whom God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father.
Then Israel said, “Please bring them to me so I may bless them.”
10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, so he could hardly see. Joseph brought his sons close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has even let me see your offspring also.”
12 Then Joseph took them from his father’s knees, and he bowed down with his face to the ground.
13 Then Joseph took both of them, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. 14 But Israel reached out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his arms knowingly, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. 15 Then 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,
16 the Angel who has redeemed me from all harm
—may He bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they grow to be numerous
upon the earth.”
17 When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 Joseph said to his father, “Not this way, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will be great. But his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.”
20 So he blessed them that day and said,
“By you Israel will pronounce this blessing:
‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh’.”
So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. 22 And to you, as one who is over his brothers, I give, the ridge of land I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”