Genesis 48:1-22

Manasseh and Ephraim

48:1 After these things Joseph was told, ¹  “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. 48:2 When Jacob was told, ²  “Your son Joseph has just ³  come to you,” Israel regained strength and sat up on his bed. 48:3 Jacob said to Joseph, “The sovereign God ⁴  appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. 48:4 He said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful ⁵  and will multiply you. ⁶  I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants ⁷  as an everlasting possession.’ ⁸ 

48:5 “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. ⁹  Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are. 48:6 Any children that you father ¹⁰  after them will be yours; they will be listed ¹¹  under the names of their brothers in their inheritance. ¹²  48:7 But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow ¹³  – 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). ¹⁴ 

48:8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?” 48:9 Joseph said to his father, “They are the ¹⁵  sons God has given me in this place.” His father ¹⁶  said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.” ¹⁷  48:10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing ¹⁸  because of his age; he was not able to see well. So Joseph ¹⁹  brought his sons ²⁰  near to him, and his father ²¹  kissed them and embraced them. 48:11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected ²²  to see you ²³  again, but now God has allowed me to see your children ²⁴  too.”

48:12 So Joseph moved them from Israel’s knees ²⁵  and bowed down with his face to the ground. 48:13 Joseph positioned them; ²⁶  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. ²⁷  48:14 Israel stretched out his right hand and placed it on Ephraim’s head, although he was the younger. ²⁸  Crossing his hands, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, for Manasseh was the firstborn.

48:15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my fathers

Abraham and Isaac walked –

the God who has been my shepherd ²⁹ 

all my life long to this day,

48:16 the Angel ³⁰  who has protected me ³¹ 

from all harm –

bless these boys.

May my name be named in them, ³² 

and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.

May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”

48:17 When Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him. ³³  So he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 48:18 Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”

48:19 But 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 ³⁴  of nations.” 48:20 So he blessed them that day, saying,

“By you ³⁵  will Israel bless, ³⁶  saying,

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

So he put Ephraim before Manasseh. ³⁷ 

48:21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you ³⁸  and will bring you back to the land of your fathers. 48:22 As one who is above your ³⁹  brothers, I give to you the mountain slope, ⁴⁰  which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”

Genesis 9:1

God’s Covenant with Humankind through Noah

9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Exodus 10:9-11

10:9 Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold ⁴¹  a pilgrim feast for the Lord.”

10:10 He said to them, “The Lord will need to be with you ⁴²  if I release you and your dependents! ⁴³  Watch out! ⁴⁴  Trouble is right in front of you! ⁴⁵  10:11 No! ⁴⁶  Go, you men ⁴⁷  only, and serve the Lord, for that ⁴⁸  is what you want.” ⁴⁹  Then Moses and Aaron ⁵⁰  were driven ⁵¹  out of Pharaoh’s presence.

Deuteronomy 31:12-13

31:12 Gather the people – men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages – so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law. 31:13 Then their children, who have not known this law, ⁵²  will also hear about and learn to fear the Lord your God for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Joel 2:16

2:16 Gather the people;

sanctify an assembly!

Gather the elders;

gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom

and the bride from her private quarters. ⁵³ 

[48:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and one said.” With no expressed subject in the Hebrew text, the verb can be translated with the passive voice.

[48:2]  ² tn Heb “and one told and said.” The verbs have no expressed subject and can be translated with the passive voice.

[48:2]  ³ tn Heb “Look, your son Joseph.”

[48:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[48:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “Look, I am making you fruitful.” The participle following הִנֵּה (hinneh) has the nuance of a certain and often imminent future.

[48:4]  ⁶ tn The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive carries on the certain future idea.

[48:4]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds “after you,” which has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[48:4]  ⁸ 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).

[48:5]  ⁹ 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.

[48:6]  ¹⁰ tn Or “you fathered.”

[48:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “called” or “named.”

[48:6]  ¹² 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.

[48:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “upon me, against me,” which might mean something like “to my sorrow.”

[48:7]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[48:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my.”

[48:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[48:9]  ¹⁷ tn The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the imperative.

[48:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “heavy.”

[48:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[48:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “them”; the referent (Joseph’s sons) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[48:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[48:11]  ²² 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.

[48:11]  ²³ tn Heb “your face.”

[48:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “offspring.”

[48:12]  ²⁵ 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.

[48:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and Joseph took the two of them.”

[48:13]  ²⁷ 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.

[48:14]  ²⁸ tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-concessive here.

[48:15]  ²⁹ tn Heb “shepherded me.” The verb has been translated as an English noun for stylistic reasons.

[48:16]  ³⁰ 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.

[48:16]  ³¹ 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).

[48:16]  ³² tn Or “be recalled through them.”

[48:17]  ³³ tn Heb “it was bad in his eyes.”

[48:19]  ³⁴ tn Heb “fullness.”

[48:20]  ³⁵ tn The pronoun is singular in the Hebrew text, apparently elevating Ephraim as the more prominent of the two. Note, however, that both are named in the blessing formula that follows.

[48:20]  ³⁶ tn Or “pronounce a blessing.”

[48:20]  ³⁷ sn On the elevation of Ephraim over Manasseh see E. C. Kingsbury, “He Set Ephraim Before Manasseh,” HUCA 38 (1967): 129-36; H. Mowvley, “The Concept and Content of ‘Blessing’ in the Old Testament,” BT 16 (1965): 74-80; and I. Mendelsohn, “On the Preferential Status of the Eldest Son,” BASOR 156 (1959): 38-40.

[48:21]  ³⁸ tn The pronouns translated “you,” “you,” and “your” in this verse are plural in the Hebrew text.

[48:22]  ³⁹ tn The pronouns translated “your” and “you” in this verse are singular in the Hebrew text.

[48:22]  ⁴⁰ 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).

[10:9]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “we have a pilgrim feast (חַג, khag) to Yahweh.”

[10:10]  ⁴² sn Pharaoh is by no means offering a blessing on them in the name of Yahweh. The meaning of his “wish” is connected to the next clause – as he is releasing them, may God help them. S. R. Driver says that in Pharaoh’s scornful challenge Yahweh is as likely to protect them as Pharaoh is likely to let them go – not at all (Exodus, 80). He is planning to keep the women and children as hostages to force the men to return. U. Cassuto (Exodus, 125) paraphrases it this way: “May the help of your God be as far from you as I am from giving you permission to go forth with your little ones.” The real irony, Cassuto observes, is that in the final analysis he will let them go, and Yahweh will be with them.

[10:10]  ⁴³ tn The context of Moses’ list of young and old, sons and daughters, and the contrast with the word for strong “men” in v. 11 indicates that טַפְּכֶם (tappÿkhem), often translated “little ones” or “children,” refers to dependent people, noncombatants in general.

[10:10]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “see.”

[10:10]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “before your face.”

[10:11]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “not thus.”

[10:11]  ⁴⁷ tn The word is הַגְּבָרִים (haggÿvarim, “the strong men”), a word different from the more general one that Pharaoh’s servants used (v. 7). Pharaoh appears to be conceding, but he is holding hostages. The word “only” has been supplied in the translation to indicate this.

[10:11]  ⁴⁸ tn The suffix on the sign of the accusative refers in a general sense to the idea contained in the preceding clause (see GKC 440-41 §135.p).

[10:11]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “you are seeking.”

[10:11]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “they”; the referent (Moses and Aaron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:11]  ⁵¹ tn The verb is the Piel preterite, third person masculine singular, meaning “and he drove them out.” But “Pharaoh” cannot be the subject of the sentence, for “Pharaoh” is the object of the preposition. The subject is not specified, and so the verb can be treated as passive.

[31:13]  ⁵² tn The phrase “this law” is not in the Hebrew text, but English style requires an object for the verb here. Other translations also supply the object which is otherwise implicit (cf. NIV “who do not know this law”; TEV “who have never heard the Law of the Lord your God”).

[2:16]  ⁵³ sn Mosaic law allowed men recently married, or about to be married, to be exempt for a year from certain duties that were normally mandatory, such as military obligation (cf. Deut 20:7; 24:5). However, Joel pictures a time of such urgency that normal expectations must give way to higher requirements.