About Jacob giving his special blessing to Ephraim and Manasseh

1Some time later Joseph was told that his father was sick. So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and they went to visit Jacob.

2When they arrived someone told Jacob that his son had come to see him. The old man was very weak now, but he sat up on his bed when he saw his son Joseph.

3Jacob said to him, “Long ago the God who is most powerful came and appeared to me while I was in Canaan. He spoke to me at Luz and blessed me.

4He said, ‘I will give you many children, so that your descendants will become many nations. I will give this country to your descendants to be theirs forever.’” Today the place Luz is called Bethel.

5Jacob also said, “Your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, belong to me. They were born in Egypt before I came here but they are like my two sons Reuben and Simeon.

6If you have any more sons, they won't belong to me. Only Ephraim and Manasseh are mine. So when I die those two will get some of my things, but any children you have afterwards won't get anything. They will only get something if Ephraim and Manasseh give it to them later.

7“I am doing this because your mother Rachel was my favourite wife. When she died long ago I was very upset. She died near Ephrath in Canaan as I was coming back from Mesopotamia. I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath.” That place was called Ephrath at first, but today it is called Bethlehem.

8When Jacob saw Ephraim and Manasseh, he said to Joseph, “Who are these boys?”

9Joseph answered, “These are the sons God has given me here in Egypt.” Jacob said, “Bring them here to me so I can give them my special blessing.”

10Jacob's eyes were weak and he couldn't see well because he was old. Joseph brought the boys to him and he hugged them and kissed them.

11Jacob said to Joseph, “I thought I would never see you again. But God has even let me see your children.”

12Then Joseph took them from Jacob and bowed down to him with his face to the ground.

13Then he said to his sons, “Ephraim, go and kneel at his left side, and Manasseh go and kneel at his right.” They went over and knelt on each side of the old man.

14But Jacob stretched out his hands and crossed them over and put his right hand on Ephraim's head, even though he was younger, and he put his left hand on the head of Manasseh, who was the older brother.

15Then he gave his special blessing to Joseph and said, “My grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac obeyed God, the one who has looked after me from when I was little until now when I am an old man. May this same God bless these two boys.

16God's angel has stood between me and trouble, so may he bless them. May my name live on with these two boys, and may my grandfather's name and my father's name live on with them too. May they have many children and many descendants.”

17Joseph was upset when his father crossed his right hand over on to Ephraim's head. So he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.

18He said to his father, “Not that way. This is the older one. Put your right hand on him.”

19But his father refused. “I know,” he said. “Manasseh will also have many descendants. But his brother will be more important, and his descendants will become great nations.”

20Jacob gave the two boys another blessing and said, “When the Israelite people bless each other they will use your names. They will say, ‘May God bless you today, just as he blessed Ephraim and Manasseh long ago.’” When Jacob said that, he was putting Ephraim before Manasseh.

21Then Jacob said to Joseph, “You can see that I am going to die soon. But God will be with you and he will take you back to the country where your ancestors used to live.

22I am giving you the hill country of Shechem. I am not giving that good country to your brothers, I am giving it you. Long ago I took it from the Amorite people when I fought them, and now it is yours.”