Chapter 48
Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
1After these things Joseph was told, “Look, your father is ill.” He took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
2Jacob was told, “Look, your son Joseph has come to you.” Israel summoned his strength and sat up on the bed.
3Jacob said to Joseph, “God Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me,
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- Translation
Shaddai is kept as a name. See the glossary.
4and he said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make you a company of peoples, and I will give this land to your offspring after you as a lasting holding.’
5Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.
6The children you father after them will be yours. They will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.
7As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan, on the way, with still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem.”
8Israel saw Joseph’s sons and said, “Who are these?”
9Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” He said, “Bring them to me, please, so that I may bless them.”
10Israel’s eyes were dim with age, and he could not see. He brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
11Israel said to Joseph, “I did not expect to see your face, and here God has let me see your offspring as well.”
12Joseph took them from his knees and bowed with his face to the ground.
13Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right, and brought them near him.
14Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15He blessed Joseph and said, “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 the boys. In them may my name be carried, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the land.”
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“Redeemed” is the verb of a goel, the family redeemer. The subject here is the angel, not a human relative. The glossary word is kept.
17Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, and it was wrong in his eyes. 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 so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”
19His father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will be great. Even so, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a fullness of nations.”
20He blessed them that day. He said, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.’” So he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
21Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.
22I give you one shoulder above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”
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- Translation
“One shoulder” is shechem achad. Shechem is also the name of the town. The word in this sentence is “shoulder,” or a ridge of land. The town is not written in as if the verse had named the sale in chapter 33.