¹It happened after these words that someone said to Joseph, "Behold, your father is sick." He took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim.

²Someone told Jacob and said, "Behold, your son Joseph has come to you." Israel made himself strong and sat on the bed.

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

⁴He said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and make you a company of peoples; and I will give this land to your seed after you as a possession forever.'

⁵And now, 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, like Reuben and Simeon.

⁶And your offspring whom you fathered after them shall 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 on me in the land of Canaan, on the road, while there was still a stretch of land to go to Ephrathah; and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath (that is Beth-lehem)."

⁸Israel saw Joseph's children and said, "Who are these?"

⁹Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place." He said, "Take them to me, please, that I may bless them."

¹⁰Now the eyes of Israel were heavy with old age; he could not see. He brought them near to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.

¹¹Israel said to Joseph, "I had not prayed to see your face, and behold, God has even shown me your seed."

¹²Joseph brought them out from beside his knees, and bowed down with his face to the land.

¹³Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim in his right hand at the left of Israel, and Manasseh in his left hand at the right of Israel, and brought them near to him.

¹⁴Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim — he was the little one — and his left hand on the head of Manasseh; he acted wisely with 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 shepherds me all my life until this day,

¹⁶the messenger who redeems me from all evil, may he bless the boys; and let my name be called on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them teem into a multitude in the midst of the land."

¹⁷Joseph saw that his father was setting his right hand on the head of Ephraim, and it was displeasing in his eyes; he grasped his father's hand to remove it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasseh.

¹⁸Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father, for this 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 become great. But his younger brother will become greater than he, and his seed will become the fullness of the nations."

²⁰He blessed them on that day, saying, "By you Israel will bless, saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.'" So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

²²And I have given you one shoulder above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."