Genesis 48

God Make Thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh

Near death in Egypt, Jacob takes Joseph's two sons as his own, crosses his hands to lay his right hand on the younger, and blesses them in the name of the God who has shepherded and redeemed him.

Genesis chaptersChapter 48 of 50

The last days of Jacob’s life, in Goshen in Egypt. He lived seventeen years there and died at 147 (Gen. 47:28); the chapter dates this scene only as “after these things,” and the text gives no year. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Genesis 48 takes place in Goshen, in Egypt, near the end of Jacob's life.

Genesis 48 takes place in Goshen, in Egypt, near the end of Jacob's life. He lived there seventeen years and died at 147 (Gen. 47:27–28). The chapter follows the scene in which he made Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan (Gen. 47:29–31). Joseph now brings his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, born in Egypt to Asenath, “the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On,” before the famine (Gen. 41:50–52). Jacob adopts them as his own sons and blesses them, setting the younger before the elder. Chapter 49 gives a blessing to each of the twelve sons, and chapter 50 closes with Jacob's burial and Joseph's death.

Other scripture builds on what happens here. The chronicler explains that Reuben's birthright “was given unto the sons of Joseph” (1 Chr. 5:1–2). Hebrews counts the blessing as faith: “By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph” (Heb. 11:21). Jeremiah calls Ephraim the Lord's “firstborn” (Jer. 31:9). Latter-day revelation names “the children of Ephraim” in the gathering of Israel (D&C 133:30–34), and the Book of Mormon traces Lehi to Manasseh (Alma 10:3).

The chapter has five parts: Jacob adopts the boys (verses 1–7), the scene of the blessing and the crossed hands (8–14), the blessing itself (15–16), Joseph's objection and Jacob's answer (17–20), and Jacob's last words to Joseph (21–22).

The thread through the chapter

Genesis 48 is about how a blessing is handed on, and it turns on God's choice, not on the order of birth.

Genesis 48 is about how a blessing is handed on, and it turns on God's choice, not on the order of birth. Jacob begins with what God promised him at Luz (verses 3–4). Then he takes Joseph's two Egyptian-born sons as his own, “as Reuben and Simeon” (verse 5), and blesses them with his hands crossed, so that his right hand falls on the younger, Ephraim. Joseph objects, and Jacob answers, “I know it, my son, I know it” (verse 19). The text does not say why Ephraim was chosen; the Church's reading is that it was the Lord's will.

Two things in the blessing are worth watching. One is the name. Jacob asks that “my name be named on them” (verse 16), and the Joseph Smith Translation says that name was Israel. The other is the one who blesses. Jacob calls on the God before whom his fathers walked, who shepherded him all his life, and “the Angel which redeemed me” (verses 15–16). The verb “bless” that follows is singular in Hebrew: he names one giver three ways.

The chapter ends by looking ahead. God will bring Joseph's family back to the land of their fathers (verse 21), and Joseph is given “one portion above thy brethren” (verse 22), a word that is also the name of the city of Shechem.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–7

Jacob adopts Joseph's sons

In plain words

Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill,” and he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him. When Jacob heard that Joseph was coming, he gathered his strength and sat up in bed. He told Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said, ‘I will make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a multitude of peoples, and I will give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.’

“Now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in Egypt before I came to you here, are mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Any children you have after them will be yours; in their inheritance they will be counted under the names of their brothers. As for me, when I was coming from Paddan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan, a short way from Ephrath, and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath,” that is, Bethlehem.

1 And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.

Language #

Jacob and Israel in verse 2

The narrator calls the old man Jacob when Joseph is announced and Israel when he sits up, and one reading takes the change as deliberate.

The narrator calls the old man Jacob when Joseph is announced and Israel when he sits up, and one reading takes the change as deliberate. Jacob was his birth name; God gave him the name Israel, first at the ford (Gen. 32:28) and again at Beth-el (Gen. 35:10). The reading is that “Jacob, enfeebled with age, gathered up his strength for a work, which he was about to perform as Israel, the bearer of the grace of the promise.” From verse 8 on the narrator calls him Israel, through the blessing and his last words (verses 8–14, 21). Genesis does not explain the change.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,

Related Scriptures #

The promise at Luz

Before he adopts the boys, Jacob recalls a promise God had already made him.

Before he adopts the boys, Jacob recalls a promise God had already made him. Luz was the old name of Beth-el (Gen. 28:19), and when God appeared to him there after he came out of Padan-aram, He said, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins” (Gen. 35:9–12). Jacob gives the substance of it to Joseph in verses 3–4, and with “And now” (verse 5) turns to Joseph's sons.

One reading is that the promise “empowered the patriarch to adopt the sons of Joseph in the place of children.” God had promised him a multitude of peoples, so he could take the two boys, born in Egypt “before his arrival, and therefore outside the range of his house,” and count them among his descendants. The text does not state the reasoning; it gives the promise and then the adoption.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

4 And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.

5 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.

Context #

Why Jacob adopts Joseph’s sons

Jacob adopts Ephraim and Manasseh so that Joseph receives the firstborn's share through two tribes.

Jacob adopts Ephraim and Manasseh so that Joseph receives the firstborn's share through two tribes. The birthright had passed to Joseph: Reuben was the firstborn, but “forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph” (1 Chr. 5:1–2; compare Gen. 49:3–4). The firstborn was owed a double portion (Deut. 21:17), “twice as much as any other son.” Jacob does not give Joseph a double share of one tribe. He makes Joseph's two sons tribes, “as Reuben and Simeon,” the first two of his own sons, so that “Joseph's double portion was shared by his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh,” and “each son's descendants became a separate tribe of Israel.”

The count stays at twelve. The tribe of Levi was not “to receive tribal inheritance,” and “Two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, were given land inheritances. They were numbered among the tribes, in the stead of their father, Joseph.” Verse 6 limits the adoption to these two: any later sons of Joseph are to be “called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance,” counted within Ephraim and Manasseh.

Joseph Smith's revision of these verses says why Jacob honors Joseph this way. In it Jacob says that God “hath blessed me in raising thee up to be a servant unto me, in saving my house from death; In delivering my people, thy brethren, from famine which was sore in the land,” and that Joseph will be “a light unto my people, to deliver them in the days of their captivity, from bondage; and to bring salvation unto them, when they are altogether bowed down under sin” (JST Gen. 48:8–11). The promise looks past Egypt: “Just as ancient Joseph saved his family temporally, his descendants will save Israel spiritually in the latter days.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Genesis 42–50, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Daniel H. Ludlow, “What laws governed the inheritance of birthright in the Old Testament?”, Ensign, Sept. 1980, 52–53 (I Have a Question). Russell M. Nelson, “The Gathering of Scattered Israel”, general conference, Oct. 2006. Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 48, Joseph Smith Translation Appendix, Gospel Library.

6 And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.

7 And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Beth-lehem.

Context #

Why Rachel is mentioned

Jacob's mention of Rachel in the middle of the adoption is explained, on one reading, by whose sons the boys are.

Jacob's mention of Rachel in the middle of the adoption is explained, on one reading, by whose sons the boys are. Rachel was Joseph's mother (Gen. 30:22–24). She died on the road to Ephrath, giving birth to Benjamin, and Jacob set a pillar on her grave (Gen. 35:16–20). By adopting Joseph's sons Jacob, on this reading, honors “Joseph's mother, who had died so early,” and so “this explains the allusion”: she died “without living to see her first-born exalted to the position of a saviour to the whole house of Israel.” Genesis does not say this. It gives only the memory (“Rachel died by me”) and the place, “Ephrath; the same is Beth-lehem.”

Verses 8–14

The blessing begins

In plain words

Israel saw Joseph's sons and asked, “Who are these?” Joseph answered, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” “Bring them to me,” Israel said, “so that I may bless them.” His eyes were failing with age and he could not see. Joseph brought the boys close, and Jacob kissed and embraced them. He said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has let me see your children too.”

Joseph took the boys from between his knees and bowed with his face to the ground. Then he took them both, Ephraim at his right hand (toward Israel's left) and Manasseh at his left (toward Israel's right), and brought them near. But Israel crossed his hands: he put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and his left on the head of Manasseh, the firstborn.

8 And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these?

Context #

Jacob asks who the boys are

Jacob's question is odd, since he has just named the boys (verse 5), and the text gives its own answer two verses later: “the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not…

Jacob's question is odd, since he has just named the boys (verse 5), and the text gives its own answer two verses later: “the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see” (verse 10). He could make out that others stood with Joseph, but not who they were.

Some scholars explain the question another way, by how the chapter was put together. On this view most of the chapter comes from one source and verses 3–7 from another, so that at verse 8 “the narrative resumes the thread which was interrupted at Genesis 48:3,” in a story that “assumes that Jacob had not before met Joseph's sons.” That is one scholarly view. The Bible Dictionary's statement is that Moses “used several documentary sources from which he compiled the book of Genesis”; it does not say where one source ends and another begins.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. “Pentateuch”, Bible Dictionary.

9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.

10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.

11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath shewed me also thy seed.

12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

Context #

Between his knees

Joseph's bringing the boys “from between his knees” may mark a gesture of adoption, or simply the end of an embrace.

Joseph's bringing the boys “from between his knees” may mark a gesture of adoption, or simply the end of an embrace. The knees are Jacob's. One reading takes it as the formal act: “To set a child upon the knees was to symbolize reception or adoption into the family.” Rachel, giving Bilhah to Jacob, says Bilhah “shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her” (Gen. 30:3), and Machir's children “were brought up upon Joseph's knees” (Gen. 50:23). The plainer reading is that Jacob, who had just “kissed them, and embraced them” (verse 10), “was sitting with the youths between his knees,” and Joseph now takes them back to set them before him for the blessing. Genesis does not describe a ceremony either way.

Sources: Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him.

14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.

Language #

Crossing his hands

The Hebrew verb here is better read “crossing his hands”; the KJV's “wittingly” follows the other possible sense.

The Hebrew verb here is better read “crossing his hands”; the KJV's “wittingly” follows the other possible sense. The verb, sikkel, has the same consonants as a verb meaning “be prudent,” and that is the sense “wittingly” reflects. Here it is more likely a different verb, “lay crosswise,” which is how the Septuagint, the early Greek translation, took it: “guiding his hands crosswise.”

What the gesture signifies is clearer than the verb. Joseph had put Manasseh at Jacob's right hand (Gen. 48:13), so the ordinary placing would have laid the right hand on the firstborn. Jacob crossed his arms to put it on the younger. The Church reads the right hand as “signifying that Ephraim would eventually receive Joseph's birthright.” It was no mistake of a man who could not see: when Joseph objects, Jacob answers, “I know it, my son, I know it” (verse 19). Elder Dallin H. Oaks named this blessing among those a father gives by the priesthood: “Worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holders can give blessings to their posterity. The scriptures record many such blessings,” Jacob's in this chapter and the next among them.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Genesis 42–50, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Dallin H. Oaks, “Priesthood Blessings”, general conference, Apr. 1987. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 15–16

Jacob's blessing

In plain words

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, the Angel who has redeemed me from all harm, bless these boys. May they be called by my name and by the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.”

15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,

16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

Witness of Christ #

The Angel who redeemed him

Jacob blesses the boys in the name of one God whom he names three ways, and the third name is the Angel who redeemed him.

Jacob blesses the boys in the name of one God whom he names three ways, and the third name is the Angel who redeemed him. The first is “the God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk.” The second is “the God which fed me all my life long”; the Hebrew verb is “shepherd,” so the phrase is “God, who shepherded me.” The third is “the Angel which redeemed me from all evil.” The verb is ga'al, “redeem, act as kinsman,” and with God as the subject it implies “personal relationship.” This is the only time the verb appears in Genesis, and so the first time in the Bible. The verb that follows, “bless,” is singular: Jacob asks one blessing of the God he has named three ways.

Jacob's own history shows where he met this Angel. In a dream “the angel of God spake unto me” (Gen. 31:11), and said, “I am the God of Beth-el” (Gen. 31:13). The words here look back to the night he wrestled at Peniel (Gen. 32:24–30); in blessing Joseph's sons he “referred to events on the night of his wrestle.” That night ended with his saying, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen. 32:30). Hosea says that Jacob “had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth-el… Even the Lord God of hosts” (Hosea 12:4–5).

Genesis does not say more about who the Angel is, and it does not separate him from God in these scenes: “In some passages the ‘angel of the Lord’ speaks as the voice of God Himself.” The name Hosea gives him is the divine name, which in the KJV “is generally denoted by Lord or God, printed in small capitals.” The Church teaches that “Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ,” and that “Jesus Christ is the great Redeemer of mankind because He, through His Atonement, paid the price for the sins of mankind.”

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Andrew C. Skinner, “Jacob: Keeper of Covenants”, Ensign, Mar. 1998, 51. “Angels”, Bible Dictionary. “Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary. “Redeemer”, Guide to the Scriptures.

Language #

My name on them

Jacob asks that his own name, and his fathers', be put on the boys, and the Joseph Smith Translation says which name that is.

Jacob asks that his own name, and his fathers', be put on the boys, and the Joseph Smith Translation says which name that is. The name God gave Jacob was Israel (Gen. 35:10). To have that name “named on them” is the language of adoption, “let them be counted as the children of Israel,” and the revision adds to verse 5 that the boys “shall be called after my name. (Therefore they were called Israel.)”

Sources: Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 48, Joseph Smith Translation Appendix, Gospel Library. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Imagery #

Like fish

The verb behind “grow into a multitude” may picture fish multiplying. Hebrew dagah means “multiply, increase.”

The verb behind “grow into a multitude” may picture fish multiplying. Hebrew dagah means “multiply, increase.” It has been derived from the word for fish, dag, in the sense “to spawn, i.e. become numerous,” and Targum Onkelos, an ancient Aramaic paraphrase, makes the picture explicit: “and as the fish of the sea may they multiply.” The prayer asks for the boys what God had promised Jacob himself, “a multitude of people” (verse 4).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890): Hebrew dictionary entries, Read on Bible Hub (the “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance” line of each entry). J. W. Etheridge, The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch, with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum: Genesis and Exodus, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862; scan on the Internet Archive.

Verses 17–20

The younger before the elder

In plain words

When Joseph saw his father lay his right hand on Ephraim's head, he was displeased. He took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's, and said, “Not so, my father. This one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” His father refused. “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will be great. Nevertheless his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.”

He blessed them that day: “By you Israel will pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.

17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.

18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.

19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.

Related Scriptures #

The younger again

The chapter never says why Ephraim is chosen. The Church's reading is that Jacob's answer to Joseph “made it clear that this was the Lord's will,” and the Joseph Smith Translation…

The chapter never says why Ephraim is chosen. The Church's reading is that Jacob's answer to Joseph “made it clear that this was the Lord's will,” and the Joseph Smith Translation and D&C 133:32–34 “indicate that Jacob was directed by the Lord in giving the greater blessing to Ephraim.”

It was not the first time. “The preference given to the younger reminds us of the blessing of Jacob himself.” Before he and Esau were born the Lord had said, “the elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23), and in Abraham's family “the birthright son … was not always the eldest”: so it was with Isaac, with Jacob, and with Joseph. The two blessing scenes are told alike. Isaac, too, gave his blessing when his “eyes were dim, so that he could not see” (Gen. 27:1), as Jacob's are here (verse 10).

Sources: Genesis 42–50, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). Daniel H. Ludlow, “What laws governed the inheritance of birthright in the Old Testament?”, Ensign, Sept. 1980, 52–53 (I Have a Question). Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

Language #

A blessing formula

The blessing becomes a saying: Israel will bless by saying, “God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh.”

The blessing becomes a saying: Israel will bless by saying, “God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh.” The Hebrew “in thee” is better “by thee,” and the sense is that “the blessing upon Ephraim and Manasseh shall be quoted as a formula for the invocation of Divine favour,” like the blessing on a bride at the gate, “The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11).

Sources: Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Related Scriptures #

Ephraim’s birthright

Ephraim's place before Manasseh is why the Church speaks of Ephraim's birthright.

Ephraim's place before Manasseh is why the Church speaks of Ephraim's birthright. “Thus Ephraim received the birthright of Joseph, and Joseph received the birthright of Jacob (Israel).” Jeremiah names Ephraim the Lord's “firstborn” (Jer. 31:9), though Ephraim was not the firstborn of Joseph or of Jacob. Genesis 48 itself says only that Ephraim will be the greater. What that means in the last days comes from later scripture and Church teaching: “Ephraim was given the birthright in Israel… and in the last days it has been the tribe of Ephraim's privilege first to bear the message of the Restoration of the gospel to the world and to gather scattered Israel.”

Latter-day revelation describes that work. “The children of Ephraim” crown the gathered from the north countries with glory in Zion, “the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows” (D&C 133:30–34), and Isaiah says that “Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim” (Isa. 11:13). The older brother is not set aside: Jacob says that Manasseh also “shall become a people, and he also shall be great,” and the Book of Mormon traces Lehi's family to him (Alma 10:3).

Sources: Daniel H. Ludlow, “What laws governed the inheritance of birthright in the Old Testament?”, Ensign, Sept. 1980, 52–53 (I Have a Question). “Ephraim”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 21–22

Jacob's last words to Joseph

In plain words

Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and will take you back to the land of your fathers. And I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”

21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.

22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

Language #

Shechem, the one portion

Jacob's “one portion” is the Hebrew shekhem, which is also the name of the city Shechem, where he had bought a field (Gen. 33:18–19).

Jacob's “one portion” is the Hebrew shekhem, which is also the name of the city Shechem, where he had bought a field (Gen. 33:18–19). The word means “shoulder,” and it is used here as a play on the name of the place. The Septuagint takes the hint and names the place: “And I give to thee Sicima, a select portion above thy brethren.” When Israel brought Joseph's bones up out of Egypt, “buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph” (Josh. 24:32), and John places Sychar “near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph” (John 4:5).

The “one portion above thy brethren” is also the firstborn's extra share. The birthright son received a double portion, “one portion as a son, the second portion as the new head responsible for the family.”

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Daniel H. Ludlow, “What laws governed the inheritance of birthright in the Old Testament?”, Ensign, Sept. 1980, 52–53 (I Have a Question).

Context #

Sword and bow

Jacob's claim to have taken the land “with my sword and with my bow” does not match anything Genesis tells about him, and readers have handled it differently.

Jacob's claim to have taken the land “with my sword and with my bow” does not match anything Genesis tells about him, and readers have handled it differently. The only fighting at Shechem in Genesis was by Simeon and Levi, who “took each man his sword” and slew the males (Gen. 34:25); Jacob rebuked them (Gen. 34:30) and later cursed their anger (Gen. 49:5–7). His own acquisition there was a purchase (Gen. 33:19).

The Targums, the ancient Aramaic paraphrases, show how early readers took the words. Onkelos has Jacob say he took the land “by my prayer and by my deprecation” (that is, entreaty). The Targum of Palestine has him join his sons at Shechem: “I arose and helped you with my sword and with my bow.” One reading rejects both the purchase and the sack of Shechem and takes the past tense as a prophetic perfect, Hebrew's way of speaking of a certain future act as already done: “Jacob would wrest the land from the Amorites, not in his own person, but in that of his posterity.” Genesis does not decide between these.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. J. W. Etheridge, The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch, with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum: Genesis and Exodus, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862; scan on the Internet Archive. Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Seeing Christ in Genesis 48

Jacob's blessing names God as his redeemer and his shepherd. “The Angel which redeemed me from all evil” (verse 16) stands with God as the one giver of the blessing. Hosea calls the angel Jacob met “the Lord God of hosts” (Hosea 12:4–5), and the Church teaches that “Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ,” “the great Redeemer of mankind” (see the note on verse 16). The God who “fed me all my life long” (verse 15) is in Hebrew the God who shepherded him. In the next chapter Jacob calls Him “the shepherd, the stone of Israel” (Gen. 49:24), and Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

Worth exploring next

The blessings that follow. Gen. 49:22–26 (Joseph) and Gen. 49:8–12 (Judah).
The younger and the elder. Gen. 25:23; Gen. 27:1–40.
Ephraim in the last days. D&C 133:26–34; Isa. 11:12–13; Ezek. 37:15–19; Jer. 31:9–20.
How the birthright worked. Daniel H. Ludlow, “What laws governed the inheritance of birthright in the Old Testament?” (Ensign, Sept. 1980), follows it from Ishmael and Isaac to Ephraim and Manasseh.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890): Hebrew dictionary entries, Read on Bible Hub (the “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance” line of each entry).
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub.
J. W. Etheridge, The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch, with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum: Genesis and Exodus, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862; scan on the Internet Archive.
Genesis 42–50, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
Daniel H. Ludlow, “What laws governed the inheritance of birthright in the Old Testament?”, Ensign, Sept. 1980, 52–53 (I Have a Question).
Russell M. Nelson, “The Gathering of Scattered Israel”, general conference, Oct. 2006.
Dallin H. Oaks, “Priesthood Blessings”, general conference, Apr. 1987.
Andrew C. Skinner, “Jacob: Keeper of Covenants”, Ensign, Mar. 1998, 51.
Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 48, Joseph Smith Translation Appendix, Gospel Library.
“Ephraim”, Bible Dictionary.
“Angels”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Redeemer”, Guide to the Scriptures.
“Pentateuch”, Bible Dictionary.
Genesis 37–50: Joseph: The Power of Preparation, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003).

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