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¹ After these deedes, one tolde Ioseph: beholde, thy father is sicke. And he toke with hym his two sonnes, Manasses and Ephraim.² Then this message was declared vnto Iacob: beholde, thy sonne Ioseph cometh vnto thee. And Israel toke his strength vnto hym, and sate vpon the bedde.³ And Iacob sayd vnto Ioseph: God almyghtie appeared vnto me at Luz in the lande of Chanaan, and blessed me, and sayde vnto me:⁴ Beholde, I wyll make thee fruiteful, and cause thee to multiplie, and wyll make a great number of people of thee, and wyll geue this lande vnto thy seede after thee vnto an euerlastyng possession.⁵ And nowe thy two sonnes Manasses and Ephraim, whiche were borne vnto thee in the land of Egypt before I came vnto thee into Egypt, are myne, euen as Ruben and Simeon are mine.⁶ And the children which thou hast gotten after them, shalbe thyne owne, and shalbe called after the names of their brethren in their inheritaunce.⁷ And when I came from Mesopotamia, Rachel dyed vpon my hande in the land of Chanaan, by the way, when there was but a fieldes breadth to come vnto Ephratha: and I buried her there in the waye to Ephratha, the same is Beth-lehem.

⁸ And Israel beheld Iosephes sonnes, and sayde: What are these?⁹ Ioseph sayde vnto his father: They are my sonnes whiche God hath geuen me here. And he sayde: Oh bring them to me, and let me blesse them.¹⁰ (And the eyes of Israel were dymme for age, so that he coulde not [well] see) And he brought them to hym, and he kyssed them, and imbraced them.¹¹ And Israel sayde vnto Ioseph, I had not thought to haue seene thy face: and yet loe, God hath shewed me also thy seede.¹² And Ioseph toke them away fro his lappe, and he bowed hym selfe with his face towarde the earth.¹³ Then toke Ioseph them both, Ephraim with his ryght hande towarde Israels left hande, and Manasses with his left hande towarde Israels ryght hande, and brought them vnto hym.¹⁴ And Israel stretched out his ryght hande, and layed it vppon Ephraims head, which was the younger: and his left hande vpon Manasses head, guydyng his hande wyttyngly, for Manasses was the first borne.¹⁵ And he blessed Ioseph, and sayde: God in whose syght my fathers Abraham & Isahac dyd walke, God which hath fedde me al my lyfe long vnto this day,¹⁶ And the angell which hath deliuered me from al euyl, blesse these laddes, and let my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers Abraham & Isahac, & that they may growe into a multitude in the middes of the earth.¹⁷ When Ioseph sawe that his father layed his ryght hande vpon the head of Ephraim, it displeased hym: and he lift vp his fathers hande, to haue remoued it from Ephraims head vnto Manasses head.¹⁸ And Ioseph sayde vnto his father, Not so my father, for this is the first borne: put thy right hande vpon his head.¹⁹ And his father would not, but sayde: I knowe it well my sonne, I knowe it well, he shalbe also a people, and shalbe great: But his younger brother shalbe greater then he, and his seede shall become a great people.²⁰ And he blessed them that day, & saide: In thee let Israel blesse & saye, God make thee as Ephraim, & as Manasses. And he set Ephraim before Manasses.²¹ And Israel said vnto Ioseph: behold I dye, & God shalbe with you, & bryng you againe vnto ye land of your fathers.²² Moreouer, I haue geuen vnto thee a portion of lande aboue thy brethren, which I gat out of the hand of the Amorite in my sworde, and in my bowe.