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¹ AND it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, Behold, your father is sick; and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.² And they informed Jacob, and said to him, Behold, your son Joseph has come to you; and Israel strengthened himself, and sat up on the bed.³ And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me,⁴ And he said to me, Behold, I will bless you, and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of peoples; and I will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.⁵ And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into the land of Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.⁶ But the children that you begot after them shall be yours, and shall be called after the name of their brothers when they come into their inheritance.⁷ And as for me, when I was coming from Padan-aram, Rachel died at my side in the land of Canaan on the way, within the distance of three or four miles from the entrance to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem.

⁸ And when Israel saw Josephs sons, he said to him, Who are these?⁹ And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons whom God has given me in this place. And he said, Bring them near me, and I will bless them.¹⁰ Now the eyes of Israel were dim because of age, so that he could not see well. And Joseph brought them near to him; and he kissed them and embraced them.¹¹ And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face; and, 1o, God has shown me your children also.¹² And Joseph removed them from before his knees, and they bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.¹³ Then Joseph took both of his sons, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israels left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israels right hand, and brought them near to him.¹⁴ And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraims head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manassehs head; he changed the position of his hands wittingly, even though Manasseh was the first-born.¹⁵ And Jacob blessed Joseph his son, saying, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked righteously, the God who has supplied my needs from my youth to this day,¹⁶ The angel who has delivered me from all evil, bless the lads; and let them bear my name and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow and multiply in the midst of the earth.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 fathers hand, to remove it from Ephraims head to Manassehs head.¹⁸ And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father; for this is the first-born; put your right hand upon his head.¹⁹ But 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 his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of peoples.²⁰ And he blessed them that day, saying, By you shall Israel bless, and they shall say, May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh; and thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.²¹ Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am dying, but God shall be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.²² Moreover I have given to you one portion of the land more than our brothers, which I took from the and of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.