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The Genesis
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Chapter 48
1 Well sometime after that, this report came to JoSeph: '{Look!} Your father is ill!' So he took his two sons, ManasSeh and Ephraim, and they went to [see] Jacob.
2 And when Jacob was told, '{Look!} Your son JoSeph has come to see you,' IsraEl straightened himself and sat up on his bed. 3 And [he] said to JoSeph: 'My God appeared to me in Luza in the land of CanaAn and blest me. 4 And He said to me, {Look!} I will make you grow and increase, and I will make many nations come from you. I will also give this land to you and to your seed that comes after you, as an inheritance through the ages.
5 'Now, your two sons, Ephraim and ManasSeh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came here, are my [sons] the same as ReuBen and SimeOn are my [sons]. 6 And any children that you have from this point on will share in the names of their brothers. Because, [the lands that they will] inherit will be named after them.
7 'And as for me; After I left Assyrian MesoPotamia, your mother RachEl died in the land of CanaAn during the evening, near the ChabRatha racetrack, as we were coming to EphRatha (or BethLehem). So I buried her beside the road at the racetrack of BethLehem.'
8 And when IsraEl noticed JoSeph's sons, he asked: 'Who are they?'
9 And JoSeph replied to his father: 'They're the sons that God has given to me here.' And Jacob said: 'Bring them here, so I can bless them.'
10 Now, IsraEl's eyes were weak due to his age, so he couldn't see. But he drew them close, and hugged and kissed them. 11 Then IsraEl said to JoSeph: '{Look!} I haven't been deprived of seeing your face, and now {Look!} God has also shown me your seed.'
12 Then JoSeph brought them out from [between] his [father's] knees, and they bowed to [IsraEl] with their faces to the ground.
13 And JoSeph took his two sons, with Ephraim at his right hand (but on the left of IsraEl), and ManasSeh at his left hand (but on the right of IsraEl), and brought them near to him again. 14 However, IsraEl stuck out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head (he was the younger), and he put his left hand on ManasSeh's head, with his arms crossed. 15 Then he blest them, saying: 'May the God who found my fathers AbraHam and IsaAc pleasing… the God who fed me from my youth until now 16 and the messenger who protects me from all that is evil, bless these boys; and may they be called by my name and the name of my fathers, AbraHam and IsaAc. Let them grow to be a vast number on the ground.'
17 Well, when JoSeph noticed that his father had put his right hand on Ephraim's head, that seemed wrong to him. So JoSeph took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to ManasSeh's head. 18 And JoSeph said, 'Father! This is the first-born; lay your right hand on his head!'
19 But he wouldn't. He said, 'I know, son, I know. [Your eldest son] will be a [tribe of] people, and he will be important. However, his younger brother will be greater, and his seed will become many nations.'
20 So he blest them that day, saying: 'In your name, IsraEl will pronounce this blessing: May God make you like Ephraim and ManasSeh'… and he put Ephraim before ManasSeh.
21 Then IsraEl said to JoSeph: 'Look, I'm dying! God will be with you and He will return you to the land of your fathers. 22 I leave you Shechem (a better portion than that of your brothers), which I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.'
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