Genesis 48:1-10 ▼

1 After these things Joseph was told, |Your father is weakening.| So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.

2 When Jacob was told, |Your son Joseph has just come to you,| Israel regained strength and sat up on his bed.

3 Jacob said to Joseph, |The sovereign God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

4 He said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and will multiply you. I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants as an everlasting possession.'

5 Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are.

6 Any children that you father after them will be yours; they will be listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance.

7 But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died--to my sorrow--in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath| (that is, Bethlehem).

8 When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he asked, |Who are these?|

9 Joseph said to his father, |They are the sons God has given me in this place.| His father said, |Bring them to me so I may bless them.|

10 Now Israel's eyes were failing because of his age; he was not able to see well. So Joseph brought his sons near to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.