Genesis 48:1-14 ▼

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.