Genesis 48:2-15
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up in bed.
3 (A)Jacob then said to Joseph: “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz[a] in the land of Canaan, and blessing me, 4 he said, ‘I will make you fertile and multiply you and make you into an assembly of peoples, and I will give this land to your descendants after you as a permanent possession.’ 5 So now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I joined you here, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as much as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Progeny born to you after them shall remain yours; but their heritage shall be recorded in the names of their brothers. 7 (B)I do this because, when I was returning from Paddan, your mother Rachel died, to my sorrow, during the journey in Canaan, while we were still a short distance from Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath [now Bethlehem].”[b]
8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?” 9 “They are my sons,” Joseph answered his father, “whom God has given me here.” “Bring them to me,” said his father, “that I may bless them.” 10 Now Israel’s eyes were dim from age; he could not see well. When Joseph brought his sons close to him, he kissed and embraced them. 11 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your descendants as well!”
12 Joseph removed them from his father’s knees and bowed down before him with his face to the ground. 13 Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to Israel’s right, and brought them up to him. 14 But Israel, crossing his hands, put out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, although he was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, although he was the firstborn. 15 Then he blessed them with these words:
“May the God in whose presence
my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has been my shepherd
from my birth to this day,(C)
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