1 Now it happened after these things {acharei hadevarim haeleh: later family events} that someone said to Joseph, “Behold, your father is ill {choleh: seriously weakened}.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
2 And someone told Jacob and said, “Behold, your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel {Yisrael: covenant identity} strengthened himself {vayitchazzeq: gathered his energy} and sat upon the bed.
3 And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty {El Shaddai, Almighty Provider} appeared to me in Luz {luz: early covenant site} in the land of Canaan, and He blessed me.”
4 And He said to me, “Behold, I {hineni: emphatic self-presentation} will make you fruitful and will multiply you, and I will make you into an assembly of peoples. And I will give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession {akhuzat: permanent inheritance}.”
5 And now your two sons {shenei vanekha: full legal heirs} who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine {li: formal act of adoption}; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon shall be mine.
6 But your offspring who are born to you after them shall be yours; they will be called {yikkareu: legally designated} by the name of their brothers in their inheritance {nachalah: territorial holding}.
7 And I, when I was coming from Paddan, Rachel died upon me {alai: deeply personal loss} in the land of Canaan on the way, while there was still a stretch of land {kivrat erets: measured distance} to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is Bethlehem).
8 And Israel {Yisrael: God-Wrestler Patriarch} saw the sons of Joseph, and he said, “Who are these {elleh: nearby ones}?”
9 And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons whom God {Elohim, Giver Of Sons} has given me here {bazeh: in this land}.” And he said, “Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.”
10 And the eyes of Israel were heavy {kavdu: failing eyesight} from old age, so he was not able to see. So Joseph brought them near to him, and he kissed them and embraced them {yechabek: close parental hold}.
11 And Israel said to Joseph, “To see your face—I did not expect {pillalti: deeply hope or pray}, and behold, God {Elohim, Sovereign Arranger} has let me see also your offspring.”
12 Then Joseph {Yosef: Honored Son} brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the ground {artsah: Deep Reverence}.
13 And Joseph {Yosef: God will add} took both of them, with Ephraim in his right hand {yamin: position of honor} toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and he brought them near to him.
14 But Israel {Yisrael: Jacob's covenant name} stretched out his right hand and placed it upon Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger {hatsair: lower in family rank}; and his left hand he placed upon Manasseh’s head—he crossed his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God {Elohim, Ancestral Guide} in whose presence my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked {hithalkhu: covenant way of life}, the God who has shepherded me from my youth to this day,”
16 The angel {malakh: divine envoy} who has redeemed me from all evil—may He bless these young men. May my name and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, abide with them, and may they multiply {yidgu: become countless} abundantly in the midst of the land.
17 When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand {yad yemino: preferred blessing side} upon Ephraim’s head, it was displeasing {vayera: seemed wrong to him} in his eyes, so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from upon Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.
18 But Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father {avi: direct and respectful address}, for this one is the firstborn {bekhor: privileged inheritor}. Place your right hand upon his head."
19 But his father {aviv: family head} refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a fullness of nations {melo haggoyim: far-reaching peoples}.”
20 And he blessed them on that day and said, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God {Elohim, Blessing Giver} make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.’ ” Thus he set Ephraim before {lifney: honored position} Manasseh.
21 And Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, yet God {Elohim, Faithful Guide} will be with you, and He will bring you back to the land {erets: territory of promise} of your fathers.”
22 And I have granted you one portion {shekhem: elevated allotment} above your brothers—the very share I took from the Amorite {haemori: local Canaanite foe} with my sword and with my bow.