And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And one told Jacob and said, Behold, thy son Joseph is coming to thee. And Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.
A sick old man hears that Joseph has come, and he pulls himself upright in bed for the last great act of his life. Two questions follow. Where does a man at the end of his strength find any strength? And why does the record call him Jacob in one half of the sentence and Israel in the other?
Jacob's other sons were in Egypt too, yet none of them is at the bedside. Commentators read this as deliberate.
When he hears that his father is ill, Joseph comes to his bedside, bringing his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him. None of the other sons of Jacob are present. The Spirit of God, through Jacob, has a special business with Joseph.
That business is the birthright. Reuben, the eldest, had lost his place, and this chapter settles who gets it.
The birthright might have been either sold or forfeited by the firstborn himself. His own acts might take it away, though his father's favouritism or prejudice could not. And we find this happened. Esau sold it, and Reuben forfeited it... But in the case of the forfeiture by Reuben, who is to take it? It reverted to the father; but on which of the sons would he confer it? That was the question, and this chapter answers it.
The sitting up costs him something. His body is failing and his sight is going. That is where his whole trust moves onto God.
Jacob — the man of nature — is weakened by age and sickness. The world he had clung to so tightly is fast fading from his view, his eyes being dim because of age (verse 10). But his natural strength weakens and his natural sight grows dim. Everything earthly is fast slipping from his grasp. In that hour he rises above the loss of all earthly joys and finds in God his only trust and unfailing resource.
So his weakest hour is his strongest.
We must not pass over the reference to this chapter in Hebrews 11:21. Dying, Jacob was stronger in faith than in all the vigour of his life, tried and energetic as it had been. It was then that by faith he blessed each of the sons of Joseph above nature's thoughts.
The message comes to Jacob. The man who sits up is Israel. Writers say this change of name carries meaning.
Now, we know there is nothing in Scripture without its own specific meaning, and so this interchange of names carries some instruction. In general it may be said that "Jacob" sets out the depth to which God had descended; "Israel," the height to which Jacob was raised.
The name Israel means "prince of God," and from this point in the story it fits him.
Dying, dependent, and with the "Fruitful" man filling his mind's eye, he became a worshipper. He rose at last, as the fruit of God's discipline, to what really was God's purpose for him. It is worth noticing that all through Genesis 48 he is named Israel, for he was displaying the marks of "a prince of God" at last.
Hebrews 11 also looks back at this scene, and there Jacob worships leaning on his staff, not sitting on a bed. The Septuagint is the old Greek translation of the Old Testament, and it reads staff where the Hebrew reads bed. One writer shows how both are true.
He worshipped on the top of his staff, clearly leaning on it in his weakness. Remarkably, this act came before the blessing of his grandsons, and Genesis 47:31 records it as the Septuagint gives that verse. No doubt both the Hebrew "bed" and the Septuagint's "staff" are alike true; and the Septuagint gives "bed" in Genesis 48:2.
Once seated, he does not talk about Egypt, his sickness, or his years. He goes back to where God first met him, and to what God promised.
Jacob gathered his strength to sit on the bed. Then Jacob speaks to Joseph of God's first recorded appearance to him at Luz (or Bethel) in Canaan. There God gave him His special blessing, promising to multiply him into a multitude of people and to give that land to his descendants for an everlasting possession (vv. 3-4). Jacob was therefore not interested in any other land on earth.
- Sickness starts it. A father's illness brings Joseph and his two sons to the bedside. No other brother is there. The Spirit of God has particular business with Joseph.
- Strength is summoned. He must brace his own body upright, yet his faith is stronger than in all his vigorous years. When nature is weakest, God is his only resource.
- The name lifts. Told the news as Jacob, he sits up as Israel. Jacob marks how far God stooped; Israel, how high God raised him. That name runs through the rest of the chapter.
- The promise reaches back. The first thing he says from that bed is not about Egypt. It is about Luz, where God promised the land to his descendants for ever.
- The blessing goes forward. Propped on the bed, he settles a forfeited birthright. Hebrews points back to this scene, where his faith was stronger than in all his vigorous years.
And Jacob said to Joseph, The Almighty God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
Jacob is dying in Egypt, far from the land God promised him. Joseph comes to his bedside with two grandsons, and the old man's first words reach back decades — to Luz, where God Almighty met him. Why does a dying man begin there, and why does he name God by that particular title?
As everything else slips away, the old scene returns to him.
Age and sickness have weakened Jacob — the man of nature. The world he had clung to so tightly is fast fading from his view, his eyes dim because of age. But the strength of nature fails, and natural sight grows dim. When all earthly things are fast slipping from his grasp, he rises above the loss of every earthly joy. In God he finds his only trust and unfailing resource. That is why his mind travels back to that great moment. At the start of his pilgrim path, God Almighty appeared to him at Luz in the land of Canaan.
That journey began with a man fleeing for his life after deceiving his father. Jacob leaves all of that unmentioned.
He is not now concerned with his failures — with deceiving his father, or with having to flee from the anger of his outraged brother. These were very sorrowful and serious matters. But he felt in his soul the presence of God, and all that it brought to him pushed into the background all that he was in himself. He still had to suffer under God's government for his sins. Yet the blessing of God in grace had triumphed over all that he was naturally, and this was what filled his heart as he spoke to Joseph.
God first made Himself known by this title to Abraham.
This name first appears in Genesis 17:1: the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty" — that is, EL SHADDAI. The word El is said to mean strength, or omnipotence. Some think Shaddai means the same thing, while others prefer the rendering all-sufficient, or self-sufficiency. Either way, the two words together carry divine attributes. Omnipotence and all-sufficiency are found in God alone. These two words are used, for example, when God said to Moses, "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them" (Exodus 6:2-3).
So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew God by His power and all-sufficiency before He made His name the LORD known. The title also fits the life God called Abraham to live:
God revealed Himself to Abraham as "the Almighty" (El Shaddai). God called Abraham to be a pilgrim, with none but God to look to, so He revealed Himself to him as the "All Powerful One."
Jacob names the place where God met him. He came there with nothing.
Happy pilgrim! The "staff" he leaned on led his soul back to Luz. And what was Jacob at Luz? Nothing but a houseless, homeless, destitute wanderer. Yet for him, in those circumstances, Luz becomes Bethel — the house of God. There God found Jacob. God blessed him as a pilgrim who had nothing but his "staff." As Jacob received the blessing, so now he gives it to both the sons of Joseph. Jacob had no claim on God for a blessing.
Writers take the switch between his two names as deliberate.
Someone told Jacob, "Your son Joseph has come to you," and Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. Then it immediately says, "And Jacob said to Joseph…" We know there is nothing in Scripture without its specific meaning. So this interchange of names contains some instruction. In general, we may say that "Jacob" shows the depth to which God had descended; "Israel," the height to which Jacob was raised.
The blessing at Luz reached far beyond Jacob himself.
Jacob speaks to Joseph of God's first recorded appearance to him at Luz (or Bethel) in Canaan. There God gave him His special blessing. He promised to multiply him into a multitude of people, and to give that land to his descendants for an everlasting possession. Jacob was therefore not interested in any other land on earth.
Scripture points to this scene as an example of faith.
Hebrews 11 singles out one event in Jacob's life as an example of the faith that was in him: his blessing of the sons of Joseph… It is striking how at once Jacob went back to the moment when he first came into contact with God. He remembered the blessing granted then and repeated the promises made then in a way that shows he received them by faith.
- Beginning. At the end of his life Jacob goes back to the beginning — the night God Almighty met him at Luz.
- Nothing. At Luz he was a homeless runaway with no claim on God. The blessing came as a gift.
- Almighty. The name El Shaddai means power and all-sufficiency — the right name for a man with nothing but God to look to.
- Grace. He leaves his scheming and failure unmentioned. What fills his heart is the blessing that triumphed over what he was.
- Forward. Resting on that promise, the dying man hands the same blessing on to Joseph's sons — and Hebrews 11 calls it faith.
and he said to me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a company of peoples; and will give this land to thy seed after thee [for] an everlasting possession.
Old and nearly blind in Egypt, Jacob calls Joseph to his bedside and begins with what God said to him at Luz, decades earlier. The words he repeats promise descendants and a land he no longer lives in, and a dying man stakes everything on them.
Jacob's memory skips everything in between. It lands on the one moment when God made him a promise with no conditions.
His natural strength is failing and his sight is dim. Everything on earth is slipping fast from his grasp. Yet he rises above the loss of all earthly joys, and finds in God his only trust and unfailing resource. So his mind travels back to that great moment at the start of his pilgrim path. God Almighty appeared to him at Luz in the land of Canaan. There He blessed him, and gave the land to his descendants for an everlasting possession, on the ground of unconditional promise.
What he leaves out of the story is as telling as what he puts in.
He is not now concerned with his failures, with the deceiving of his father and with having to flee from the anger of his outraged brother. These were very sorrowful and solemn matters. But he felt the presence of God in his soul, and all that this brought him pushed into the background all that he was in himself.
Jacob does not just say that God appeared. He names Him as God Almighty — a title that runs through the whole family history.
The Name of the Almighty assured Abraham that God would certainly do all He had promised. Isaac blessed Jacob in the Name of the Almighty (Gen. 28:3). When God changed Jacob's name to Israel, He said, "I am God Almighty… The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you" (Gen. 35:9–12). Jacob uses the Name of the Almighty in Genesis 43:14; 48:3 and 49:25, because he knew the almighty power of Him who had blessed him despite all his failures.
Jacob has spent his last years in Egypt, yet the only land he names is the one he left.
Jacob speaks to Joseph of God's first recorded appearance to him at Luz, or Bethel, in Canaan (Gen. 28:11-15). God blessed him there, and promised to multiply him into a multitude of people and to give that land to his descendants for an everlasting possession (vv. 3-4). Jacob was therefore not interested in any other land on earth. Though he would himself be in heaven and have no part of the earthly inheritance, he cared deeply about the welfare of his descendants.
Israel did hold Canaan for a time and then lost it. Commentators say this cannot be what "everlasting" means.
God gave the land to the descendants of Abraham "forever," or as it is put elsewhere, "for an everlasting possession." That this was not the case with Israel's possession of Canaan is certain. But has the Lord forgotten His promise? Or are we to assume that the promise was not meant for Israel? So far from it. He says also: "Then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land." The conditional and temporary possession enjoyed by Israel is not, therefore, the fulfilment of the covenant with the fathers.
The phrase here differs from the one Jacob uses later over Ephraim.
It is well to note the peculiarity of the phrase in verse 19 — not "a multitude of peoples" but "a fulness of nations." The old Greek translation is loose in verse 4, where it gives "congregations of nations" instead of "an assembly of peoples." In contrast with Judah and Benjamin, who had a distinct place, all the rest of the tribes fell under Ephraim as Israel.
The promise is not nostalgia. It is the ground for what Jacob does next with Joseph's two sons.
But if there is blessing on the ground of promise secured to Jacob's seed, then Jacob can claim a blessing for Joseph's sons. Jacob can say, "they shall be mine." He claims them as his seed and therefore as the heirs to the inheritance.
- Promise first. Jacob rests on what God promised at Luz with no conditions attached — not on anything he did later.
- Promise unstained. His failures are real, but they drop into the background; the promise he repeats is untouched by them.
- Promise guaranteed. He names the Almighty — the title that assured this family that God would do all He said.
- Promise unspent. Israel's short hold on Canaan never fulfilled the words "everlasting possession." The covenant still stands.
- Promise applied. The promise secures the inheritance to Jacob's descendants, so he can take Joseph's two sons as his own and give them a share in it.
And now thy two sons, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt before I came to thee into Egypt, shall be mine Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon.
Jacob is near the end of his life in Egypt. Joseph brings in his two half-Egyptian sons, and the old man takes them into his own family as if he had fathered them. One sentence changes the inheritance of Israel. It also raises a question: how do boys with no natural claim end up in the place of the firstborn?
Jacob's words are legal language. The boys' mother was Egyptian, so they stood outside the line of promise until the old man's word brought them in.
He then adopts the sons of Joseph. He had to, if they were to have the rights of children. In a real legal sense they were strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. They were a seed, therefore, whom the law would in its day have put away (Ezra 10:3). But Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family... They become the seed of Abraham and children of Jacob. Once that is done, Jacob at once sets them in the place of the firstborn.
Everything Jacob has to give rests on a promise God made to his line.
But if blessing rests on a promise made sure to Jacob's seed, then Jacob can claim a blessing for Joseph's sons. Jacob can say, "they shall be mine." He claims them as his seed and therefore as the heirs to the inheritance.
Jacob names the boys alongside Reuben and Simeon. That move hands the rights of the eldest son to Joseph.
Scripture confirms this. 1 Chronicles 5:2 says of Israel that "the birthright was Joseph's." Verse 1 tells us that Reuben was the eldest son, and that his birthright "was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel." We can see why Joseph had two sons and only two: so that he might have the double portion of the firstborn. So in the dividing of the land, each of Israel's sons had a single portion, that is, one tribe each. Levi is left out here, for obvious reasons. Joseph had the double portion: two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh.
Adding two more heads to the family looks like a mistake in the arithmetic. Later history shows why it was not.
Now Jacob claims the two sons of Joseph as his own, calling them Ephraim and Manasseh rather than Manasseh and Ephraim in the order of their birth (v. 5). This was not just a whim of Jacob's old age; history has proved it to be an important matter. Jacob had twelve sons at the time, the exact number that marks complete administration. Why should he give Joseph an extra place among the tribes by naming them after his two sons? The wisdom of God was in this. Later we find that Levi received no distinct inheritance among the tribes (Numbers 1:47-53). God set that tribe apart to serve Him in the tabernacle and among all the tribes.
Nothing here follows natural rights. Jacob accepts what God has decided.
Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no title in the flesh, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives the place and portion of the firstborn, the double portion, as though they were Reuben and Simeon. Grace sets the younger of them above the elder. And grace gives Joseph, the adopted firstborn, a pledge of his coming inheritance. To all this Jacob bows and is obedient. In faith he accepts the decisions of grace. Nature may resent this; but Jacob is true to the word of grace committed to him.
Notice when Jacob made the choice.
He adopted them before he saw them. He gave them the place of the firstborn in the family while he had not yet looked at them, for his eyes were dim with age.
Joseph received these sons far from home, among strangers. Commentators see a larger pattern in that.
He has now received, from among Gentile strangers, a new unlooked-for family. And Joseph's Egyptian family clearly typify Christ's heavenly family, or the church. For in the joy of His having received the church, the Lord has for a while forgotten Israel. It was the same with Joseph. He called his firstborn "Manasseh," for, he said, "God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house." His second son he called "Ephraim," for, he said, "God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."
- Forfeited. Reuben, the eldest, lost the birthright. 1 Chronicles 5 records that it passed to the sons of Joseph.
- Adopted. Ephraim and Manasseh had an Egyptian mother and no legal claim on Abraham. Jacob's word alone made them his.
- Doubled. Joseph had exactly two sons, so his line received the two portions belonging to the firstborn.
- Written in. The two boys became tribal heads. Levi received no land of his own, so the tribes holding land still numbered twelve.
- Grace throughout. Jacob chose the boys before his dim eyes ever saw them, and he bowed to that choice in faith.
And thy family which thou hast begotten after them shall be thine they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
Jacob has just claimed Joseph's two Egyptian-born sons as his own; verse 6 settles what happens to any sons born to Joseph after them. It raises three questions: why Jacob adopted the first two at all, why he stopped at two, and what "in their inheritance" secured.
Joseph's sons had an Egyptian mother. They could not simply assume a place in the family. Jacob had to give it to them.
Jacob begins by reciting to Joseph God's grant of the land of Canaan. This set out the family estate, the property he had to leave among his children. He then adopts the sons of Joseph. This was needed to give them the rights of children, because in a great legal sense they were strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. They were a seed, therefore, whom the law would, in its day, have put away. But Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family… They are established as the seed of Abraham, and made children of Jacob.
The number is not random. Two sons, and no more, carried the double portion of the firstborn.
Scripture confirms this. 1 Chronicles 5:2 tells us, concerning Israel, that "the birthright belonged to Joseph." Verse 1 tells us that the birthright of Reuben, the eldest son, "was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel." We can see why Joseph had two sons and only two: so that he might have the double portion of the firstborn. So in the dividing of the land, each of Israel's sons (Levi excluded for obvious reasons) had a single portion, that is one tribe each. Joseph had the double portion, two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh.
This is the exact force of the second half of the verse. Any son born to Joseph later would not head a thirteenth or fourteenth line.
The genealogies show that families were all counted under one head, if they were not large enough to make a distinct family (1 Chronicles 23:10-11). Or they might come in as two, when strictly the head should have been only one, as with Ephraim and Manasseh. If Joseph had had a dozen sons afterwards, they would not have formed distinct families (Genesis 48:6). They would have merged into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Joseph had married into Egypt, and that put his sons at risk. Scripture calls Jacob's answer to it faith.
The adoption of Joseph's sons is interesting and instructive. As the offspring of the Gentile wife Asenath they were in danger of becoming absorbed into the nations and so forgetting their father's house. Jacob prevented this by adopting the sons. It was an action of faith. "By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff" (Hebrews 11:21).
Joseph's two sons also kept the tribal count whole. One tribe would later serve God instead of holding land.
This was not just a whim of Jacob's old age, but history has proved it to be an important matter. Jacob had 12 sons at the time, the exact number of administrative completeness. Why should he give Joseph an extra place among the tribes by naming them after his two sons? The wisdom of God was in this. Later we find that Levi received no distinctive inheritance among the tribes (Numbers 1:47-53). That was because the tribe was set apart to do the service of God in the tabernacle and among all the tribes.
Joseph's sons were born outside Israel, yet they ended up sharing Israel's inheritance. One writer sees the same pattern in what followed the rejection of Jesus.
Joseph is unknown to his brothers, or at best only a memory. Meanwhile he is in power in Egypt, and marries Asenath, an Egyptian woman. His sons are cut off from their mother's Gentile connection. They are moved into the position of "heirs of the promise" with faithful Abraham, rightly counted with Israel, and they divide the inheritance with them. So the Lord Jesus, rejected by the Jews, has called out children from among the nations.
- Name — Through an Egyptian mother, Ephraim and Manasseh had no legal claim. Jacob's word gave them one and set them among the seed of Abraham.
- Place — Adoption made the two boys tribal heads. Joseph's later sons would carry their brothers' names, not Egypt's.
- Portion — Two heads, and only two, carried the firstborn's double portion. It was taken from Reuben and given to Joseph.
- Limit — Verse 6 closes the list. Later children merge into Ephraim and Manasseh and form no family of their own.
- Reach — Twelve tribes still hold land while Levi serves without it. Sons born outside end up sharing the inheritance inside.
And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was yet a certain distance to come to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
Near the end of his life, Jacob adopts Joseph's two sons as his own. Then he stops and speaks of a roadside grave. Why does a dying man mention a burial while he is handing out an inheritance?
Genesis records Rachel's death in chapter 35. Jacob himself never speaks of it — until now:
Verse 7 is the only expression we hear from Jacob's lips about the death of his favoured wife, Rachel. How deeply his heart was affected is not dwelt on at all. He held his feelings back, yet the memory was still real and painful. He tells Joseph the exact place where she died and where he buried her. These were things he would not forget.
Jacob has just spoken of the inheritance waiting for Joseph's sons. Then he turns to himself, and the two futures stand side by side:
He sees a great inheritance in the land stretching before them and their descendants. But as for himself, all his earthly joys in Canaan ended with the death of his best-loved wife… For Rachel he had suffered, toiled, and lived, and with her every earthly joy closed for Jacob. It was as if he said to Joseph, "Your two sons have bright earthly prospects before them, but as for me, mine were all buried in Rachel's tomb." But the faith of the dying man looks beyond the end of all earthly joys… If he speaks of Rachel's tomb on the way to Ephrath, he adds something telling: "that is, Bethlehem."
The name Jacob adds has a history of its own:
Bethlehem first appears in the Bible in connection with the death and burial of Rachel (Genesis 35:19)… Bethlehem means "house of bread". That is a very fitting name for the place the Saviour would come from as a man — He who was the living bread that came down from heaven… It was apparently first called Ephrath (Genesis 35:16, 19; Genesis 48:7), and afterwards Ephratah (Ruth 4:11; Psalm 132:6). Scripture once calls it Bethlehem Ephratah, that is, the fruitful, because the ruler of Israel was to come from there (Micah 5:2; Luke 2:4, 15; John 7:42). This led to Herod's killing of the infants (Matthew 2:16-18).
One writer ties Jacob's lifelong grief to the spot where he laid her:
Death created an emptiness that can never be filled. Jacob never forgot the loss of Rachel for the rest of his life… He buried the one he loved where Christ, the real comfort for every grieving heart, was to be born.
There Rachel gave birth to a son and died. The mother and the father gave the boy opposite names. The second name shows where Jacob's faith was looking:
The dying Rachel called the child Benoni (son of my sorrow), but Jacob called him Benjamin (son of the right hand). Near Bethlehem the true Son of the Right Hand would come into the world. There Jacob shows his faith in God by the name he gives his son. At that spot the door seemed to close on Jacob's deepest joys. Yet that same spot is where his brightest hopes would be made sure, in the Baby to be born at Bethlehem.
Jacob tells the story without a word of complaint:
Rachel's death was certainly one of the most painful lessons Jacob had to learn. It went deep into his soul. Yet his history says nothing about how Jacob felt about it… He felt it. Yet I think in Jacob we now have a submission of heart. He recognised that it had come from the hand of God, and he accepted it. He had learnt his lesson, learnt to submit to God.
When Herod killed the children of Bethlehem, Rachel appeared again in Scripture — in a place no reader would expect her:
Rachel had been dead for centuries and centuries. But the Spirit of God puts it in this remarkable way, as if her spirit had risen from the dead… We should not have expected Rachel to meet us here. But, as I said before, Bethlehem was the place where she died. Her children died there too, simply because it was the spot where her Saviour and theirs — and, thank God, my Saviour — was born.
- Grave. Jacob never spoke of Rachel's death anywhere else. Here he names the road, the distance and the burial place — details a grieving man does not forget.
- Grief. "As for me" sets the bright future of Joseph's sons against Jacob's own. His earthly joys all lay buried in Rachel's tomb.
- Gift. He adds "that is, Bethlehem" — the house of bread, the fruitful town the ruler of Israel would come from.
- Faith. The mother named her baby son of my sorrow. The father renamed him son of the right hand, and the place of loss became a place of hope.
- Echo. Centuries later Rachel weeps again over the children of Bethlehem — in the town where her Saviour was born.
And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?
Jacob is near death in Egypt when Joseph brings him two sons born there to an Egyptian mother. The old man's eyes are too dim to make the boys out, so he asks who they are — and the answer will decide whether two children of Egypt can belong to Abraham's family.
The question is not a test. Jacob cannot make the boys out. One writer sets that failing eyesight beside the way Jacob had lived his earlier years.
When Rachel died, Jacob was still at full strength. Now his natural strength was gone and his eyes were dim, so that he could not even make out the sons of Joseph. In his strong days he had too often walked by the sight of his own eyes. Now at the end he begins to walk and act by faith, not by sight. At the same time he sees how very kind God has been to him.
The text changes the old man's name at this point. Up to here he has been looking back over his own history. From the question on, he becomes God's spokesman.
Jacob has spoken up to now, but from this point in the story he speaks as Israel. Jacob, the man of nature, has looked back over the past and seen all his hopes end in death. Now, as Israel (the prince with God), he will declare the mind of God. As Jacob he has seen death ending the plans of man. As Israel he looks beyond death and unfolds the purpose of God (verses 8-11)... If heavenly things are opening to him, earthly things are fading from him.
By birth these boys had no place in Abraham's family line. One commentator explains why Jacob had to act before he could bless.
He then adopts the sons of Joseph. This was needed to give them the rights of children, because, in strict legal terms, they were strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. So they were the kind of children the law of that day would have sent away. But Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family.
Jacob had already settled what he would do with these boys before he ever set eyes on them. The same writer draws out why that order matters.
He adopted them before he saw them. He gave them the place of the firstborn in the family while he had still not looked on them, for his eyes were dim with age. All the desire of his heart had gone out to them while they had never yet stood before him. So when the blessing does come, it comes with all its value. The warmth of Jacob's heart and tongue came with it. It is sealed, and sealed again, before Ephraim and Manasseh enjoy it. They are to know that their adoption had been their father's delightful plan and promise — the subject of his thoughts and love — before it was ever made known to them.
Jacob himself had received a blessing that was not his by natural right. Now, with failing eyes, he sees the same free favour reaching his grandsons.
As Jacob received the blessing, so now he gives it to both the sons of Joseph. Jacob had no claim on God for a blessing. He was a fugitive from his elder brother Esau, to whom by natural right the blessing belonged. But God allows no rights. He acts according to the counsels of His own will... He could look at his grandchildren, and see the blessing of God coming on them from the grace of God, as freely as it had come on him.
Joseph does not leave his sons at a distance. He brings them to his father to be blessed. One writer sees a larger picture in that.
Joseph is a wonderful picture of Christ, who brings His children into the Father's presence. It is the Father's delight to bless us.
- Dim. Jacob's eyes fail him. He cannot make out his own grandsons. Writers mark this as the moment he stops walking by sight and starts walking by faith.
- Israel. The name changes with the question. From here on, the man of nature gives way to the prince with God, who looks past death and speaks God's purpose.
- Strangers. Born in Egypt to an Egyptian mother, the two boys had no legal standing in Abraham's family. That is why adoption, not birth, had to come first.
- Chosen. Jacob adopted the boys before he ever saw them. Their place in the family was settled in his heart while they were still out of his sight.
- Passed on. The fugitive who had no claim of his own now hands the same free blessing to a second generation. Joseph brings the children near to receive it.
And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God has given me here. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, to me, that I may bless them.
Jacob is old, sick and nearly blind, and when he sees two young men standing beside Joseph he has to ask who they are. Joseph answers, and Jacob asks for the boys. What follows is the act Scripture later marks as Jacob's great act of faith.
Joseph does not say that these are the sons he fathered in Egypt. He traces them back to God, and the names he had given them say the same thing.
Pharaoh gave Joseph a wife, and God gave Joseph two sons. The oldest was named "Manasseh" ("Forgetting"), because God made Joseph forget his work and sorrow. The younger was named "Ephraim" ("Fruitful"), because God caused him to be fruitful in the land of his trouble.
The word "here" matters. God gave these sons in the land of Joseph's trouble, not after the trouble was over.
By birth the boys belonged to Egypt, not to Abraham. Jacob does not argue the difficulty away. He acts.
He then adopts the sons of Joseph. This was needed to give them the rights of children. In a real legal sense they were strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. They were a seed, therefore, whom the law would in its day have put away. But Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family.
Where does a dying man find anything to give? Not from himself.
But if blessing rests on the promise made sure to Jacob's descendants, then Jacob can claim a blessing for Joseph's sons. Jacob can say, "they shall be mine." He claims them as his descendants and therefore as the heirs to the inheritance.
Jacob's eyes are failing. Yet the record now calls him Israel, and the change of name marks a change in what he sees.
As Jacob he has seen death ending the plans of man. As Israel he looks beyond death and unfolds the purpose of God. But the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. If heavenly things are opening to him, earthly things are fading from him. And so he no longer thinks of the sorrows along the way, but of the goodness of God that had never forsaken him. He acknowledges that God had been better to him than all his natural thoughts.
Read the whole chapter and one pattern runs through it. Jacob's own part is only to agree.
In Genesis 48, which follows, we get the one act in his life that the Spirit marks out as the act of faith. See Hebrews 11:21. But the whole chapter is beautiful. All is grace on God's part, and all is faith in the heart of Jacob. It is the proper business and duty of faith to accept the decisions of grace, and that is just what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no claim by birth, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives them the place and portion of the firstborn, the double portion, as though they were Reuben and Simeon. Grace sets the younger of them above the elder.
Joseph's part is only to bring the boys. Parents can bring their children to God the same way, and one writer separates two reasons for doing it.
Suppose we bring them with a desire for their prominence and glory. Suppose we want them distinguished either in this world or the world to come, so that our natural pride and pleasure in them grows. Then we have no ground for expecting the Lord to act. If we bring them so that their desperate need may be met and their blessing accomplished, He will hear us. The varying circumstances on our side will be no hindrance.
- Given. Joseph calls his sons a gift from God. Their names record what God did in the land of his trouble: He made Joseph forget, and made him fruitful.
- Brought. Jacob asks for the boys to come close before he blesses them. Blessing does not reach them at a distance.
- Adopted. The boys had no legal standing in Abraham's family. Jacob adopts them and gives them the place of the firstborn.
- Blessed. Jacob has nothing of his own to hand over. He can bless because God's promise runs to his descendants, and the boys now count among them.
- Accepted. All is grace on God's side and faith on Jacob's. Faith's one job is to accept what grace has decided.
But the eyes of Israel were heavy from age he could not see. And he brought them nearer to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.
I have strong material. Here is the commentary:
An old man sits on his bed, too blind to make out the faces of the two boys in front of him. Scripture treats this as the high point of Jacob's faith: his eyes fail, yet the blessing he gives is exactly right.
The dimness is not only physical. The world Jacob had clung to is slipping out of his hands, and the loss turns out to be a gain.
Jacob — the man of nature — is weakened by age and sickness. The world he had clung to so tightly is fast fading from his view. His eyes are dim with age (verse 10). But his natural strength weakens and his natural sight grows dim. Everything on earth is fast slipping from his grasp. So he rises above the loss of all earthly joys and finds in God his only trust and unfailing resource.
What goes out at one window comes in at another. Writers note the exchange directly: as one kind of sight closes, another opens.
If heavenly things are opening to him, earthly things are fading from him. And so it is he no longer thinks of the sorrows by the way, but of the goodness of God that had never forsaken him.
Jacob had spent most of his life relying on his own cleverness. The failure of his eyes marks the end of that method — and the start of a better one.
When Rachel died Jacob was still in full strength; now his natural strength was gone, his eyes were dim, so that he could not even recognise the sons of Joseph. In his days of vigour he had too often walked by the sight of his own eyes; now at the close he begins to walk and act by faith and not by sight, and at the same time he realises the exceeding kindness of God toward him.
The same point is put as a reversal: the shrewdness that once served him has drained away, and what replaces it is sharper.
Dim as to his natural eye, but clear-sighted by faith, he guided his hands knowingly. Jacob had used his own natural shrewdness in many ways in his past life. But now, as his natural powers fade, faith is very keen in discerning the ways of God.
Here the gifted son is the one who cannot see.
Joseph does not know God's purpose for his sons. He lets his natural desires govern him. He places the elder son in front of his dying father's right hand, and the younger in front of his left. So Joseph would have had it; but not so Jacob. His eyes were dim with age, but in this he was clearer-sighted than Joseph after all. No one ever saw more clearly than Joseph. Yet Jacob, dying, sees the future with a steadier and fuller gaze.
Gift alone does not produce such insight.
It needs an exercised soul, as well as a spiritual gift, to see clearly the way of grace. Joseph stands far above his father Jacob in both gift and moral worth. But Jacob had been well sifted, and had learned by experience his need of grace.
Jacob is now in his father's position: old, blind, and blessing sons. But the two bedsides end differently.
Isaac's eyes were dim, so he could be deceived, and they set about doing so, instead of looking to God, who would have completely frustrated Isaac's purpose to bless the one whom God would not bless — a purpose rooted in nature, and in very unlovely nature, for "Isaac loved Esau," not because he was the firstborn, but "because he ate of his game."
Jacob had once used his father's blindness against him. Now he is the blind one.
Jacob clear, where Isaac had been dim; Jacob clearer than Joseph, who until now had seen into divine things more deeply than any other man of God. What deep self-judgment must have passed through Israel's spirit as he reviewed the blessing he had once stolen by his own trickery!
The kiss and the embrace in this verse go to boys Jacob has never seen.
He adopted them before he saw them. He gave them the place of the firstborn in the family while he had not yet looked on them, for his eyes were dim with age. All the desire of his heart had been toward them while they were still unknown to him. So when the blessing does come, it comes with all its value. They may know that their adoption had been the delightful theme of the father's counsel and promise, the subject of his thoughts and affections before he made it known to them.
- Fading. Jacob's dim eyes mark the world slipping out of his grip. At that very moment he finds in God his only resource.
- Faith. The shrewdness Jacob once relied on has faded. In its place, faith reads God's ways with a keen eye.
- Clearer. Blind Jacob reads God's purpose better than his gifted son Joseph. Gift is not enough on its own; Jacob had also learned by experience his need of grace.
- Reversed. Isaac's dim eyes made him easy to trick, and the son he meant to bless was the one God would not bless. Jacob's dim eyes do not stop him blessing the right one.
- Loved first. Jacob adopted these boys and gave them the firstborn's place before he ever saw them. The embrace only showed what his heart had already settled.
And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face; and behold, God has let me see also thy seed.
For years Jacob believed his favourite son was dead. Now, at the end of his life, he holds that son's children. His words admit that his fears about God had been wrong. They also raise the question every grieving person asks: what is God doing when life runs against me?
Jacob had read his own life wrongly for years. One writer traces the low point:
When at last he had to part with Benjamin, he poured out his grief: "All this has come against me." Were they against him? He could not see far enough. Little did he think that the shadow of dreaded loss resting on his spirit was in reality the clouds breaking. Instead of losing Benjamin he was about to regain Joseph. In regaining Joseph, every pinch of want would be a thing of the past. He would live in the land where Joseph supplied the food, and receive from his plenty, even though all the rest of the earth was suffering famine. Ask Jacob, "Does God care?" Hear him say to Joseph for answer, "I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also."
The losses themselves were the road to the blessing:
The very things that he thought were against him were working for richest blessing, both for him and for his children. Not only was Joseph alive, but very soon he would see Joseph, and also his sons. God used the loss of Joseph to preserve Jacob and his house, and also to preserve the lives of many more.
What nature could see and what God knew were two different things:
In Genesis 48:11 we have a very beautiful example of the way our God always rises above all our thoughts, and proves Himself better than all our fears… To nature's view Joseph was dead; whereas in God's view he was alive, and seated in the highest place of authority, next to the throne.
Jacob does not just get back what he mourned. He also gets a generation he never counted on:
In his days of vigour he had too often walked by the sight of his own eyes. Now at the close he begins to walk and act by faith and not by sight. At the same time he realizes the exceeding kindness of God toward him. He had spent weary years thinking he would never see the face of his beloved son again. Now he has seen not only him but his offspring as well.
The chapter changes the old man's name at this exact point:
Jacob has spoken up to now, but from this point in the story he speaks as Israel, the prince with God… As Jacob he has seen death ending the plans of man. As Israel he looks beyond death and unfolds the purpose of God. But the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. If heavenly things are opening to him, earthly things are fading from him. And so he no longer thinks of the sorrows along the way, but of the goodness of God that had never forsaken him. He owns that God had been better to him than all his natural thoughts.
The two boys were half Egyptian. Jacob brings them inside the family line:
He then adopts the sons of Joseph. This was needed to give them the rights of children, because in a great legal sense they were strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. They were offspring whom the law would, in its day, have put away. But Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family.
Seeing God's goodness does not leave Jacob talking about himself. It ends in worship:
With the goodness of God filling his soul, Joseph and his two sons pass from his thoughts for the moment. In the presence of God "he bowed himself with his face to the earth." He has reached the highest moment in his spiritual life — he is a worshipper. We know from the Holy Spirit's comment in Hebrews 11 that this was the crowning act of faith in the life of Jacob… The scheming, the pushing of others out of their place, the selfishness, and the independence that so often marred his path had passed away. At last Jacob shows faith, dependence, and worship.
- Fear — Jacob said that everything had come against him. The very losses he mourned were God's means of preserving his whole house.
- Sight — nature saw a dead son. God saw a living one next to the throne, and He proves Himself better than all our fears.
- Gift — the word "also" is the surplus. Jacob expected no face at all, and God showed him a face and a generation.
- Reach — the grandsons God showed him had an Egyptian mother, and Jacob takes them into the family as his own.
- Worship — the old schemer ends face down on the ground. Hebrews 11 calls this the crowning act of faith in his life.
And Joseph brought them out from his knees, and bowed down with his face to the earth.
Genesis 48 holds the one act in Jacob's long life that Scripture marks out as his act of faith. Verse 12 sits at the turn of it: two boys lifted off a lap, and a face pressed to the ground. Who bows here, and why?
Jacob has just claimed Joseph's two sons as his own. One writer explains why that step was needed:
Jacob begins by reciting to Joseph God's grant of the land of Canaan. This set out the family estate, the property he had to leave among his children. He then adopts the sons of Joseph. This was needed to give them the rights of children, since in a great legal sense they were strangers to Abraham. Their mother was an Egyptian. They were a seed, therefore, whom the law would, in its day, have put away. But Jacob adopts them. He takes them into the family.
The law would have shut these boys out; adoption makes them Jacob's sons. Another writer notes a second danger the adoption dealt with:
As the children of Joseph's Gentile wife Asenath, they were in danger of becoming like the Gentiles around them and so forgetting their father's house. Jacob stopped this by adopting the sons.
Commentators differ over who falls face-down. Some read it as Joseph, showing respect before he presents his sons:
With the respect of a son, Joseph bowed down before his father. He then presented the boys in order of age, so that Jacob's right hand might rest on the head of the elder, as the custom of those days required.
Others take the bowing as Jacob's, and read it as the high point of his whole story:
With the goodness of God filling his soul, Joseph and his two sons pass from his thoughts for the moment. In the presence of God "he bowed himself with his face to the earth." He has reached the highest moment in his spiritual life — he is a worshipper. We know from the Holy Spirit's comment in Hebrews 11 that this was the crowning act of faith in Jacob's life. The scheming, the pushing others out of their place, the selfishness, and the independence that so often spoiled his path were gone. At last faith, dependence, and worship mark Jacob (verse 12).
Hebrews 11:21 looks back on this deathbed scene: "By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff." Older translations read "leaning on the top of his staff." The staff carries the lesson of a lifetime:
He is seen as a worshipper, and his staff shows he is a stranger here. With his staff he crossed the Jordan at the start of his wanderings. Now he is on the edge of the grave, and it is still the staff. But how different, how changed the man who leans upon it! The lesson has been learnt. He leans. The one who can worship and bless others must himself be dependent. And can we ever afford to be anything else?
From here the account calls him Israel. Verse 10 says his sight is failing, and that loss serves him:
As Jacob he has seen death ending the plans of man. As Israel, the prince with God, he looks beyond death and unfolds the purpose of God (verses 8-11). But Israel's eyes were dim with age, so that he could not see (verse 10). If heavenly things are opening to him, earthly things are fading from him. And so he no longer thinks of the sorrows along the way, but of the goodness of God that had never forsaken him.
His body was failing. His faith was not.
Dying, Jacob was stronger in faith than in all the strength of his life, tested and active as it had been. It was then that by faith he blessed each of the sons of Joseph, going beyond what nature would have thought.
The bowed face fits a chapter where God gives and Jacob receives:
All is grace on God's part, and all is faith in the heart of Jacob. The proper work and duty of faith is to accept the decisions of grace, and that is exactly what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no title in the flesh, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives the place and portion of the firstborn... Grace sets the younger of them above the elder. To all this Jacob bows and is obedient.
- Knees — The law would have shut these two boys out of Abraham's family; Jacob's adoption makes them his own sons.
- Grace — Everything in the chapter is given, not earned; faith's whole work here is to accept what grace decides.
- Bowed — Commentators differ. Some say Joseph bows to his father; others say Jacob bows to God. Read as Jacob's, it is the highest moment of his life.
- Staff — The man who leans is the man who can bless; worship and dependence arrive together, and only at the end of a long, self-willed road.
- Dim — As his eyes fail, he sees the goodness of God more clearly; dying, he is stronger in faith than he ever was in his strength.
And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought [them] near to him.
Joseph brings his two boys to his dying father in the order any family would expect. The elder goes toward Jacob's right hand, the younger toward his left. It looks like a small point of etiquette. But Jacob is about to cross his hands, and the question becomes whether blessing follows birth order or follows God.
Joseph's arrangement was correct and respectful. One writer notes what became of it:
With a son's respect Joseph bowed down before his father. Then he presented the boys according to their ages, so that Jacob's right hand would rest on the head of the elder, as the custom of those days required. At that moment it was Jacob's faith that stood out — a faith that gave him the spirit of prophecy. So he reversed what Joseph had done, and crossing his hands he laid his right hand upon Ephraim and not Manasseh.
Jacob's eyes had failed with age. One writer finds his sharpest sight at that very moment:
He received the name when his hip was put out of joint (Genesis 32). Perhaps never since then did he realize so fully that he had power with God and with men as he did on his dying bed. He had now "no confidence in the flesh." His natural eye was dim, but his faith saw clearly, and he guided his hands knowingly... Joseph, the interpreter of God's ways to Pharaoh, could not in this instance see as clearly as Jacob. It takes a soul trained by experience, as well as a spiritual gift, to see the way of grace clearly.
Another writer links that clear sight to worship:
As a worshipper in the presence of God he learns the mind of God. He acts no longer as nature would dictate, but as God would direct. He crosses his hands "intelligently," placing the right hand on the younger and the left hand on the elder (verses 13, 14)... His spiritual vision was never brighter than at the moment when his natural vision had become dim with age.
The two boys had no natural claim on the family promises. That is the point:
All is grace on God's part, and all is faith in the heart of Jacob. Faith's proper business and duty is to accept the decisions of grace, and that is just what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no title in the flesh, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives them the place and portion of the firstborn, the double portion... Grace sets the younger of them above the elder... Nature may resent this; but Jacob is true to the word of grace committed to him.
The reversal is not arbitrary. The boys' names, given by Joseph in Egypt, already describe why the younger must come first.
Manasseh means "forgetting" and Ephraim means "fruitful." Joseph gave those names because he was made to forget the natural blessings of his father's house, and then became fruitful in Egypt. But forgetting is negative: fruitfulness is positive, and the positive must take the first place.
Writers read this as a pattern running far beyond one sickroom:
The first man and his race are negative toward God — the complete denial of all His thoughts. In Christ, the Second Man, is the Yes and Amen to all God's thoughts, and all fruitfulness is found in Him. He is indeed the Man of God's right hand. It is a great day in the spiritual history of each of us when we wholeheartedly agree that the Second Man has displaced the first, and so we turn away from self-seeking to find our all in Christ.
Jacob once stole a blessing from a father who could not see. Now he is on the other side of that scene:
Jacob was clear, where Isaac had been dim. He was clearer even than Joseph, who until then had been given penetrating insight into divine things beyond any other man of God. What deep self-judgment must have filled Israel's heart as he looked back on the blessing he once stole by his own scheming! Could the LORD not, would He not, have crossed Isaac's hands Himself — to His own glory and without His servant's shame — and so made good His promise to Jacob? How sad not to have trusted Him!
- Nature arranges. Joseph placed the boys by age, as custom required — dutiful, sensible, and about to be overturned.
- Worship sees. Jacob had just bowed in worship; from that place "he learns the mind of God" and acts "no longer as nature would dictate."
- Grace adopts. Two boys with "no title in the flesh" are brought into Abraham's family; faith's job is simply "to accept the decisions of grace."
- Fruit first. Forgetting is negative; fruitfulness is positive, and "the positive must take the first place" — the pattern points on to Christ, the Second Man.
- Faith sees. Jacob's "spiritual vision was never brighter" than when his natural vision had gone dim — clear where Isaac had been dim, and sure where Joseph was not.
But Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid [it] on Ephraim's head -- now he was the younger -- and his left hand on Manasseh's head; guiding his hands intelligently, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
A dying man, almost blind, crosses his arms so that his right hand falls on the younger boy's head instead of the elder's. Two questions follow. What does laying a hand on a head mean? And why does God so often reverse the order that nature has fixed?
In Scripture, placing a hand on someone's head is not an empty gesture. One writer explains it from the offerings brought at the altar:
To put the hand on the head means in Scripture identification. It is to say, "I identify myself with you." We see it in the burnt offering. The offerer identified himself with the value of the sacrifice. In this way he identified himself with all that Christ was to God, in every excellence of His person.
So which hand lands where is the point of the scene. The right hand has its own meaning:
The "right hand" speaks of authority, power, and high standing. According to Exodus 15:6, the power to deliver and to subdue belongs to the right hand. In Genesis 48:14 the right hand gives a blessing that is sovereign and cannot be taken back.
Older translations say Jacob guided his hands "wittingly" — that is, knowingly. The ESV reads "crossing his hands." His eyes had failed; his judgment had not. Shrewdness once served him. Now faith does the seeing.
He now had "no confidence in the flesh." His natural eye was dim, but faith made him clear-sighted, and he guided his hands knowingly. Jacob had used his own shrewdness in many ways in his past life. But now, as his natural powers fade, faith is very keen in discerning the ways of God… It takes a soul trained by experience, as well as a spiritual gift, to see the way of grace clearly.
The shape Jacob's arms make is itself a sign:
The sign of the cross cuts across and reverses natural order and human expectations. We find it here as everywhere… So the shadow of the cross falls on all that follows. It swaps the places of the members of both families, Jacob's and Joseph's. It rejects and selects in a sovereign and final way that sets aside human hopes and rules. It selects Ephraim and Judah, and rejects Manasseh, Reuben, and others. If we are surprised as Joseph was, then the reply is, "I know it, my son, I know it." It is absolute. We must submit whether we understand its action or not.
Jacob does not invent this reversal. He accepts it:
It is the proper business and duty of faith to accept the decisions of grace, and that is just what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no title in the flesh, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives them the place and portion of the firstborn, the double portion, as though they were Reuben and Simeon. Grace sets the younger of them above the elder. … Joseph was moved when Jacob set Ephraim above Manasseh. Jacob feels for him, but he fulfils the word of God given to him, however surprised or wounded nature may be.
The boys' names carry meanings, and the meanings fit the choice:
Ephraim (fruitfulness) comes before Manasseh (forgetting); that is, the positive side of divine things is more important than the negative side.
Later history bore the choice out:
Manasseh's very name had a weak suggestion in it, and his half-hearted descendants fulfilled it. When they came to the Jordan, half of them stopped short and half went on.
Years before, Jacob had schemed to get a blessing his blind father meant for someone else. Now Jacob is the blind father, and he crosses the line on purpose.
Jacob was clear, where Isaac had been dim. Jacob saw more clearly than Joseph, though God had given Joseph sharper insight into divine things than other men until now. What deep self-judgment must have passed through Israel's spirit as he looked back at the blessing he once stole by trickery! Could the Lord not have crossed Isaac's hands Himself, to His own glory and without His servant's shame, to keep His word of promise to Jacob? How sad that Jacob did not trust Him!
The New Testament singles out this one moment in Jacob's life:
This one act of Jacob's life is the only one Hebrews 11 records as an act of faith on Jacob's part… At the end he said what we all ought to say at the beginning: "Not this man here, though he is the eldest born and the first on the scene, but that Man is the man of God's counsel."
- Identify — a hand on the head says, "I am joined to this one." The question is whether your hand is on the right head.
- Right hand — the hand Jacob moved carries authority and power. Here it gives a blessing no one can take back.
- Knowing — his eyes were dim, yet he knew what he was doing. Faith saw what Joseph, walking by sight, could not.
- Crossed — the crossed hands set aside the elder's rights and choose the younger. When nature protests, the answer is, "I know it, my son."
- Faith — the man who once stole a blessing by trickery now bows to God's choice for someone else, and Hebrews calls this his one act of faith.
And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day,
Jacob is dying in Egypt, his eyes too dim to see, and he pulls Joseph's two boys close to bless them. Before he says a word over the boys, he names the God he is handing them to. Those names sum up his own long, uneven life.
Jacob ends with nothing but his staff — the same thing he set out with. One writer sees that poverty as the secret of his boldness.
He is a stranger in a strange place. He has his staff to lean on, but he has God for his portion. He had been well stripped of all his confidence along the way. Now he is about to end his life with no more than what he set out with — his staff in his hand. Weighed down with weakness, and fully admitting that he is only a pilgrim, he takes the high place of the one who blesses. He can now bless both the sons of Joseph with far greater confidence than he could have done when he owned earthly riches.
Jacob first names God as the One his father and grandfather walked before. To them God had made Himself known as God Almighty.
This name was a further revelation of Himself. God gave it when Abram was past age and had nothing to lean on but the almightiness, or all-sufficiency, of God (Genesis 17:1). God led him by this name, which declared the sufficiency he needed, and led Isaac and Jacob after him. They were all strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They had nothing but the promise of an Almighty Friend to rest on.
The ESV calls God Jacob's shepherd. Older translations say He "fed me all my life long." Either way, Jacob could only reach this verdict by looking back.
What a wonderful testimony Jacob gives to the faithfulness of God! When Jacob walked by sight, he did not see so clearly that God was feeding him and caring for him. But now, leaning on the top of his staff, he retraces all God's ways by faith.
One writer presses the same daily care on the reader.
Has not God provided generously for you? You never eat a meal without mercy carving for you. You never go to bed without mercy drawing the curtains and setting a guard of angels around you.
Jacob had not always read his life this way.
He has learned that even when the Lord disciplines us, we can give thanks afterwards and say, "You have dealt well with Your servant." Jacob saw this in his own life. In Genesis 42:36 he says, "all these things are against me." In 45:27, "the spirit of Jacob their father revived." Jacob realises that discipline "later yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11). Can you look back and thank the Lord for everything?
Jacob's crossed hands and his words about God come from the same man — one who no longer follows what nature dictates.
As a worshipper in the presence of God he learns the mind of God. He no longer acts as nature would dictate, but as God would direct. He crosses his hands with understanding, putting the right hand on the younger and the left on the elder. Then Jacob blesses Joseph, and does so by blessing his two sons. He speaks of God according to his experience of God. He commends the lads into the hands of the God who shepherded him all the days of his life — the Angel who had redeemed him from all evil. His spiritual sight was never clearer than when his natural sight had grown dim with age.
Jacob is not the hero of his own story.
If any character could have set aside the faithfulness of God, it is Jacob's. Low cunning and crooked scheming marked it from the start, in the way he treated his brother Esau. But this did not interfere at all with God's faithfulness to him. Looking back, he sees — and I do not doubt he sees with joy — the failure of all his scheming and policy. One single thought fills Jacob: the grace and faithfulness of the God he deals with. He was never saved from a single danger by his own policy.
- Stripped — Jacob ends with only his staff. That emptiness is what frees him to take the higher place of the one who blesses.
- Shepherded — while walking by sight he could not see God feeding him. The care was constant; he saw it only looking back.
- Reversed — the man who once said everything was against him now names God as his lifelong provider. Discipline bore its peaceful fruit.
- Instructed — standing before God he learns God's mind, and blesses by that instead of by what nature would choose.
- Faithful — Jacob's scheming never once rescued him, and never once stopped God. His last word is about grace, not achievement.
the Angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land!
Jacob is dying, and his eyes are dim. Before he blesses his two grandsons, he names the God he is handing them over to. That title gathers up a whole lifetime of trouble and rescue: the Angel who redeemed him from all evil.
Jacob is not calling on a created being here. The three lines of verses 15 and 16 describe one God, and the first two titles explain the third.
Here is the whole verse: "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys." The angel was the God of his fathers. Are you unaware that the word "angel" covers all those appearances of God on behalf of His ancient people? Do you not know that Stephen says Moses was with the angel in the bush, who said, "I am who I am"? Do you not know that Hosea says Jacob wrestled with the angel and prevailed? Yet Jacob called the place Peniel, because he had seen God face to face.
The title points back to one meeting in particular.
When Jacob speaks of "the Angel, the Redeemer" (literal translation) he speaks of Jehovah who appeared to him, whom he met face to face at Peniel.
For Jacob, "redeemed" meant rescue from every danger along his path. It offers the same confidence to anyone still on the road.
Redemption for Jacob clearly meant his deliverance from all the dangers and troubles of his winding path. Christians too can count on the strong arm of the Lord. He brings them safely through all the ups and downs of the wilderness God has called them to cross.
Part of that "all" once looked to Jacob like nothing but disaster.
His complaint was, "All these things are against me." And so it indeed appeared. He had yet to learn that all these things were part of God's plan for his ultimate good. That is why, at the end of his life, he could speak of "the angel who has redeemed me from all evil" (Genesis 48:16). The fact was that "all these things" were going to "work together for good," and so give us an effective illustration of the truth of Romans 8:28.
The same man who praised the Redeemer had earlier called his years few and hard.
It is true he received the promise, but his experiences were very different from Abraham's. Although at the end of his life he could say, "the angel who has redeemed me from all evil" (Genesis 48:16), he still had to add, "Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life." The variety of his experience is a proof of unfaithfulness.
Yet the closing words answer the very first promise God made to him.
The understanding of faith looks over the past and recognises God's presence in keeping and leading. "The God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil." This is faith's answer to the promise given at the outset of his course: "I will never leave you." Guided now by God, he blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, putting the younger first. Flesh put Esau first; faith put Ephraim.
He does not invent a title for the occasion. He blesses out of a lifetime with God.
As a worshipper in God's presence he learns the mind of God. He no longer acts as nature would dictate, but as God would direct... He speaks of God according to his experience of God. It is the God who shepherded him all the days of his life — the Angel who had redeemed him from all evil — into whose hands he commends the lads. His spiritual vision was never brighter than at the moment when his natural vision had grown dim with age.
The second half of the verse asks for two things: a name and growth.
He has claimed them as his own sons, and his request matches that. He asks that his name would rest on them, and the names of Abraham and Isaac. This stresses the continuity of God's blessing on that family. Also, he says, "let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." This is clearly earthly blessing, having nothing to do with heaven.
- Shepherd. Jacob's first word about God is care that never stopped. This is the God who shepherded him all his life long.
- Redeemer. "All evil" covers every danger on a crooked road. What once looked like everything being against him turned out to work for good.
- Angel. The One who redeemed him is the God of his fathers, met face to face at Peniel. The title confesses God, not a lesser being.
- Blesser. He hands the boys to the God he had proved, and he does it as a worshipper. His eyes were dim, but his sight of God was bright.
- Multitude. He passes on what he received. His name and his fathers' names rest on the boys, and he asks that they grow into a multitude.
When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it was evil in his eyes; and he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
Joseph watches his father's hands cross over the heads of his two boys. He reaches out to move the right hand back onto Manasseh, the elder. The moment raises a question: who decides who comes first — birth order, or God?
Joseph is not fighting God on purpose. He tries to correct his father because he does not see what Jacob sees.
Joseph lets his natural thoughts rule him. He does not see the sovereignty of God, who blesses according to His own purpose. So he objects to Jacob giving first place to the younger son. Jacob, however, will not give way to Joseph's natural wishes. He knows exactly what he is doing. He can say, "I know it, my son, I know it."
Jacob's eyes were too dim to see the boys. Yet here the roles reverse: the old man reads God's mind, and the gifted son misses it.
Joseph explained God's ways to Pharaoh, yet here he could not see as clearly as Jacob. To see the way of grace clearly, a person needs a soul trained by experience as well as a spiritual gift. Joseph stands far above his father Jacob, both in gift and in moral worth. But Jacob had been well sifted, and had learnt from experience his need of grace. A father's fondness, the right of the firstborn, and things like that can fill the mind even where there is real gift, and gift from God.
The crossed arms are not a slip by a half-blind man. One commentator reads them as a pattern that shows up everywhere.
Joseph brings Manasseh and Ephraim for his blessing, but the old patriarch crosses his hands, and reverses their order in the succession. The sign of the cross cuts across natural order and human expectation and turns them around. We meet it here, as we meet it everywhere. "My thoughts are not your thoughts," God says. He says this not because God's thoughts are meant to stand apart from ours or against ours, but because His thoughts are right and ours are wrong. We look at the little swirls of water; He sees the whole stream.
Joseph's protest is the one wrong note in a chapter that is otherwise all gift. One commentator lists what grace hands out here, piece by piece.
All is grace on God's part, and all is faith in the heart of Jacob. For it is the proper business and duty of faith to accept the decisions of grace, and that is just what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no claim of their own by birth, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives the place and portion of the firstborn, the double portion, as though they were Reuben and Simeon. Grace sets the younger of them above the elder... Nature may resent this; but Jacob is true to the word of grace committed to him.
The boys' names explain why the order had to change. One name stands for the goal; the other stands for the road that leads there.
We find the law of spiritual increase in Joseph, and the name of his son "Ephraim" shows it — "fruitfulness." But the road to fruitfulness runs through "Manasseh" — "forgetfulness." It is the same with the apostle Paul, who wrote, "But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead." Manasseh is the firstborn, in fact. But the end is greater than the means, so in the mind of God Ephraim is greater than Manasseh. Nature in us, as in Joseph here, often resists so simple a conclusion.
Years earlier Jacob had worked to get his own dying father's blessing. Now he blesses over a son's objection, and sees what God would have done without his help.
He now learns that those whom God blesses will be blessed. His grace does not need the help of human strength, and His promise needs no human stamp of approval... Suppose Jacob really had needed his own dying father's blessing to secure the inheritance God had for him. He now sees, as he sets Ephraim above Manasseh despite Joseph, that God could and would have brought that about.
- Nature protests. Joseph's hand moves to correct his father's. That is nature speaking: the claim of the firstborn, felt by a good man who could not see what God was doing.
- Grace decides. Every blessing in this chapter goes to someone with no claim by birth. Faith's whole business is to accept what grace decides.
- The cross reverses. The crossed hands are a sign. God's order cuts across what we expect, not because He is against our thoughts, but because His are right.
- Fruit follows forgetting. Manasseh means forgetting; Ephraim means fruitful. The goal outranks the road to it, so the younger son goes first.
- Faith outsees gift. Jacob's eyes were dim, yet the sifted old man read God's mind. He learned at last that God never needed human help to keep a promise.
And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn put thy right hand on his head.
Near the end of his life Jacob adopts Joseph's two sons and blesses them. But he crosses his hands, laying his right hand on the younger boy. Joseph steps in to correct him. His protest raises the question of the whole chapter: does blessing follow the order of nature, or the choice of God?
Joseph reacts to what his eyes can see. His father is acting by faith.
Genesis 48 gives us another example of the seductive power of what we can see. It is a wonderful thing to see faith, the invisible power, winning in Jacob over everything that marked his earlier up-and-down history. We watch him rise above nature and its claims, as he lays his hands on the head of Ephraim, the younger of Joseph's two sons, guiding his hands knowingly. Yet the snare of the visible is just as clear, seen in Joseph's displeasure and dissatisfaction.
Jacob's eyes were dim with age. That did not make him unsure of what he was doing.
Joseph lets his natural thoughts govern him. He does not discern the sovereignty of God, who blesses according to His purpose. So he protests against Jacob giving first place to the younger son. Jacob, however, will not give way to Joseph's natural wishes. He is perfectly aware of the course he is taking. He can say, "I know it, my son, I know it." He is not only acting according to the mind of God. He is doing it with understanding. His spiritual vision was never brighter than at the moment when his natural vision had become dim with age.
Joseph was the man who had read Pharaoh's dreams.
Joseph, the interpreter of God's ways to Pharaoh, could not in this case see as clearly as Jacob. It needs an exercised soul, as well as a spiritual gift, to see clearly the way of grace. Joseph stands far above his father Jacob, both in gift and in moral worth. But Jacob had been well sifted, and had learned by experience his need of grace. A parent's fondness, the right of the firstborn, and things like these can fill the mind, even where there is a real gift from God.
The crossed hands say where all blessing comes from.
Though Joseph may plead for Manasseh, Jacob puts the blessing on Ephraim. This is God's way: to set the younger above the elder. So all blessing may come through the grace of God, and not through the rights, or the claims, or the efforts of nature. At the end, Jacob's whole boast and confidence is in the sovereign grace of God.
Years earlier Jacob had tricked his own blind father into blessing the younger son. Now he is the blind father.
Jacob was clear where Isaac had been dim. He was clearer even than Joseph, to whom God had given deeper insight into divine things than to any other man of God. What deep self-judgment must have passed through Israel's spirit! He was looking back on the blessing he had once stolen by his own scheming. Could the Lord not have crossed Isaac's hands to make good His promise to Jacob? He could have done it to His own glory, and without His servant's shame. How sad not to have trusted Him!
Each boy's name carries a meaning.
Here we may see a picture that has meaning for us. The name Manasseh means Forgetting, which points in a negative direction. Ephraim means Fruitful, which is positive in character. The first man and his race are negative as regards God, the complete denial of all His thoughts. In Christ, the Second Man, is the Yes and Amen to all God's thoughts, and all fruitfulness is found in Him. He is indeed the Man of God's right hand. It is a great day in the spiritual history of each of us when we gladly agree that the Second Man has displaced the first. Then we turn away from self-seeking to find our all in Christ.
Joseph's protest is the reaction most of us have when God's order cuts across our own.
If we are surprised as Joseph was, the reply is, "I know it, my son, I know it." That answer is absolute. We must submit whether we understand how it works or not. At the same time, later events often show us wise reasons for what seemed strange in that action.
- Sight. Jacob's eyes were dim, yet he saw more clearly than Joseph. Faith sees best when sight fails.
- Gift. Joseph had the greater gift. But reading the way of grace takes an exercised soul, not talent.
- Grace. The right hand went to the younger so that blessing would rest on God's grace, not on the rights or efforts of nature.
- Christ. Forgetting gives way to Fruitful. The Second Man displaces the first, and we find all our fruitfulness in Him.
- Submission. When God's order surprises us, the answer stands — "I know it, my son" — and we submit before we understand.
But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know he also will become a people, and he also will be great; but truly his younger brother will be greater than he; and his seed will become the fulness of nations.
Jacob is dying and his eyes are too weak to see, yet he lays his right hand on Joseph's younger son and will not move it when Joseph objects. He promises Manasseh real greatness, then puts the younger brother above him — and the usual rights of the firstborn fall away.
Joseph assumed his father had made a mistake. The threefold repetition — refusing, then affirming, then explaining — shows a man acting with full awareness, at the very moment his physical sight had failed.
He acts no longer as nature would direct, but as God would direct. He crosses his hands "intelligently," placing the right hand on the younger and the left hand on the elder. … Joseph lets his natural thoughts govern him. He does not see the sovereignty of God, who blesses according to His purpose. So he protests against Jacob giving the first place to the younger son. Jacob, however, will not give way to Joseph's natural wishes. He is perfectly aware of the course he is taking. He can say, "I know, my son, I know." He is acting according to the mind of God, and he is doing so with understanding. His spiritual vision was never brighter than at the moment when his natural sight had grown dim with age.
The choice was not Jacob's preference. Everything given in this chapter — the adoption of two Egyptian-born boys, the double portion, the reversal of the order — comes from outside the claims of birth.
It is all grace on God's part, and all faith in the heart of Jacob. The proper business and duty of faith is to accept the decisions of grace. That is just what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no title in the flesh, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives the place and portion of the firstborn, the double portion, as though they were Reuben and Simeon. Grace sets the younger of them above the elder. To all this Jacob bows and is obedient. Nature may resent this; but Jacob is true to the word of grace committed to him.
Ephraim was not the only younger son lifted above an elder. Reuben, the actual firstborn, lost his place too.
But God's ways are the opposite of ours, and all human greatness and pride must be humbled. Ephraim's precedence shows this. He was the younger, yet he was put over the elder, just as Reuben the firstborn lost his place. This emphasised God's sovereignty, which lifts up the lowly and brings down the high.
The names themselves carry the reason. Joseph named his firstborn for what God had taken away from him, and his second for what God had produced in him.
Manasseh means "forgetting" and Ephraim means "fruitful." Joseph was made to forget the natural blessings of his father's house, and then he became fruitful in Egypt. But forgetting is negative and fruitfulness is positive, and the positive must take the first place. Jacob says that Manasseh would become great, but Ephraim would be greater than he. Both are blessed, but Ephraim is set before Manasseh.
The wording here differs from the promise given earlier in the chapter, and that difference matters for how the promise was worked out among the tribes.
It is worth noting the unusual phrase in verse 19: not "a multitude of peoples" but "a fullness of nations." … It is well known that Judah and Benjamin had a place of their own, while all the rest of the tribes fell under Ephraim as Israel.
Commentators differ over how wide "nations" reaches. One reading keeps it inside Israel rather than extending it to foreign peoples:
The multitude of nations shall be to Ephraim, not to Manasseh. I am inclined to believe it is the mass of Israel's tribes, but the whole body of the peoples of Israel was counted to Ephraim.
The reversal did not stop with two boys. It ran through both families, and it was not open to appeal.
- Dim eyes, clear sight — Jacob's eyes had failed, but he had never seen more clearly. He crossed his hands on purpose, not by mistake.
- Grace, not birth — the two boys had no claim by birth. Adoption, the double portion and the reversal all came from grace, and faith's work was to accept it.
- The lowly lifted — the younger goes above the elder, and Reuben the firstborn loses his place. God humbles human pride and shows His sovereignty.
- Fruitful over forgetting — Manasseh's name means forgetting, Ephraim's means fruitful, and fruitfulness takes first place.
- Fullness of nations — the rest of Israel's tribes came under Ephraim's name, so the promise held. The choice was final, and we submit to it even where we cannot explain it.
And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee will Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh! And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Jacob's last blessing on Joseph's sons was not a private wish. It became a public formula. From that day on, Israel would bless its own children by naming these two boys. The verse also settles the drama of the crossed hands: Jacob put the younger boy first.
Jacob's eyesight is failing, but his spiritual sight is not. He holds his course even when his beloved son objects.
He acts no longer as nature would dictate, but as God would direct. He crosses his hands "intelligently," placing the right hand on the younger and the left hand on the elder... Joseph lets his natural thoughts rule him. He does not see the sovereignty of God, who blesses according to His own purpose. So he objects when Jacob gives first place to the younger son. Jacob, however, will not give way to Joseph's natural wishes. He knows exactly what he is doing. He can say, "I know, my son, I know." His spiritual vision was never brighter than at the moment when his natural vision had become dim with age.
Everything here is given, not earned. The boys had no claim by birth. Jacob's part is to agree with what God has decided.
All is grace on God's part, and all is faith in the heart of Jacob. The proper work and duty of faith is to accept the decisions of grace. That is just what grace is doing here. Grace adopts the sons of Joseph, who had no title in the flesh, and takes them into the family of Abraham. Grace gives them the firstborn's place and portion — the double portion — as if they were Reuben and Simeon. Grace sets the younger of them above the elder... Nature may resent this; but Jacob is true to the word of grace committed to him.
The order makes sense once you read the names.
The name Manasseh means Forgetting, which is negative. Ephraim means Fruitful, which is clearly positive. The first man and his race are negative toward God. They are the complete denial of all His thoughts. In Christ, the Second Man, is the Yes and Amen to all God's thoughts, and all fruitfulness is found in Him. He is indeed the Man of God's right hand.
Another writer links the same two names to Paul's words about the past.
We find the law of spiritual increase in him, shown by the name of his son "Ephraim" — "fruitfulness." But the way to fruitfulness runs through "Manasseh" — "forgetfulness." It was the same with the apostle: "forgetting what lies behind ... I press on." Manasseh is in fact the first-born. But the end is greater than the means, so Ephraim is greater than Manasseh in the mind of God. Nature often resists such a simple conclusion in us, as it did in Joseph here.
Jacob had once obtained a father's blessing by trickery, taking advantage of a blind old man. Now he is the blind father himself, and this time there is no trick.
Jacob saw clearly, where Isaac had been dim. Jacob saw more clearly than Joseph, who until then had been given sharper insight into divine things than other men of God. What deep self-judgment must have gone through Israel's spirit, as he looked back on the blessing he had once stolen by his own trickery! Could the Lord not have crossed Isaac's hands Himself, to His own glory and without shaming His servant, and so kept His word of promise to Jacob? How sad that Jacob did not trust Him!
The words spoken over these grandsons had a national outcome.
The wealth that went with the birthright went to Joseph, the first son of Rachel, the loved wife. The first-born had a right to a double portion of the inheritance. Or rather, that wealth went to Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's sons. Jacob had already blessed them and more or less adopted them as his own sons. So Ephraim and Manasseh gained a place of their own among the tribes of Israel.
- Faith sees. Jacob's eyes were dim, but he crossed his hands on purpose. His spiritual sight was sharpest when his eyesight was gone.
- Grace chooses. The boys had no natural claim. Their adoption, their double portion, and the younger set above the elder are all decisions of grace.
- Faith agrees. Joseph pushed back out of natural affection. Jacob's answer, "I know, my son, I know," is faith accepting what grace has decided.
- The names teach. Manasseh means "forgetting," Ephraim means "fruitful." Forgetting is the means, fruitfulness is the end — and God puts the end first.
- Israel repeats it. One old man's words over two grandsons became the nation's own form of blessing. They also gave Ephraim and Manasseh a tribal place of their own.