But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude 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.
Jacob knew exactly what he was doing
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.
Hamilton SmithHe 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.
Grace decides; faith simply accepts
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.
J. G. BellettIt 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.
Why the younger, again and again
Ephraim was not the only younger son lifted above an elder. Reuben, the actual firstborn, lost his place too.
Samuel RidoutBut 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.
Forgetting must give way to fruitfulness
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.
L. M. GrantManasseh 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.
What "a multitude of nations" actually promises
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.
William KellyIt 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:
J. N. DarbyThe 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.
Crossed hands, and a choice that is final
The reversal did not stop with two boys. It ran through both families, and it was not open to appeal.
Summary
- 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.