GENESIS 48
After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2 And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. 3 And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, 4 and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’ 5 And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. 6 And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. 7 As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” 9 Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.” – Genesis 48:1-9
GENESIS 48 JACOB ADOPTS EPHRAIM & MANASSEH
A poem by ILMA inspired by these verses
It was seventeen years when Jacob moved to Egypt to see Joseph
This was almost the same number of years when he was sold at Egpyt
Jacob told Joseph of his meeting with the Lord Almighty at Luz in Canaan
God reiterated his plan to make them fruitful and to make them multiply
Jacob claimed Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh as his own sons
Just like Reuben and Simeon were, then Joseph can have his own after these two.
At this point of Joseph’s story, we are getting ready for the death of Jacob. After hearing of his father’s illness, Joseph brought his two sons with him to see their grandfather. God has allowed Joseph and Jacob to reunite in those seventeen years that Joseph moved Jacob to Goshen in Egypt so he could see his father whenever he could.
REFLECTION
- Why did Jacob adopt Joseph’s sons before he died?
