Genesis 48-49
Modern English Version
Jacob Blesses Joseph’s Sons
48 After these things, Joseph was told, “Your father is sick.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. 2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph is coming to you,” Israel strengthened himself and sat up in the bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. 4 And He said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make you into a multitude of people and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.’
5 “Now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. 6 Any children you have after them will be yours and will be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance. 7 As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to get to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”
8 Then Israel saw Joseph’s sons and said, “Whose are these?”
9 And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place.”
And he said, “Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.”
10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never thought I would see your face, but here God has also shown me your children.”
12 So Joseph took them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the ground. 13 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 him. 14 Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 He blessed Joseph and said,
“God, before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who fed me
all my life long to this day,
16 the angel who redeemed me from all evil,
bless the boys;
let them be called by my name,
and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude
in the midst of the earth.”
17 When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”
19 His father refused and said, “I know it, my son, I know it. He will also become a people, and he will also be great, but truly his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.” 20 He blessed them that day, saying,
“By you Israel will bless, saying,
‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’ ”
So he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
21 Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and return you again to the land of your fathers. 22 Moreover, I have given to you one portion more than your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”
Jacob Blesses His Sons(A)
49 Jacob called to his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, so that I may tell you what will befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together and hear, sons of Jacob,
and listen to your father Israel.
3 Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might and the beginning of my strength,
the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.
4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
because you went up to your father’s bed;
then you defiled it—he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons of violence are their swords.
6 Let my soul not enter into their council;
let my glory not be united with their assembly;
for in their anger they killed men
and in their self-will they hamstrung oxen.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons will bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches and lies down like a lion;
and as a lion, who dares rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
until Shiloh comes;
and to him will be the obedience of the people.
11 He tethers his foal to the vine,
and his colt to the choicest vine;
he washes his garments in wine,
his clothes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea;
and he shall be a haven of ships.
His border shall be at Sidon.
14 Issachar is a strong donkey,
lying down between two burdens;
15 he saw that a resting place was good,
and that the land was pleasant;
so he bowed his shoulder to bear the burden
and became a slave to forced labor.
16 Dan shall judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the road,
a viper on the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
so that its rider will fall backward.
18 I wait for Your salvation, O Lord!
19 Gad shall be attacked by raiding bands,
but he shall raid at their heels.
20 Asher’s food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal delicacies.
21 Naphtali is a doe set loose;
he gives beautiful words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough,
a fruitful bough by a spring,
whose branches run over the wall.
23 The archers bitterly attacked him,
they shot at him and hated him.
24 But his bow remained firm.
His arms were agile
because of the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
25 because of the God of your father who will help you,
and by the Almighty who will bless you
with blessings from heaven above,
blessings from the deep that lies beneath,
the blessings of the breasts and the womb.
26 The blessings of your father have surpassed
the blessings of my fathers,
up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They will be on the head of Joseph,
and on the crown of the head of him who was set apart from his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
in the morning he devours the prey,
and at night he divides the spoil.”
28 These are all the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He blessed them, each with the blessing appropriate to him.
The Death of Jacob
29 Then he charged them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place. 31 They buried Abraham and Sarah his wife there. They buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife there, and I buried Leah there. 32 The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the children of Heth.”
33 When Jacob finished instructing his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.