1After these words he said to Joseph, "Behold, your father is weak." So he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim.2He told Jacob, saying, "Behold, your son Joseph is coming to you." Israel strengthened himself and sat on the bed.3Jacob said to Joseph, "God the Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me."4He said to me, "Look, I am making you fruitful; I will multiply you and give you to become an assembly of peoples, and I will give this land to your offspring after you as an everlasting possession."5Now 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 just as Reuben and Simeon are.6Your offspring whom you beget after them shall belong to you; they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance.7When I came from Paddan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the road, while there was still some distance of land to Ephrathah, and I buried her there on the road to Ephrathah, that is, Bethlehem.8Israel saw Joseph's sons and said, "Who are these?"9Joseph said to his father, "These are my sons whom God has given me here." He said, "Please bring them to me so that I may bless them."10Israel's eyes were heavy from old age, so that he could not see. Joseph brought the boys near to him, and Israel kissed them and embraced them.11Israel said to Joseph, "I had not expected to see your face, yet God has also let me see your offspring."12Joseph removed them from beside his knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.13Joseph took both of them: Ephraim in his right hand from Israel's left, and Manasseh in his left hand from Israel's right, and brought them near to him.14Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head (though he was the younger) and his left hand on Manasseh's head, crossing his hands, because Manasseh was the firstborn.15He blessed Joseph and said, "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has shepherded me all my life until this day."16May the angel who has redeemed me from all evil bless the boys, and may my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac be called upon them, and may they multiply greatly in the midst of the land.17When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him; he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.18Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; place your right hand on his head."19But 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 the fullness of the nations."20So he blessed them that day, saying, "By you Israel shall bless, saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.'" Thus he placed Ephraim before Manasseh.21Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers."22I myself have given you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.