Click here to read Genesis 48
Jacob is dying.
He tells Joseph and his sons of God's promise that the Israelites will live in Canaan.
Everlasting - in perpetuity.
Joseph's two sons are "adopted" by Jacob. Each will be a tribe.
Jacob tells Joseph and his sons about burying Rachel near Bethlehem.
Israel (Jacob) could hardly see, just like his father before him when he received the blessing.
Placing a child on the knee is a symbol of adoption. This is the intent of the verse, which we can see from Jacob's words and Joseph's reaction.
Adoption by a patriarch was a high honour, like when my friend was adopted by an African tribal chief.
Joseph crossed his arms over the children, blessing them in reverse order as he had been blessed before his brother. He insists to Joseph that the younger will be a greater nation.
Today, Jewish people lay hands on their children's heads on Friday night, the beginning of Passover, and pray a blessing for them in the names of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Since the birthright passed through Joseph, praying a blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh on children probably invokes the best of the blessing of the covenant of Abraham.
Ephraim and Manasseh were probably raised in the house of Egypt, as Moses was. But they did not remain as Egyptians. They returned to their people. Raised as princes, they returned to the despised Hebrew shepherds.
This path may remind Israel of Moses' path from Egyptian Prince to regular Israelite and then shepherd.
By making Ephraim and Manasseh his own, and replacements for his firstborn Simeon and Rueben, Jacob makes another legal justification for passing the birthright on to Joseph. He is the firstborn of Rachel his first wife (arguable), but he is also the father of his firstborn by birth order.
By invoking the early death of Rachel, Jacob explains why he believes these sons to be legitimately his. Rachel died before her time, before she could bear all the sons she may have been able. Therefore, these sons are the sons of Rachel to Jacob.
Jacob mentions the land inheritance, because this will be the beginning of the land of the tribes of Israel. Though the land of Shechem was taken in an illegitimate way of which Jacob did not approve, it has nonetheless been taken. Jacob redeems it by saying HE took it, since it was taken in his name. By replacing Simeon with Manasseh, he wipes the vengeance from the history, and creates a new legal history by which it will pass to his sons, though never to Simeon or Levi.
Simeon and Rueben lose their names among the tribes of Israel, and are replaced by Ephraim and Manasseh.
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