7. I do this because, when I was returning from Paddan, your mother Rachel died, to my sorrow, during the journey in Canaan, while we were still a short distance from Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath [now Bethlehem].”
8. When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?”
9. “They are my sons,” Joseph answered his father, “whom God has given me here.” “Bring them to me,” said his father, “that I may bless them.”
10. Now Israel’s eyes were dim from age; he could not see well. When Joseph brought his sons close to him, he kissed and embraced them.
11. Then Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your descendants as well!”
12. Joseph removed them from his father’s knees and bowed down before him with his face to the ground.
13. Then Joseph took the two, Ephraim with his right hand, to Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand, to Israel’s right, and brought them up to him.
14. But Israel, crossing his hands, put out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, although he was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, although he was the firstborn.
15. Then he blessed them with these words:“May the God in whose presencemy fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,The God who has been my shepherdfrom my birth to this day,
16. The angel who has delivered me from all harm,bless these boysThat in them my name be recalled,and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac,And they may become teeming multitudesupon the earth!”
17. When Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, this seemed wrong to him; so he took hold of his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s,
18. saying, “That is not right, father; the other one is the firstborn; lay your right hand on his head!”