Ezekiel 47:13

Jacob had 12 sons. The families of those sons became the 12 *tribes of *Israel. So, each *tribe receives a share of the land that God promised to their nation (Genesis 15:18-21).

The *Levites would not receive a share of the land like the other *tribes. Instead they would live in a special place near the *temple. But there would still be 12 equal parts of the land. So the *descendants of Joseph became two separate *tribes to make up the number 12. It was always Jacob’s intention that Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, should be separate *tribes (Genesis 48:5).

There was an ancient custom about the rights of a father’s first son. When the father died, that son would receive a double share of his father’s possessions (Deuteronomy 21:17). So the *tribe of Joseph receives that double share here. (Joseph was not actually Jacob’s first son. 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 explains the reason why he received the double share.)