Genesis 48:5

_AND NOW THY TWO SONS, EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH, WHICH WERE BORN UNTO THEE IN THE LAND OF EGYPT BEFORE I CAME UNTO THEE INTO EGYPT, ARE MINE; AS REUBEN AND SIMEON, THEY SHALL BE MINE._ Thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. It was the intention of the aged patriarch to adopt Joseph's oldest sons as his own, thus giving him a double portion. The reasons of this procedure are stated (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). ARE MINE. Though their connections might have attached them to Egypt, and opened to them brilliant prospects in the land of their nativity, they willingly accepted the adoption (Hebrews 11:25)....

5._And now thy two sons_. Jacob confers on his son the special privilege, that he, being one, should constitute two chiefs; that is, that his two sons should succeed to an equal right with their uncles, as if they had been heirs in the first degree. But what is this! that a decrepit old man assigns to his grandchildren, as a royal patrimony, a sixth part of the land in which he had entered as a stranger, and from which now again he is an exile! Who would not have said that he was dealing in fables? It is a common proverb, that no one can give what he has not. What, therefore, did it profit Joseph to be constituted, by an imaginary title, lord of that land, in which the donor of it was scarcely permitted to drink the very water he had dug for with great labour, and from which, at length, famine expelled him? But it hence appears with what firm faith the holy fathers relied upon the word o...

1-7 The death-beds of believers, with the prayers and counsels of dying persons, are suited to make serious impressions upon the young, the gay, and the prosperous: we shall do well to take children on such occasions, when it can be done properly. If the Lord please, it is very desirable to bear our dying testimony to his truth, to his faithfulness, and the pleasantness of his ways. And one would wish so to live, as to give energy and weight to our dying exhortations. All true believers are blessed at their death, but all do not depart equally full of spiritual consolations. Jacob adopted Joseph's two sons. Let them not succeed their father, in his power and grandeur in Egypt; but let them succeed in the inheritance of the promise made to Abraham. Thus the aged dying patriarch teaches these young persons to take their lot with the people of God. He appoints each of them to be the head o...

Verse Genesis 48:5. _AND NOW THY TWO SONS, EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH _- ARE _MINE_] I now adopt them into my own family, and they shall have their place among my twelve sons, and be treated in every respect as those, and have an equal interest in all the spiritual and temporal blessings of the covenant....

- Joseph Visits His Sick Father The right of primogeniture has been forfeited by Reuben. The double portion in the inheritance is now transferred to Joseph. He is the first-born of her who was intended by Jacob to be his first and only wife. He has also been the means of saving all his father’s house, even after he had been sold into slavery by his brethren. He has therefore, undeniable claims to this part of the first-born’s rights. Genesis 48:1 AFTER THESE THINGS. - After the arrangements concerning the funeral, recorded in the chapter. “Menasseh and Ephraim.” They seem to have accompanied their father from respectful affection to their aged relative. “Israel strengthened himself” - summoned his remaining powers for the interview, which was now to him an effort. “God Almighty app

EXPOSITION GENESIS 48:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS AFTER THESE THINGS (_i.e._ the events recorded in the preceding chapter, and in particular after the arrangements which had been made for Jacob's funeral), THAT ONE TOLD JOSEPH,—the verb וַיֹּאמֶר is here used impersonally, or passively, for "_one _told," or "it was told," to Joseph (LXX; ἀπεγγέλη; Vulgate, _munciatum est_;_ _Rosenmüller, Keil, Kalisch, Murphy, _et alii_);_ _or probably emphatically, by way of calling attention to the circumstance—denoting perhaps a special messenger (Tayler Lewis). BEHOLD, THY FATHER IS SICK. The word in the original conveys the idea of being worn down or becoming infirm through age or disease, and may suggest the notion that Jacob was now regarded as rapidly approach

AND NOW THY TWO SONS, EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH,.... Ephraim was the youngest, but is mentioned first, as he afterwards was preferred in the blessing of him: WHICH WERE BORN UNTO THEE IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, BEFORE I CAME UNTO THEE INTO EGYPT; and therefore must be twenty years of age, or upwards: for Jacob had been in Egypt seventeen years, and he came there when there had been two years of famine, and Joseph's sons were born to him before the years of famine began, Genesis 41:50; of these Jacob says, they [ARE] MINE: AS REUBEN AND SIMEON, THEY SHALL BE MINE; that is, by adoption; should be reckoned not as his grandchildren, but as his children, even as his two eldest sons, Reuben and Simeon; and so should be distinct tribes or heads of them, as his sons would be, and have a distinct part and portion in the land of Canaan; and thus the birthright was transf

CHAPTER 48 JACOB ADOPTS EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH _ 1. The sons of Joseph brought to Jacob (Gen. 48-12)_ 2. The words of Jacob (Genesis 48:3) 3. Ephraim and Manasseh presented (Genesis 48:8) 4. Jacob's blessing (Genesis 48:13) 5. Joseph's interference (Genesis 48:17) 6. Jacob's last words to Joseph (Genesis 48:21) The adoption of Joseph's sons is interesting and instructive. As the offspring of the Gentile wife Asenath they were in danger of becoming gentilized and thus forget their father's hou

GENESIS 47:27 TO GENESIS 48:22. JACOB EXTRACTS AN OATH THAT JOSEPH WILL BURY HIM IN CANAAN, AND BLESSES EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH. Genesis 47:22 f., Genesis 48:3 belong to P. To J Genesis 47:29 may be assigned. Genesis 48:1 f., Genesis 48:8 was formerly attributed to E, recent critics assign it to JE. The analysis is somewhat as follows: E,...

AND NOW THY TWO SONS— The LXX have it, _Now therefore thy two sons_ (thus expressing Jacob's faith in the Divine promises) _are mine, as Simeon and Reuben;_ that is, shall be reputed my _immediate_ sons, as if they were my natural offspring. I adopt them as my own sons, and they shall succeed to my inheritance in that quality; becoming, after my death, the heads of two different tribes, just in the same manner as Simeon and Reuben, my immediate issue, who are mentioned, as being the eldest: a double portion is thus bestowed upon Joseph, which was the privilege of the first-born, by putting his two sons upon a footing with Jacob's own children, 1 Chronicles 5:1. Whatever sons Joseph should have afterwards, 1 Chronicles 5:6 were not to be ranked in this quality, but to be considered