Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine; Efrayim and Menasheh, even as Re'uven and Shim`on, will be mine.
But now thus says the LORD who created you, Ya`akov, and he who formed you, Yisra'el: *Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.
Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you became mine.
Thus says the Lord GOD: This shall be the border, by which you shall divide the land for inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Yisra'el: Yosef [shall have two] portions.
They shall be mine,* says the LORD of Armies, *my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
For the children of Yosef were two tribes, Menasheh and Efrayim: and they gave no portion to the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in, with the suburbs of it for their livestock and for their substance.