Genesis 48 - Hebrew Names version (HNV)

¹ It happened after these things, that someone said to Yosef, *Behold, your father is sick.* He took with him his two sons, Menasheh and Efrayim.

² Someone told Ya`akov, and said, *Behold, your son Yosef comes to you,* and Yisra'el strengthened himself, and sat on the bed.

³ Ya`akov said to Yosef, *El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Kena`an, and blessed me,

⁴ and said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.'

⁵ 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.

⁶ Your issue, who you become the father of after them, will be yours. They will be called after the name of their brothers in their inheritance.

⁷ As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Kena`an in the way, when there was still some distance to come to Efrat, and I buried her there in the way to Efrat (the same is Beit-Lechem).*

⁸ Yisra'el saw Yosef's sons, and said, *Who are these?*

⁹ Yosef said to his father, *They are my sons, whom God has given me here.* He said, *Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.*

¹⁰ Now the eyes of Yisra'el were dim for age, so that he couldn't see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.

¹¹ Yisra'el said to Yosef, *I didn't think I would see your face, and behold, God has let me see your seed also.*

¹² Yosef brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

¹³ Yosef took them both, Efrayim in his right hand toward Yisra'el's left hand, and Menasheh in his left hand toward Yisra'el's right hand, and brought them near to him.

¹⁴ Yisra'el stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Efrayim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Menasheh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Menasheh was the firstborn.

¹⁵ He blessed Yosef, and said, *The God before whom my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak did walk, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,

¹⁶ the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.*

¹⁷ When Yosef saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Efrayim, it displeased him. He held up his father's hand, to remove it from Efrayim's head to Menasheh's head.

¹⁸ Yosef said to his father, *Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.*

¹⁹ His father refused, and said, *I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations.*

²⁰ He blessed them that day, saying, *In you will Yisra'el bless, saying, 'God make you as Efrayim and as Menasheh'* He set Efrayim before Menasheh.

²¹ Yisra'el said to Yosef, *Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.

²² Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amori with my sword and with my bow.*