News reached Joseph that his father was ill. At once he came with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. When Jacob was told that Joseph had arrived, the old man gathered his strength and sat upright on his bed.
He said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in Canaan and blessed me, saying, 'I will make you fruitful, and a company of nations shall come from you. This land I will give as an everlasting inheritance to your descendants.' Now, your two sons born to you in Egypt before my coming—Ephraim and Manasseh—shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Any children born to you afterward will belong to you, but these two shall stand in the inheritance as my sons. As for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died in Canaan along the way, not far from Ephrath, and I buried her there on the road to Bethlehem."
When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he asked, "Who are these?"
Joseph answered, "They are the sons God has given me in this land." Israel said, "Bring them near to me, that I may bless them."
Israel's eyesight was dim with age, and he could barely see. Joseph brought the boys close, and Israel embraced and kissed them. He said to Joseph, "I never thought I would see your face again, and behold, God has let me see your children too."
Joseph bowed with his face to the ground, then positioned his sons: Ephraim at Israel's left hand, Manasseh at his right, for Manasseh was the firstborn. But Israel stretched out his hands and crossed them—his right hand upon Ephraim the younger, and his left upon Manasseh the elder.
He blessed Joseph and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life until this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all evil—may He bless these boys. May they bear my name and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude upon the earth."
When Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim, it displeased him. He grasped his father's hand to move it to Manasseh's head. "Not so, my father," Joseph said. "This is the firstborn. Place your right hand on his head."
But Israel refused. He said, "I know, my son, I know. Manasseh too will become a people, and he will be great. Yet his younger brother will be greater, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations."
On that day he blessed them, saying, "By you shall Israel bless, saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.'" Thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Then Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am about to die. But God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers. And to you I give one ridge of land, taken from the Amorites with my sword and my bow, more than to your brothers."