And saidunto me, Behold, I willmaketheefruitful, and multiplythee, and I willmake of thee a multitude of people; and willgivethisland to thy seedafterthee for an everlastingpossession.
And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, whichwerebornuntothee in the land of Egyptbefore I cameuntotheeintoEgypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, theyshall be mine.
And as for me, when I camefromPadan, Racheldied by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to comeuntoEphrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem.
And Josephtookthemboth, Ephraim in his righthandtowardIsrael’slefthand, and Manasseh in his lefthandtowardIsrael’srighthand, and broughtthemnearunto him.
And Israelstretched out his righthand, and laid it uponEphraim’shead, who was the younger, and his lefthanduponManasseh’shead, guiding his handswittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
The Angelwhichredeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathersAbraham and Isaac; and let themgrowinto a multitude in the midst of the earth.
And whenJoseph saw that his fatherlaid his righthandupon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’shand, to remove it fromEphraim’sheaduntoManasseh’shead.
And his fatherrefused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he alsoshallbecome a people, and he alsoshall be great: but truly his youngerbrothershall be greaterthan he, and his seedshallbecome a multitude of nations.