Genesis 41:50-52
Two names, two sentences
Born before the famine. One name says God made me forget, the other says God made me fruitful, and both are said in a foreign country.
People of the Bible
Ephraim and Manasseh
Born in Egypt to an Egyptian mother, and counted as sons of Israel by a blind old man’s crossed hands.
Joseph’s two sons are born in Egypt during the seven good years, to Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. Their names are their father’s commentary on his own life: Manasseh, because God made him forget his hardship, and Ephraim, because God made him fruitful in the land of his affliction. Years later Jacob, nearly blind, adopts them outright as his own, putting them on the same footing as Reuben and Simeon. Then he crosses his arms so that the younger receives the greater blessing, and refuses to be corrected when Joseph tries to move his hands.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Ephraim and Manasseh
- 01
- 02
Genesis 48:1-7
They are mine
Jacob claims them as his own, as Reuben and Simeon are, and speaks in the same breath about Rachel dying on the road to Ephrath.
- 03
Genesis 48:8-16
Who are these
He cannot see them, asks who they are, kisses them, and says he never expected to see Joseph’s face again, let alone his children.
- 04
Genesis 48:17-22
The crossed hands
Joseph takes his father’s right hand to move it to Manasseh and is told no. The younger will be greater, and the older will still be a people.
Why it matters
These two are how Israel becomes twelve tribes with Levi set apart for the priesthood, because Joseph’s portion is counted twice. They are also the last time Genesis does the thing it has done since Cain and Abel: it puts the younger ahead of the older, on purpose, in front of a witness who objects. Ephraim becomes so dominant in the north that the prophets use his name for the whole northern kingdom.
1 song
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
