Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 48:1 - 48:7

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 48:1 - 48:7


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Jacob Adopts the Sons of Joseph

v. 1. And it came to pass after these things that one told Joseph,
the news was brought him by a special messenger, Behold, thy father is sick. This was not long after Jacob had made arrangements for the transfer of his body to Canaan for burial. And he (Joseph) took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who were now about twenty years old; Manasseh may have been about twenty-four and Ephraim a few years younger.

v. 2. And one told Jacob and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee,
also an announcement by a special messenger. And Israel strengthened himself, with the help of God he summoned all his remaining strength, and sat upon the bed; for he, as patriarch and bearer of the Messianic promise, had a final duty to perform.

v. 3. And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan,
at Bethel, where he received two special revelations, Gen_28:13-19; Gen_35:6-9, and blessed me,

v. 4. and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee; and I will make of thee a multitude of people, and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
Thus both the patriarchal and the Messianic blessing had been given to Jacob, to be fulfilled in his descendants.

v. 5. And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine.
It is significant that in this formal statement of adoption the name of Ephraim is set before that of Manasseh, the birthright thus being changed. The divine blessing of promise, of which Jacob was the bearer, empowered him to adopt these two grandsons and to give them equal rights with his oldest sons, designate their descendants as two fully recognized tribes among the children of Israel.

v. 6. And thy issue which thou begettest after them shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance;
they should not form a third tribe, but should be included in those of Ephraim and Manasseh, though their names were entered in the genealogical tables, Num_26:28-37; 1Ch_7:14-19, Through this adoption of his oldest sons on the part of Jacob, Joseph was given the right of the firstborn in his inheritance, 1Ch_5:2. By this disposition of the inheritance Jacob incidentally honored Rachel.

v. 7. And as for me, when I came from Padan,
that is, Mesopotamia, Rachel died by me, she died by his side, sharing with him the toil and the hardships of the pilgrim life, in the land of Canaan in the way, while they were on the journey, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath; and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem, as the author adds by way of explanation. There was some compensation to Jacob in the fact that at least three tribes among the children of Israel would trace their ancestry to Rachel, his beloved wife. Thus her remembrance was kept sacred in Israel.