CHAPTER 48

48:1 And it came to pass after these things, that it was reported to Joseph, Behold, thy father is ill; and, having taken his two sons, Manasse and Ephraim, he came to Jacob. 2 And it was reported to Jacob, saying, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh to thee; and Israel having strengthened himself, sat upon the bed. 3 And Jacob said to Joseph, My God appeared to me in Luza, in the land of Chanaan, and blessed me, 4 and said to me, Behold, I will increase thee, and multiply thee, and will make of thee multitudes of nations; and I will give this land to thee, and to thy seed after thee, for an everlasting possession. 5 Now then thy two sons, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt, before I came to thee into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasse, as Ruben and Symeon they shall be mine. 6 And the children which thou shalt beget hereafter, shall be in the name of their brethren; they shall be named after their inheritances. 7 And as for me, when I came out of Mesopotamia of Syria, Rachel, thy mother, died in the land of Chanaan, as I drew night to the horse-course of Chabratha of the land of Chanaan, so as to come to Ephratha; and I buried her in the road of the course; this is Bethlehem.8 And when Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he said, Who are these to thee? 9 And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God gave me here; and Jacob said, Bring me them, that I may bless them. 10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim through age, and he could not see; and he brought them near to him, and he kissed them, and embraced them. 11 And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I have not been deprived of seeing thy face, and lo! God has showed me thy seed also. 12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and they did reverence to him, with their face to the ground. 13 And Joseph took his two sons, both Ephraim in his right hand, but on the left of Israel, and Manasse on his left hand, but on the right of Israel, and brought them near to him. 14 But Israel having stretched out his right hand, laid it on the head of Ephraim, and he was the younger; and his left hand on the head of Manasse, guiding his hands crosswise. 15 And he blessed them and said, The God in whose sight my fathers were well pleasing, even Abraam and Isaac, the God who continues to feed me from my youth until this day; 16 the angel who delivers me from all evils, bless these boys, and my name shall be called upon them, and the name of my fathers, Abraam and Isaac; and let them be increased to a great multitude on the earth. 17 And Joseph having seen that his father put his right hand on the head of Ephraim—it seemed grievous to him; and Joseph took hold of the hand of his father, to remove it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasse. 18 And Joseph said to his father, Not so, father; for this is the first-born; lay thy right-hand upon his head. 19 And he would not, but said, I know it, son, I know it; he also shall be a people, and he shall be exalted, but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. 20 And he blessed them in that day, saying, In you shall Israel be blessed, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Manasse; and he set Ephraim before Manasse. 21 And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I die; and God shall be with you, and restore you to the land of your fathers. 22 And I give to thee Sicima, a select portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorites with my sword and bow.

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. (Gen. 48:4). IN WHAT SENSE DOES GOD PROMISE JACOB THAT HE WILL BE THE LEADER OF A MULTITUDE OF NATIONS. — When Jacob remembers the promises that God made to him, here also it says that it was said to him: I will make you an assembly of towns. With these words the vocation of the believers is more indicated than the carnal propagation of the race. [Question 163]

(Gen. 48:5-6). ON MANASSES AND EPHREM, SON OF JACOB. — The Scripture states that Jacob said about Ephraim and Manasseh the following: Now the two of you who were born in the land of Egypt before I came to Egypt to meet with you are mine: Ephraim and Manasseh. Just as Reuben and Simeon will be mine-if you will bear children after them, they will be yours; with the name of the other brothers they will be called in the lot of them. This text sometimes misleads some who think that something is said in him as if Joseph had other children and Jacob had sent to call them with the names of these. But it's not like that. The order of the words is this: Now the two sons of thine, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt, before I came to Egypt to meet with thee, are mine: Ephraim and Manasseh. The same as Reuben and Simeon will be mine. With the name of the other brothers they will be called in their lot; that is, they will receive the inheritance together with their brothers, so that they will be called at the same time the children of Israel. These are the two tribes which, joined to the others, and leaving the priestly tribe of Levi alone, form the twelve who were to share the promised land and provide the tithe. What is said of the other children that Joseph is thus as an addition. [Question 164]

(Gen. 48:7). WHY DID JACOB TELL JOSEPH ABOUT THE PLACE WHERE HE BURIED RACHEL'S MOTHER? — Jacob wanted to point out to his son Joseph, as if he did not know, where and when he buried his mother, also with his brothers. But if Joseph was so small, he could not even worry about it or remember it, what reason is there for him to tell him now? The motive may be to remember that Joseph's mother was buried where Christ was to be born. [Question 165]

(Gen. 48:14-18). JACOB BLESSES THE YOUNGEST SON OF JOSEPH, PREFERABLY THE ELDEST. — Israel blesses his grandchildren, putting his right hand over the child and the left over the eldest. And when Joseph wants to call his attention as if he had been wrong and did not realize it, he responds: "I know, son; I know. He too will become a people and he too will be great; but his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will be a crowd of people.” This must be applied to Christ, since it was also said of Jacob and his brother that the elder will serve the younger. According to this, Israel meant something prophetically, causing the people who would later come, through Christ, to the spiritual generation, would overcome the previous people, who gloried in the carnal generation of the ancestors. [Question 166]

(Gen. 48:22). ON JACOB'S GIFT TO JOSEPH OF THE LAND OF SHECHEM. — When Jacob tells his son Joseph that he gives him Shechem apart, and adds that he took it with his sword and his bow, one has the right to ask how this can be true to the letter. For he bought this land at the price of one hundred lambs (Gen. 33:19), he did not conquer it by right of victory in a war. Is it perhaps that his sons conquered Salem, the city of the Shechemites (Gen. 34:25), and by law of war became his, so that the war which they did against those who had previously committed such a great injury in the rape of his daughter (Cf. Gen. 34:25-29)? Why did he not give his eldest sons that land, since they had done that? If now, rejoicing in that victory, he gives that land to his son Joseph, why then did the sons who did this act displease him? Why, finally, even now, when he blesses them, he mentions this fact, throwing their conduct against them? It is clear, therefore, that some prophetic mystery is hidden here, for even Joseph prefigured Christ with a principal meaning and was from that land where Jacob had destroyed and annihilated the foreign gods so that it would be understood that Christ would possess the Gentiles, who would renounce the gods of their fathers and believe in him. [Question 167]

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM OF CONSTANTINOPLE. He took his two sons, and came to Jacob. At this news, Israel regained its strength and sat down on its couch. (48:1-2) See how much paternal love strengthened this old man, how much the joy of his soul triumphed over the weakness of his limbs. Having learned of his son's arrival, he sat down on his bed. As soon as he sees him, he shows him all the affection he has for him, and as he was about to die, he gives courage to his children by giving them his blessing, thus leaving them the greatest fortunes and wealth that could never be exhausted. See what his first words are. First of all, he describes the benevolence of the daughter God always had for him, then he gives his blessing to his sons, and says to them: My God appeared to me at Luza, in the land of Chanaan, he blessed me and said: I will make you grow and multiply, I will make you an assembly of peoples, and I will give you this land of yours, and then your seed who will possess it forever. (Ibid. 3-4) God, he said, promised me, when it appeared to me at Luza, that my race would multiply to such an extent that nations would come out of it; he has promised to give me this earth to me and to my posterity. Now these two sons who were born to you in Egypt are also mine: Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, like Ruben and Simeon. (Ibid. 5) Those, he says, which you had before my arrival, I count them among my children; and they will also receive my blessing as those born of me. As for those whom you will beget in the future, they will be yours, and they will bear the name of their brothers in their inheritance. But know that Rachel, your mother, died when I approached Bethlehem, and that I buried it on the road to the racecourse. When he saw the sons of Joseph, he said to him, Who are these? These, he replied, are the children God has given me. Jacob said to him, Bring them to me, that I may bless them. He brought them near his father. And he kissed them, and kissed them. (Ibid. 6-10) See how this old man hastens and hastens to bless the sons of Joseph: He brought them near his father. And he kissed them and kissed them, and said to Joseph, Thus I was not stripped of your sight, and God also showed me your seed. (Ibid. 11) God, he says, in his kindness has granted me great favors, even greater than I expected, and even that I would never have hoped for. For not only have I not been deprived of your sight, but even I have been able to contemplate those who are born of you. Joseph removed them from his father's knees, and they prostrated themselves on the ground. (Ibid. 12) See how, from the first, he teaches his children to pay this old man the honors due to him. Then Joseph brought them near by the order of the birth, Manasseh first, then Ephraim.

Consider that righteous man whose eyes are now weakened by age (for his eyes were so heavy because of his old age that he could not see), but in whom the eyes of the mind have acquired a new strength, and which already foresees the future by the eyes of faith. For he did not observe the order in which Joseph had presented his sons to him, but he changed hands blessing them, and gave the pre-eminence a younger air, preferring Ephraim to Manasseh. And he said, God to whom my fathers have pleased. (Ibid. 15) See the humility of this patriarch, see what love he has for his God. He did not dare to say, God, to whom I have pleased. What's he saying? God to whom my fathers have pleased. Have you understood how grateful his heart is? And yet, a few moments before, in recounting his vision, he said: God appeared to me at Luva, and he promised to give me all this land to me and to my race, and to to make my race an assembly of peoples. Although he has such evident proofs of God's benevolence towards him, he nevertheless preserves a humble heart, and says: God, before whose face my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, have found favor. Then he goes on: God who has been feeding me since my childhood. Consider here again the greatness of his gratitude. He does not speak of his personal merit, but he recounts the benefits he has received from God, and he says: God who has nourished me from my childhood to this day. For it is he who has directed my affairs from the beginning to the present day. This is how (just recently he said: I crossed the Jordan with my staff, and now I return with these two bands (Gen. 32:10) He says the same thing in other words: He who nourished me from my childhood to this day, the angel who delivered me from all evils. These are the words of a grateful soul, of a soul who loves God and who keeps in his memory the remembrance of divine favors. He, whom he says, to whom my ancestors have pleased, the one who has nourished me from my childhood to the present moment, who from the beginning has delivered me from all evils, who has shown me so much solicitude. He will bless these children; and they shall bear my name and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and they shall multiply abundantly in the face of the earth. (Ibid. 16) Do you see what is his wisdom, and at the same time what is his humility? His wisdom, because anticipating the future through the eyes of faith, he preferred Ephraim to Manasseh; his humility because he made no mention of his personal merit, but relied on the holiness of his ancestors, and on the benefits he himself had received, to ask and implore the blessing of the heaven on his sons. This is how Jacob, who foresaw future events, gave them his blessing. But Joseph, seeing the youngest favorite of the eldest, was displeased and said, "This is the firstborn: put your right hand on his head. Jacob refused and said: I know it, my son, I know it. The first-born will also become a people, and even he will be great; but greater glory is reserved for his younger brother, and his posterity will be a multitude of nations. (Ibid. 17-19) Do not believe, he says, that I did so without reason, at random, or out of ignorance. I know it, and it is because I foresee future events that I have given my blessing to most young people. Nature, it is true, has given Manasseh prominence, but his brother will be more illustrious than he, and his posterity will be a multitude of nations. Jacob does this because of him being born a king. He was already predicting the future, so he gave him his blessing. And he blessed them, and said, Israel shall be blessed in you, and it shall be said, Let God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. And he preferred Ephraim to Manasseh. Both, he says, will be so illustrious that all will wish to attain such glory; however, Ephraim will surpass Manasseh. Do you see how divine grace revealed beforehand the future, how, animated by a prophetic breath, he blessed the children of Joseph? For the events which were to be accomplished only after such a long time, he saw as already present and placed before his eyes. This is the prophetic spirit.

Just as the eyes of the body can not see anything more than visible things, so the eyes of faith do not look at visible events, but they represent those that must be fulfilled later after several generations. And this you will see more exactly by the blessings he gives to his own sons. But in order not to extend our discourse, and not to impose on you too much a task, let us content ourselves with what has been said, and reserve for the following speech the blessing he bestowed on his children. However, I will invoke your charity to exhort you to imitate this righteousness, and to leave your children with inheritances, which can not receive any damage from anyone. For riches often caused the ruin of those who had received them, and caused them many pitfalls and perils; but here there is never anything to fear. Indeed, it is a treasure that can not be exhausted or consumed. It is a treasure which can not be diminished by the pitfalls of men, nor by an attack of robbers, nor by the perfidy of the servants, nor by any means whatsoever; but it remains to us continually, because it is spiritual, and is not exposed to the snares of men. If those who have received him want to remain wise, he will accompany them in the future life and prepare in advance for them eternal tabernacles. [Homilies on Genesis]