Genesis Chapter 48

Dying Jacob adopts Joseph’s two sons as his own, crosses his hands to set the younger before the elder, and promises Joseph that God will bring Israel home.

Genesis 48:1-2

Joseph Comes to His Dying Father

Genesis 48:3-7

Two Grandsons Become Sons

Genesis 48:8-12

The Lads Received and Embraced

Genesis 48:13-20

Crossed Hands and the Greater Blessing

Genesis 48:21-22

A Promise of Return

Genesis 48:1

“After these things” ties the visit to the oath at the end of chapter 47, where Jacob made Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan. How long afterward is not said, but the news that comes now is different: “thy father is sick.” Joseph lives at court, apart from Goshen, and the message reaches him through a messenger. The Hebrew word for sickness appears here for the first time in Scripture, and it falls on a man who has already outlived his wife Rachel and been told by God that Joseph would close his eyes (46:4).

Joseph’s response is immediate and purposeful. He goes, and he takes “his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.” They are no longer boys. Born before the seven years of famine (41:50), they are now about twenty, raised among the privileges of an Egyptian household, sons of a priest’s daughter. Joseph might have treated his father’s illness as a private matter between the two of them. Instead he brings the next generation to the bedside, evidently hoping that the patriarch who carries God’s promise will bless them before he dies.

The order of the names reflects Joseph’s own assumption: Manasseh, the firstborn, comes first. That order will be reversed before the chapter ends. Joseph had once named the boys to mark that God had made him forget his toil and made him fruitful in the land of his affliction (41:51-52). By bringing them to Jacob he shows that he has not forgotten his father’s house, and that he wants his sons counted among Israel, whatever their standing in Egypt.

Study Links

Cross References

Genesis 47:29-31Genesis 41:50-52Genesis 46:4Genesis 27:1-4

Word / Phrase Notes

חֹלֶה (choleh) — sick

A participle of chalah, “to be weak, ill.” It describes a weakening that may or may not end in death; here the context of the burial oath shows that Jacob’s illness is his last. The same word is later used of Hezekiah, who was “sick unto death” before God added years to his life, and of Elisha’s final sickness. Scripture treats illness frankly as part of life in a fallen world, without shame and without hiding the approach of death.

Genesis 47:29