Discovery BoxGenesis 48:1 
Context48:1 After these things Joseph was told, 1 “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.
Genesis 48:5
Context48:5 “Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. 2 Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are.
Genesis 48:16
Context48:16 the Angel 3 who has protected me 4
from all harm –
bless these boys.
May my name be named in them, 5
and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.
May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”
Genesis 48:19-20
Context48:19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude 6 of nations.” 48:20 So he blessed them that day, saying,
“By you 7 will Israel bless, 8 saying,
‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”
So he put Ephraim before Manasseh. 9
1 tn Heb “and one said.” With no expressed subject in the Hebrew text, the verb can be translated with the passive voice.
2 sn They will be mine. Jacob is here adopting his two grandsons Manasseh and Ephraim as his sons, and so they will have equal share with the other brothers. They will be in the place of Joseph and Levi (who will become a priestly tribe) in the settlement of the land. See I. Mendelsohn, “A Ugaritic Parallel to the Adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh,” IEJ (1959): 180-83.
3 sn The Samaritan Pentateuch reads “king” here, but the traditional reading (“angel”) may be maintained. Jacob closely associates God with an angelic protective presence. This does not mean that Jacob viewed his God as a mere angel, but it does suggest that he was aware of an angelic presence sent by God to protect him. Here he so closely associates the two that they become virtually indistinguishable. In this culture messengers typically carried the authority of the one who sent them and could even be addressed as such. Perhaps Jacob thought that the divine blessing would be mediated through this angelic messenger.
4 tn The verb גָּאַל (ga’al) has the basic idea of “protect” as a near relative might do. It is used for buying someone out of bondage, marrying a deceased brother’s widow, paying off debts, avenging the family, and the like. The meanings of “deliver, protect, avenge” are most fitting when God is the subject (see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of √גאל,” Congress Volume: Copenhagen, 1953 [VTSup], 67-77).
5 tn Or “be recalled through them.”
6 tn Heb “fullness.”
7 tn The pronoun is singular in the Hebrew text, apparently elevating Ephraim as the more prominent of the two. Note, however, that both are named in the blessing formula that follows.
8 tn Or “pronounce a blessing.”
9 sn On the elevation of Ephraim over Manasseh see E. C. Kingsbury, “He Set Ephraim Before Manasseh,” HUCA 38 (1967): 129-36; H. Mowvley, “The Concept and Content of ‘Blessing’ in the Old Testament,” BT 16 (1965): 74-80; and I. Mendelsohn, “On the Preferential Status of the Eldest Son,” BASOR 156 (1959): 38-40.
