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. Gen. 28.13, 14
And now thy two sons, E'phra-im and Manas'seh, 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.
And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; Gen. 35.16-19 the same is Bethlehem.
And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.
And Joseph took them both, E'phra-im in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manas'seh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon E'phra-im's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manas'seh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manas'seh was the firstborn.
¶ And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of E'phra-im, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from E'phra-im's head unto Manas'seh's head.
And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.