Joseph Part 18: Ephraim and Manasseh

Ephraim and Manasseh

In verse 10 of chapter 48, about how his eyes are not working very great, he can't see very well. And you're like, "Wait a minute, wait a minute." So we're recalling Isaac's nearly blind eyes. He was in his tent, he thought he was about to die. And this is the moment where Yaaqov takes advantage of that blind nearness to death for his own advantage to get the blessing.

So what's ironic is that, and some people never change, here he is doing it not backwards to his father, but he's gonna repeat this forward to his grandsons. 

Genesis 48:13–20 CSB

13 Then Joseph took them both—with his right hand Ephraim toward Israel’s left, and with his left hand Manasseh toward Israel’s right—and brought them to Israel. 14 But Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and crossing his hands, put his left on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was the firstborn. 15 Then he blessed Joseph and said: The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, 16 the angel who has redeemed me from all harm— may he bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow to be numerous within the land. 17 When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it was a mistake and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s. 18 Joseph said to his father, “Not that way, my father! This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.” 19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know! He too will become a tribe, and he too will be great; nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a populous nation.” 20 So he blessed them that day, putting Ephraim before Manasseh when he said, “The nation Israel will invoke blessings by you, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’ ”

 "So Yoseph took the two of them, Ephrayim and Manasseh.

"Yoseph took Ephrayim at his right hand." And notice the detail here. Yoseph's right hand, so the left hand of Yaaqov, and Manasseh at his left hand, that is the right hand of Yaaqov." So you got the image here. And Manasseh is the firstborn, Ephrayim is the secondborn.

Do you remember, this is trivia, the Hebrew word for "right hand"?

It's the last half of Benyamin's name. So yamin. Benyamin, which is Joseph's little brother, he is named Son of the Right Hand. So here the older is put at the right hand. But what's he about to do with that right hand, he's gonna put it on the younger. 

he's gonna pull a Yoseph-Benyamin thing here. "So he made them draw near to him. And Yisrael sent out his right hand and he set it,"

"on the head of Ephrayim. And he was the little one. And then he set his left hand on the head of Manasseh." And the author doesn't let you misunderstand here, "Dear reader, if you're confused, he was crossing his hands because Manasseh was the firstborn if you forgot."

"So he blessed Yoseph and said, 'The Elohim before whom my fathers walked, Avraham and Yitskhaq, the Elohim, who was my shepherd from my past until this day, the messenger," or other English translations probably say angel, the angel of Yahweh. "The messenger who redeemed me from everything bad, may he," that is the Elohim that is the angel. "May he bless the boys. May my name and the name of my fathers be called over them." Remember he adopted them. "'May they increase into a multitude in the midst of the land.'

Now, Yoseph saw that his father had set his right hand on Ephrayim's head and it was bad in his eyes.

So he grabbed the hand of his father to remove it upon the head of Ephrayim and put it on the head of Manasseh. And Yoseph said to his father, 'No, not this way father. No, this one is the firstborn. Put your yamin, the right hand, on his head.' And his father refused and said, 'I know. He too, that is the firstborn, he will become a people and he too will become great.'"

Where's your mind going right now?

Ishmael. And Isaac.

Cain and Able - Remember what God said to Cain, "If you do good, there's exaltation for you too." Like, this isn't, even though I'm separating you, this doesn't have to be a net loss for you. So it's really interesting, this theme we were talking about the last session, that the separating off and the choosing doesn't have to be a loss for the non-chosen. 

In this story, Yaaqov inverts the birth order and blessing from the younger son to the older. As he does this, he both repeats and intensifies this pattern that has been at work since the early chapters of Genesis.

The land beasts and humans

Cain and Abel

Japheth, Ham, and Shem

Haran, Nahor, and Abram

Ishmael and Isaac

Esau and Yaaqov

Manasseh and Ephrayim

So this is the 7th inversion in Genesis

"The firstborn two will become a people, he too will become great. However, his brother, the little one will be greater than him.

His seed," that is Ephrayim, Fruitful, remember his name Fruitful, the seed of Fruitful will become what fills the nations. "And he blessed them on that day saying, 'May Israel,'" that is the family, the whole family, "'speak a blessing by your name.

May Elohim make you like Ephrayim and Manasseh.' And in so doing, if you really are confused," the narrator says, "let me just make this clear. He put Ephrayim before Manasseh."

So he imagines a day when any Israelite in the future, one of the best blessings you could give would be like, "May you be like Ephrayim today." It's like, oh, thank you. Thank you, yeah.

So there's a few themes. Filling the nations, this is back to what we talked about in the previous session.

This seed will be for all filling, blessing, be fruitful, multiply, and fill.

It's about filling the nations with the Eden blessing, while at the same time inverting the normal way that humans do their blessings. 

In both stories, Yaaqov is the sneaky culprit. In contrast to earlier generations where Yahweh was the one who upset the traditional cultural birth order (animals and Adam; Cain and Abel; Nahor, Haran, and Abram; Ishmael and Isaac). But in Genesis 27 and 48, Yaaqov is the one who elevates the younger son to the place of the firstborn.

The Exaltation of Ephrayim

This is the origin story of the rise of the tribe of Ephrayim among the sons of Yisrael. As it turns out, Ephrayim will become the ancestor of the most fruitful and powerful family among all the tribes, which eventually will become the dominant royal house after the kingdom splits into northern Israel and southern Judah after the reign of Solomon.

“The hill country of Ephrayim” = the central hills of the northern tribal kingdom of Israel (Josh. 17:15).

The Ephrayimites became the most numerous tribe in the land (see Josh. 17:14-18).

Prominent Ephrayimites in the Torah and Prophets include:

Joshua (lit. Yehoshua) son of Nun (Num. 13:8; Josh. 19:49-51)

The idolatrous Ephrayimite Micah who hires the priest (Judg. 17-18)

Elkanah, the father of Samuel the prophet (1 Sam. 1)

Jeroboam I, an Ephrayimite who leads a revolt against Solomon’s son Rehoboam and forms a secession group of tribes that become “Israel” in the northern hill country (1 Kgs. 11-14)

In the Prophets, “Ephrayim” is a synonym for the northern kingdom of Israel, which can also simply be called “Israel.”

Isaiah 7 (vv. 2, 5, 8, 9, 17), 28:1, 3

Jeremiah 4:15; 7:15; 31:6, 9, 18, 20

Ezekiel 37:16, 19

Hosea 5-14

Ephrayim was, Assyrian exile and Judah was Babylonian, and the Assyrian exiles don't return.

So here in Genesis 48-49. So we've got Yoseph and then carried on by his inverted firstborn Ephrayim, okay? So what's we got a little father, father-son union going on.

And then Judah is gonna be singled out as well.

This line is connected with blessing and filling the nations.

Judah's line is going to be associated, as we're gonna see in a few sessions, with the royal rule that rules over the nations.

So as you go on through the story, it interesting as you go to into the Torah and Prophets that the main heroic leaders that are gonna be over Israel are gonna consistently be sons of Yoseph through Ephrayim or Judah. So Joshua, the son of Nun, think through the story of the spies in Numbers. It's Joshua son of Nun and who's the other good guy?

Caleb.

Caleb, who's from Judah, who's also an Edomite. He's from Esau.

He's from Kenaz who comes through Esau.

So the hero is a Judahite who is himself from Edom, and Ephrayim is a Yosephite who is from Egypt.

that's just in Numbers. And then you go on, 'cause Joshua's gonna lead the people there and Caleb, Joshua and Caleb are key figures in Joshua. And then they both die at the beginning of Judges. 

And then the judges come from all of the other tribes. And are any of the judges very great? They're all really like, just the B team, you know. So then none of them are from Joseph or Judah. And then once you line up into Samuel, Israel's first king comes from the tribe of Saul.

Benjamin.

From Benjamin. And he is the anti-everything. And then the first thing you're told is about David who replaces him.

Who replaces him.

1 Samuel 17:12 when you're introduced to David, of course he lives in the town of Bethlehem. But in the story of David and Goliath, what you're told is that David was the son of an Ephrathite, which means from the town of Ephrathah.

1 Samuel 17:12 NASB95

12 Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. And Jesse was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men.

And what did we just learn about the town of Ephrathah?

It's Bethlehem.

So back here in the beginning of chapter 48, Rachel died on the road of Ephrathah. That's Beth- what's that there for?

What's that little note there for? That Ephrathah is Bethlehem? Because in the place where Rachel died, will be the place that David is born. So there's a little note here, coordinating the death of Jacob's beloved wife with the birthplace of David. And David, his name means "Beloved."

David is the word for beloved one.

So we're already, that little note comes from somebody who's coordinating this blessing with the birth story of David. And so you're just gonna keep having this where Joseph and David are like these two emblems of, one of blessing and fruitfulness, the other one of rule, and it'll continue on. And they become one in the rule of David, all the tribes become one.

The many tribes lived together with David as the ruler, but living blessed under the rule of David and Solomon.

And so in that time you've got the royal line of David and they're all unified with, so you have rule and blessing, and then all the other tribes, right, along with them.

But then the moment that Solomon dies, he gives birth to his son Rehoboam, who's an idiot.

And so Rehoboam, grandson of David, is faced with Jeroboam, who's the son of Ephrayim. And Jeroboam says like, "Hey, lighten the taxes, man. Like, this is really outta control. And we should probably like quit the slave labor that you've put your brothers under. This is not cool." And Rehoboam, you know, the famous line of like, well, you thought my, what does he say? "My little finger is gonna be thicker than my father's thigh," which means I'm gonna lay a heavier burden on you. And so it's precisely after that division that Yoseph, or Ephrayim and Judah part ways again. 

And one goes to Assyria, one goes to Babylon.

In Ezra-Nehemiah, it's all Judahites, but they get a number of the other tribes because they get some Levites and some priests and they get people from tribes. But the Hebrew Bible ends and the tribe of Yoseph remains scattered among the nations, filling the nations.

But without necessarily retaining their tribal, like, identities.

So Yoseph remains the lost brother.

Ephesians 2:11–14 CSB

11 So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh,

Ephesians 1 was that hymn of praise to God that began with a us and a we. God chose us.

Meaning Israel, the family of Abraham. But then, through the down payment of the Spirit, has included y'all, that is the nations. 

So that poem is all about Israel and the nations. So in Ephesians 2, what he talks about, starting in verse 11, he goes, exact right at that. He says, "Remember that formerly you, the nations, Gentiles in your flesh, you have been called the uncircumcised by the so-called circumcised," that is the family that does human circumcision. "Remember, for a long time, you were separate from the Messiah, you were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. You were strangers to the covenants, without God, without hope in the world. But now in Messiah Jesus, you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. He is our peace who made the two into one."

The two, oh, you can just see, like, where did he get these ideas? Like where did he, I mean, he saw himself as the apostle to the nations, and Jesus revealed that to him. But like, what was the story that he imagined himself a part of? 

And so Paul sees the division between Israel and the nations as just, it's like concentric circles. And that the heart of the solution is supposed to be the family of Israel, but they themselves are divided into two. 

Ezekiel 37:16–19 CSB

16 “Son of man, take a single stick and write on it: Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him. Then take another stick and write on it: Belonging to Joseph—the stick of Ephraim—and all the house of Israel associated with him. 17 Then join them together into a single stick so that they become one in your hand. 18 When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you explain to us what you mean by these things?’—19 tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and put them together with the stick of Judah. I will make them into a single stick so that they become one in my hand.’

Ephraim and Judah have not become one at the end of the OT. Ephraim is scattered and Judah returns in Ezra and Nehemiah.

And under Messiah in Ezekiel's vision, they become one. So that when the Messiah's Kingdom arrives on Earth as it is in Heaven, the nations that, right, the sons of Noah all become one. 

Ephesians 5:30–32 CSB

30 since we are members of his body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.

When he starts talking about husbands and wives, and this is a very dense chapter, but what he quotes is about the reason why followers of Jesus who are married should treat each other as if they are each other's bodies is because they are two become one. The two have become one.

So it goes right back to Adam and Eve.

So every layer of the human story is a story of divisions within divisions. And in Ephesians, Paul systematically works through every one of them, showing how Messiah Jesus is the one who keeps bringing the many into one again. 

It's so illuminating that this isn't just an obscure thing at the end of Genesis or Ezekiel. This is like, this is the heartbeat of the whole story is about the many becoming one.

The Gift of Sh’khem-Shoulder

The phrase used “one sh’khem” (שכם אחד) is odd and capable of more than one meaning.

Sh‘khem is the name of an ancient Israelite town in the northern hills that would become the territory of Ephrayim. This town would become one of the most important cities among the northern tribes. Problem: The use of the number “one” is odd because it should be grammatically feminine if it modifies the word “Sh’khem,” and even then it would be an odd thing to say in Hebrew.

The word “sh’khem” also means “shoulder,” which is never used as a metaphor for “portion of land.” However, its synonymcan refer to a “shoulder of land,” that is, a slope or side of a hill (seeor kateph (כתף)  Num. 34:11  Josh. 15:8).

“Most likely, shekhem must be connected with the city of Shechem, which is so intimately associated with Jacob and Joseph. Jacob bought a parcel of land there (Gen. 33:18; Josh. 24:32), the seduction of Dinah took place there, and Simeon and Levi massacred its inhabitants (Gen. 34). It was to Shechem that Jacob sent Joseph to visit his brothers (Gen. 37:12, 14), and Joseph himself is to be buried in the city (Josh. 24:32). Moreover, Shechem lay within the future territory of Joseph’s two sons near the border between the two tribes Ephraim and Manasseh (Josh. 17:7), and it was to become the most important city in the kingdom of northern Israel (cf. 1 Kings 12:1, 25). The identification of Hebrew shekhem in this verse with the city of Shechem is reflected in the Septuagint translation and in early Jewish sources. It has been accepted by many traditional commentators as well. Yet there are difficulties. First, the phrase 'one Shechem' is very strange, and, in any case, Hebrew usage requires a feminine adjective with a city name (’akhat, not ’akhad). These problems may perhaps be overcome if shekhem is a play on words using a vocable whose meaning is now lost (possibly 'portion'), which alludes to the city of Shechem.”

Sarna, Nahum M. (2001). Genesis, The JPS Torah Commentary. Jewish Publication Society. 330.

Bibliography

Anderson, Don. Joseph: Fruitful in Affliction. n.p.: Don Anderson, 2013.

Arnold, Bill T. Genesis. Edited by Ben Witherington III and Bill T. Arnold. New Cambridge Bible Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Baldwin, Joyce G. The Message of Genesis 12–50: From Abraham to Joseph. Edited by J. A. Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1986.

Bible Hub. “What is Joseph’s Robe’s Significance?” Bible Hub. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://biblehub.com/q/What_is_Joseph_s_robe_s_significance.htm.

BibleProject. “Joseph.” BibleProject Classroom. Accessed March 17, 2026. https://bibleproject.com/classroom/joseph.

Brown, Derek R., et al. Joseph: Understanding God’s Purpose. Edited by Michael R. Grigoni. Studies in Faithful Living. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013.

Downer, Benjamin Reno. “Cupbearer.” Pages 766 in vol. 2 of The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. Edited by James Orr et al. 5 vols. Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915.

Gilbrant, Thoralf. “שָׁלוֹם.” In The Old Testament Hebrew-English Dictionary. WORDsearch, 1998.

Got Questions Ministries. Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2014–2021.

Hamilton, Jeffries M. “Adullam (Place).” Page 81 in vol. 1 of The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. Edited by David Noel Freedman. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Levenson, Jon D. Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. San Francisco: HarperOne, 1985.

Lipiński, Edward. “Sacred Prostitution in the Story of Judah and Tamar.” Bible History Daily. Biblical Archaeology Society. May 10, 2026. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/sacred-prostitution-in-the-story-of-judah-and-tamar/.

Mandel, David. Who’s Who in the Jewish Bible. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2007.

Mangum, Douglas, Miles Custis, and Wendy Widder. Genesis 12–50. Logos Research Commentaries. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2026.

M’Clintock, John, and James Strong. “Shaving (1).” Page 623 in vol. 9 of Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. 12 vols. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1880.

Shabda History. “Egyptian Seven Cows.” Shabda History. April 15, 2026. https://history.shabda.co/articles/egyptian-seven-cows/.

Silva, Moisés, and Merrill C. Tenney, eds. The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible. Rev. ed. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009.

Steiner, Richard C. “Four Inner-Biblical Interpretations of Genesis 49:10: On the Lexical and Syntactic Ambiguities of עַד as Reflected in the Prophecies of Nathan, Ahijah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah.” Journal of Biblical Literature 132, no. 1 (2013): 33–60.

Widder, Wendy. “Context & Clarity: Big Dreams, Bigger God.” Bible Study Magazine 12, no. 5 (2020): 28.

Wilson, Marvin R. “Barbers & Beards.” Page 139 in vol. 1 of Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical & Post-Biblical Antiquity. Edited by Edwin M. Yamauchi and Marvin R. Wilson. 4 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2014.

Samuel Emadi, 'Covenant, Typology, and the Story of Joseph,' Tyndale Bulletin 69.1 (2018).