After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’ And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”
Comment: I’m cheating a bit but my comment today is not on this passage alone. You can do some research of your own if you think I’m wrong. But as Jacob dies he claims the 2 sons of Joseph, who were born in Egypt before he arrived there as his own. He says that they are his as Reuben and Simeon were his sons. Joseph had been dead in his father’s eyes, killed by a wild beast. So he now has 13 sons – scrub out the name of Joseph leaving 11 and write Manasseh and Ephraim, making 13. But Levi never gets a portion of the land of Canaan when he enters Canaan for his descendants will be the priestly tribe to cover the whole land. It seems a different way of doing it but 12 sons of Jacob – one to be the father of the priests and one to be counted as dead – leave only 10 to get portions. The considered-dead son’s 2 oldest sons makes the ten left back to the original 12! In may seem unusual but it all adds up nicely! I love maths!
Prayer: Your ways are perfect. O Father!
As I read it! 