Genesis 48

נִרְאָה is the niphal of רָאָה "see," the verb of every appearance in Genesis (12:7; 17:1; 26:2, 24; 35:9). "Was seen" keeps the one verb where English says "appeared." Jacob retells Bethel: the name El Shaddai is the one spoken there at 35:11, and the promise of v. 4 repeats 35:11–12 and Isaac's blessing at 28:3. Luz is the old name of Bethel (28:19).

הִנְנִי here is the particle with a participle, "look, I am making you…," a presentation of what is about to happen, as at 6:17 ("look, I am bringing the flood"). It is not the answer "Here I am" (22:1, 11; 46:2), and takes the home gloss. "An assembly of peoples" (קְהַל עַמִּים) is Isaac's phrase at 28:3; 35:11 has "an assembly of nations." "A tenure of the age" repeats 17:8.

The two grandsons are taken as sons and given the rank of Jacob's first two, Reuben and Simeon, the two who will be passed over in 49:3–7. Ephraim is now named first, before Jacob's hands have crossed. Joseph's share becomes two tribes (Josh 14:4; 16–17), and 1 Chr 5:1–2 reads this verse as the birthright taken from Reuben and "given to the sons of Joseph." The births "until my coming" are the two of 41:50–52; "your birth" in v. 6 (מוֹלֶדֶת, H4138) is any later offspring, who will inherit under their brothers' names.

מֵתָה עָלַי "died upon me": the preposition carries the burden to the speaker, as in 33:13 ("the nursing flocks are upon me") and 1 Sam 17:32. Rashi takes it as the grief that still weighs on him, and as an apology to Joseph: "I did not carry her even to Bethlehem to bury her in the land." The account is 35:16–20; "a tract of land" (כִּבְרַת אֶרֶץ) repeats 35:16. Jer 31:15 has Rachel weeping for her children at Ramah, and Matt 2:18 sets it at Bethlehem.

The scene repeats 27:1: Isaac's eyes were dim (כָּהָה) "from seeing" when he blessed the younger son, and here Israel's are "heavy" (כָּבֵד, 39) and he cannot see. In both, the blind father blesses the younger above the elder, but this time the father knows what he is doing (v. 19). זֹקֶן "oldness" is used only here; it is the abstract noun of זָקֵן "be old" (H2204), and is printed "oldness," beside צְעִרָה "youngness" (43:33), so that "old age" stays with זְקֻנִים and זִקְנָה.

"From beside his knees" (מֵעִם בִּרְכָּיו): the boys had been set on or between Israel's knees, the gesture by which a child is taken as one's own (30:3 "let her bear on my knees"; 50:23 Machir's sons "born on the knees of Joseph"). The adoption of v. 5 is now acted out. The one who prostrates himself is Joseph, by the singular verb; the LXX and the Samaritan have the plural, "they prostrated themselves." Bowing "to the land" is the settled form.

The blessing of vv. 15b–16 is lined by the translator under ruling 81(b); the Leningrad Codex runs it as prose. It is built of three parallel titles (the Elohim before whose face… the Elohim shepherding… the messenger redeeming…) with one verb, "may he bless," and the cola follow the accents (14): the atnach falls under וַיֹּאמַר in v. 15 and under וְיִצְחָק in v. 16. "Walked about" is the hithpael of הָלַךְ, the walking of Enoch and Noah with Elohim (5:22, 24; 6:9) and the command to Abraham, "walk about before my face" (17:1; 24:40).

This is the first time Elohim is called the shepherd of a person. Jacob was himself a shepherd (30:31; 31:38–40); 49:24 has "the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel," and Ps 23:1 "Adonai is my shepherd." The participle הָרֹעֶה is kept as a participle: the shepherding goes on.

"The messenger redeeming me" stands in the same series as "the Elohim" twice, and the three take one singular verb, יְבָרֵךְ "may he bless." Jacob had met a messenger at Bethel (28:12; 31:11–13, where the messenger says "I am the El of Bethel") and wrestled a man at Peniel whom he named as Elohim (32:25–31; Hos 12:4–5 calls him "a messenger"). Readers have divided on the identity. Rashi takes the messenger as a created being whom Elohim regularly sends to Jacob. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 58) and Christian tradition after him read the messenger who is also Elohim as the Logos. The verb גָּאַל appears here for the first time. It is the duty of the near kinsman who buys back land, a person or a name (Lev 25:25–49; Ruth 3–4) and avenges blood (Num 35:19), and it is the title of Adonai in Isaiah (41:14; 43:14; 44:6) and Job 19:25. It is printed "redeem," as its row fixes.

וְיִדְגּוּ is the only occurrence of the verb דָּגָה, made from דָּג "fish" (1:26, 28): "let them fish-multiply." "Teem" carries the swarming of fish without the false sense that "fish" would give the verb (to catch fish). The rabbis heard the fish. b. Berakhot 20a: as fish in the sea are covered by the water and the evil eye has no power over them, so the seed of Joseph. Genesis Rabbah 97:3 adds that fish multiply without number. "Abundance" (רֹב) and "the inward part of the land" (קֶרֶב) are their home glosses.

"The small one" is קָטָן of the younger of a pair (127j, 128e), and "greater" is the comparative מִמֶּנּוּ with "be great." מְלֹא הַגּוֹיִם "the fullness of the nations" is Ephraim's future. The LXX has πλῆθος ἐθνῶν "a multitude of nations"; Paul's πλήρωμα τῶν ἐθνῶν "the fullness of the gentiles" (Rom 11:25) has the same words, a link the Hebrew makes possible and does not require. The prophets later use "Ephraim" for the northern kingdom (Isa 7:2; Hos 5:3).

"By you shall Israel bless" is a promise that Israel will use the boys' names as the form of a blessing, and gives the form. "You" is singular, so the blessing is spoken to each son, or to Joseph in them. Jewish fathers still bless their sons on the eve of the Sabbath with these words: "May Elohim put you like Ephraim and like Manasseh." The second "And he put Ephraim before the face of Manasseh" uses the same verb as the blessing's "put" (שׂוּם): Jacob does to their order what he has asked Elohim to do to them.