Chapter
48
It happened after these things, that someone said to Josephine, "Behold, your mother is sick." She took with her her two daughters, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Someone told Jacoba, and said, "Behold, your daughter Josephine comes to you," and Israel strengthened herself, and sat on the bed.
Jacoba said to Josephine, "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 seed after you for an everlasting possession.'
Now your two daughters, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, will be mine.
Your issue, who you become the mother of after them, will be yours. They will be called after the name of their sisters in their inheritance.
As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and I buried him there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem)."
Israel saw Josephine's daughters, and said, "Who are these?"
Josephine said to her mother, "They are my daughters, whom God has given me here." She said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them."
Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that she couldn't see. She brought them near to her; and she kissed them, and embraced them.
Israel said to Josephine, "I didn't think I would see your face, and behold, God has let me see your seed also."
Josephine brought them out from between her knees, and she bowed herself with her face to the earth.
Josephine took them both, Ephraim in her right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in her left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near to her.
Israel stretched out her right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and her left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding her hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
She blessed Josephine, and said, "The God before whom my mothers Abrahai and Isaaca did walk, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,
the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my mothers Abrahai and Isaaca. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."
When Josephine saw that her mother laid her right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased her. She held up her mother's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
Josephine said to her mother, "Not so, my mother; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on her head."
Her mother refused, and said, "I know, my daughter, I know. She also will become a people, and she also will be great. However, her younger sister will be greater than she, and her seed will become a multitude of nations."
She blessed them that day, saying, "In you will Israel bless, saying, 'God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh'" She set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Israel said to Josephine, "Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your mothers.
Moreover I have given to you one portion above your sisters, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."