Genesis 48:3

Referring to the promise which the Almighty God had given him at Bethel (Gen 35:10. cf. Gen 38:13.), Israel said to Joseph (Gen 48:5): "And now thy two sons, which were born to thee in the land of Egypt, until (before) I came to thee into Egypt...let them be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, like Reuben and Simeon (my first and second born), let them be mine." The promise which Jacob had received empowered the patriarch to adopt the sons of Joseph in the place of children. Since the Almighty God had promised him the increase of his seed into a multitude of peoples, and Canaan as an eternal possession to that seed, he could so incorporate into the number of his descendants the two sons of Joseph who were born in Egypt before his arrival, and therefore outside the range of his house, that they should receive an equal share in the promised inheritance with his own eldest sons. But this privilege was to be restricted to the two first-born sons of Joseph. "Thy descendants," he proceeds in Gen 48:6, "which thou hast begotten since them, shall be thine; by the name of their brethren shall they be called in their inheritance;" i.e., they shall not form tribes of their own with a separate inheritance, but shall be reckoned as belonging to Ephraim and Manasseh, and receive their possessions among these tribes, and in their inheritance. These other sons of Joseph are not mentioned anywhere; but their descendants are at any rate included in the families of Ephraim and Manasseh mentioned in Num 26:28-37; 1 Chron 7:14-29. By this adoption of his two eldest sons, Joseph was placed in the position of the first-born, so far as the inheritance was concerned (Ch1 5:2). Joseph's mother, who had died so early, was also honoured thereby. And this explains the allusion made by Jacob in Gen 48:7 to…

The time drawing nigh that Israel must die, having, in the former chapter, given order about his burial, in this he takes leave of his grand-children by Joseph, and in the next of all his children. Thus Jacob's dying words are recorded, because he then spoke by a spirit of prophecy; Abraham's and Isaac's are not. God's gifts and graces shine forth much more in some saints than in others upon their death-beds. The Spirit, like the wind, blows where it listeth. In this chapter, I. Joseph, hearing of his father's sickness, goes to visit him, and takes his two sons with him (Gen 48:1, Gen 48:2). II. Jacob solemnly adopts his two sons, and takes them for his own (Gen 48:3-7). III. He blesses them (Gen 48:8-16). IV. He explains and justifies the crossing of his hands in blessing them (Gen 48:17-20). V. He leaves a particular legacy to Joseph (Gen 48:21, Gen 48:22).

48:3-4 Jacob rehearsed how God Almighty had appeared to him and had promised him Abraham’s blessing—innumerable descendants dwelling in the land . . . as an everlasting possession (cp. 28:10-22).