Genesis48:1–22

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיֹּ֣אמֶר BSB “was told” hides the bare Hebrew way·yō·mer, “and he said” — a third-masculine-singular verb with no named subject, used impersonally (“one said,” “it was told”). The Pulpit Commentary flags exactly this: the verb “is here used impersonally, or passively.” English must supply an agent the Hebrew deliberately leaves blank.
• חֹלֶ֑ה “is ill” softens ḥōleh (H2470), a participle from a root meaning to be worn down, rubbed away, made weak — not a passing illness but the wearing-out of age toward death, as the Pulpit Commentary notes.
• מְנַשֶּׁ֖ה וְאֶת־אֶפְרָֽיִם The Hebrew names Manasseh first, then Ephraim — birth order. Cambridge marks it: “Manasseh is put first as the elder.” By verse 5 and 20 the order will be pointedly reversed; the narrative's whole tension is already latent in this neutral opening list.

Where the English smooths the original

• לְיַעֲקֹ֔ב ... יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל In one verse the man is both Jacob (to whom the news comes) and Israel (who rises to act). BSB keeps both names but cannot mark the deliberate switch the Hebrew makes mid-sentence — Keil and the Pulpit both insist its “significance it is impossible to overlook.” The supplanter receives the report; the prince of God performs the deed.
• וַיִּתְחַזֵּק֙ “rallied his strength” renders way·yiṯ·ḥazzēq (H2388), a reflexive (Hithpael) of the root “to be strong, to seize fast” — literally “he made himself strong,” a dying man mustering a last act of will, not a natural recovery.
• וַיֵּ֖שֶׁב עַל־הַמִּטָּֽה “sat up in bed” — way·yēšeḇ ʻal-ham·miṭṭāh is simply “he sat upon the bed.” Ellicott deduces from v. 12 that he raised himself onto a sitting posture; the bed (miṭṭāh, H4296) returns in 47:31 / Heb 11:21 as the place of the staff-leaning worship.

Where the English smooths the original

• אֵ֥ל שַׁדַּ֛י BSB “God Almighty” renders ʼēl šadday (H410 + H7706), the patriarchal covenant-name under which God appeared to Abram in Gen 17:1. Ellicott and Cambridge both keep the Hebrew: the chapter's grant rests on this specific divine title, not a generic “Almighty.”
• בְּל֖וּז “at Luz” preserves Lūz (H3870), the old Canaanite name of the place Jacob renamed Bethel (Gen 28:19). Ellicott notes the survival of the original name “shows how very slowly the new titles of places... took the place of their native and original appellations.” The verbal link to Gen 28:19 turns on this rare word.
• וַיְבָ֖רֶךְ “He blessed” is way·ḇāreḵ (H1288, Piel), from a root whose primary sense is “to kneel.” This same verb governs the whole chapter (vv. 9, 15, 16, 20); the blessing Jacob received at Luz is the blessing he now transmits.

Where the English smooths the original

• מַפְרְךָ֙ “I will make you fruitful” flattens map̄·rə·ḵā (H6509), a participle: “behold me [being] one who makes you fruitful” — the action is presented as already in motion, God in the very act, not a bare future.
• לִקְהַ֣ל עַמִּ֑ים “a multitude of peoples” — qəhal ʻammîm (H6951 + H5971). Ellicott points out that Gen 35:11 reads “a congregation (or church) of nations”; the same word qāhāl is the OT term later rendered ekklēsia. BSB's flat “multitude” loses the assembly/church overtone the voices hear.
• עוֹלָֽם “everlasting” is ʻōlām (H5769), root sense “hidden, of vast/unbounded duration.” Geneva and Benson both gloss it as fulfilled “in the carnal Israel until the coming of Christ, and in the spiritual forever” — the single Hebrew word carries the whole typological reach.

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• לִי־הֵ֑ם ... יִֽהְיוּ־לִֽי BSB “shall be reckoned as mine... shall be mine” expands a stark Hebrew construction: literally “to-me they [are]” and “they-shall-be to-me.” The bare possessive lî (“to/for me”), repeated, is the entire legal act of adoption — no verb “reckon” in the text.
• אֶפְרַ֙יִם֙ וּמְנַשֶּׁ֔ה Here the order flips to Ephraim then Manasseh — the reverse of v. 1. Cambridge marks the change: “the writer... gives the precedent to the recipient of the greater blessing.” The grammar enacts the chapter's coming reversal before a hand is ever crossed.
• כִּרְאוּבֵ֥ן וְשִׁמְע֖וֹן “just as Reuben and Simeon” — kirʼûḇēn wə-šimʻōn, the two displaced firstborns. The grant of the double portion to Joseph is, as Poole and the Pulpit note, the transfer of the forfeited birthright (1 Chr 5:1); naming Reuben first is itself the indictment.

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• וּמוֹלַדְתְּךָ֛ “Any children” renders mō·laḏ·təḵā (H4138), “your begotten/your nativity” — a singular collective noun, hypothetical (“if thou shouldest beget,” says Gill citing Jarchi). Scripture never records such further sons; the clause guards a contingency.
• יִקָּרְא֖וּ “they shall be called” — yiqqārəʼū (H7121, Niphal), “they shall be named.” The same verb קרא reappears in v. 16 (“let my name be named on them”); naming is the legal mechanism of belonging, and BSB's “called by the names” keeps the surface but not the verbal echo.
• בְּנַחֲלָתָֽם “in the territory they inherit” — bə-naḥălātām (H5159), “in their inheritance.” The point, per K&D, is that later sons “shall not form tribes of their own with a separate inheritance” but be absorbed into Ephraim and Manasseh.

Where the English smooths the original

• עָלַ֨י BSB “to my sorrow” interprets the haunting ʻālay (H5921), literally “upon me.” Ellicott: “died upon me, or as we should say, ‘died in my arms.’” The Pulpit catalogs the rival readings (upon me / at my side / to me); the bare preposition holds a grief English can only paraphrase.
• כִּבְרַת־אֶ֖רֶץ “some distance” renders kiḇraṯ-ʻereṣ (H3530), a rare measure of distance (only 3 verses). It is the very lexeme that verbally ties this verse to Gen 35:16 and 2 Kings 5:19; the LXX even rendered it “hippodrome.” BSB's “some distance” erases a traceable word.
• אֶפְרָ֑תָה ... בֵּ֥ית לָֽחֶם Ephrath (H672) is glossed by the narrator as Bethlehem (H1035, lit. “house of bread”). Ellicott reads the equation as “a note added subsequently, when the place was famous as the birthplace of David” — and Gill adds it is “said with a view to the Messiah.” Both rare names are the basis of the verbal links to Ruth 4:11 and Micah 5:2.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיַּ֥רְא “saw” is way·yar (H7200), the same verb of seeing that v. 10 immediately qualifies (“he could not see”) and v. 11 turns to joy (“God has let me see your children”). Jacob's failing sight and his granted sight frame the whole scene; BSB's plain “saw” keeps the act but not the running motif of ראה.
• מִי־אֵֽלֶּה “Who are these?” — mî-ʼēlleh is two bare words, no verb. The Pulpit and Cambridge debate whether it springs from blindness or from a tradition in which Jacob had never met the boys; either way the abruptness is the Hebrew's, and English must add “are” the text omits.

Where the English smooths the original

• נָֽתַן־ “God has given me” — nāṯan (H5414), the plain verb “give.” Joseph traces his sons to divine gift, not Egyptian fortune; Geneva's gloss: “The faithful acknowledge all benefits come from God's free mercy.” The verb is the same root that returns in Jacob's grant of land at v. 22 (“I give you”).
• קָֽחֶם־נָ֥א “Please bring them” — qāḥem-nā, imperative of לקח (“take”) plus the entreating particle nā (H4994). The dying patriarch asks; the same “take” verb has run through vv. 1 and 13.
• וַאֲבָרֲכֵֽם “that I may bless them” — waʾaḇārăḵēm (H1288, cohortative), “let me bless them.” Poole insists this is no common wish but “a paternal, and patriarchal, and prophetical blessing, in the name and by the Spirit of God.”

Where the English smooths the original

• כָּבְד֣וּ “was poor” renders kāḇəḏū (H3513), literally “were heavy/dim” — the same root kāḇēḏ that elsewhere means “glory” and “honor.” Gill keeps it: “or ‘heavy’.” The eyes that cannot see are the very eyes that will bless with prophetic sight; the irony is in the word, and the parallel to blind Isaac (Gen 27:1) is deliberate.
• וַיְחַבֵּ֥ק “embraced” is way·ḥabbēq (H2263), the verb חבק “to clasp/enfold.” It is a rare word (12 verses) and is precisely the lexeme shared with the Song of Songs (2:6; 8:3) where the right and left hands embrace — a verbal link the very next verses (13–14) make resonant with their right- and left-hand drama.
• וַיִּשַּׁ֥ק “kissed” — way·yiššaq (H5401); paired with the embrace, the gestures of Isaac's blessing of Jacob (Gen 27:26–27) are deliberately recalled, as the Pulpit notes.

Where the English smooths the original

• פִלָּ֑לְתִּי “I never expected” renders p̄illālətî (H6419), a Piel of פלל — a verb that elsewhere means “to judge / to pray / to intercede.” K&D glosses it precisely: “to decide; here, to judge, to think.” “Expected” catches the sense but loses that this is the verb-root behind təṗillāh, prayer.
• רְאֹ֥ה ... הֶרְאָ֥ה The verse turns on one root twice: rəʽōh (“to see”) Jacob did not expect, and herʽāh (Hiphil, “has caused [me] to see”) God granted. BSB's “see…let me see” keeps the pair; the point is that God exceeds the hope — “not only prevents our fears, but exceeds our hopes” (Benson, Henry).
• זַרְעֶֽךָ “your children” is zarʻeḵā (H2233), “your seed” — the covenant word of vv. 4 and 19. The grandfather sees not just grandchildren but seed, the promised line continuing past his death.

Where the English smooths the original

• מֵעִ֣ם בִּרְכָּ֑יו “from his father's knees” — mēʻim birkāw, “from near his knees.” The pronoun is third-masculine: his knees — Jacob's, between which the boys stood. Cambridge explains the gesture: “To set a child upon the knees was to symbolize reception or adoption into the family.” The removal ends the adoption-rite; the word berek (knee) carries the legal act.
• וַיִּשְׁתַּ֥חוּ “bowed facedown” — way·yištaḥū (H7812), the verb of prostrate worship/homage. Ellicott notes the versions read it as plural (the boys bowing); the singular pronoun favors Joseph. Cambridge weighs whether Joseph or Jacob bows. The same verb is the “worshipped” of 47:31 / Heb 11:21.

Where the English smooths the original

• בִּֽימִינוֹ֙ ... מִשְּׂמֹ֣אל The verse is a chiasm of hands: Ephraim at Joseph's right (yāmîn, H3225) — toward Israel's left (śəmōl, H8040) — and Manasseh at Joseph's left toward Israel's right. Joseph carefully arranges the boys so the old man's right hand will fall naturally on the elder. The whole drama of vv. 14–20 hangs on these two direction-words, which BSB keeps but reads as mere staging; the Hebrew makes them the hinge.
• וַיַּגֵּ֖שׁ “brought them close” — way·yaggēš (H5066), “brought near,” the same verb as v. 10 (“brought them near”). The approach is liturgical, a presentation for blessing, not mere movement.

Where the English smooths the original

• שִׂכֵּל֙ אֶת־יָדָ֔יו BSB “crossing his hands” and KJV “guiding his hands wittingly” translate the same hard word śikkēl (H7919) — a Piel of a root meaning “to act with insight/prudence.” The Pulpit lays out the split: most scholars read “he placed his hands prudently / of set purpose” (Calvin, Keil), while the versions (LXX, Vulg., Targums) read “he crossed his hands.” The genuinely ambiguous verb fuses both — a deliberate, knowing crossing. BSB chooses “crossing”; the Hebrew also says “wisely.”
• וְה֣וּא הַצָּעִ֔יר “the younger” — wə-hû haṣ·ṣāʻîr, literally “and he [was] the little one” (ṣāʻîr, H6810, “small”). The narrator interrupts mid-clause to flag the inversion: the right hand goes to the little one. The word ṣāʻîr is the lexeme that links to Micah 5:2's “little among the thousands.”
• כִּ֥י מְנַשֶּׁ֖ה הַבְּכֽוֹר “although Manasseh was the firstborn” — kî mənashsheh hab·bə·ḵōr. The conjunction kî can mean “for” or “although”; Gill notes the dispute (“or rather, though”). BSB's “although” is the right sense — the firstborn (bəḵōr, H1060) is precisely the one whose primacy is being overturned.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיְבָ֥רֶךְ אֶת־יוֹסֵ֖ף “he blessed Joseph” — yet the words that follow bless the boys. Poole resolves the surface oddity: Jacob “blessed Joseph, not now in his person, but in his children... because they were a part of himself.” The single verb way·ḇāreḵ (H1288) holds father and sons together.
• הָֽאֱלֹהִ֡ים ... הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ Twice hā-ʾlōhîm “the God” (with the article), then in v. 16 “the Angel” — a triple naming of God. The plural-form noun governs, in v. 16, a singular verb “bless.” Ellicott (citing Luther) reads the threefold name + singular verb as “a proof of a Trinity in Unity.” BSB's “the God… the God” keeps the repetition but not the grammatical weight.
• הָרֹעֶ֣ה אֹתִ֔י “who has been my shepherd” — hārōʻeh ʽōtî (H7462), a participle: “the One shepherding me.” BSB's “fed” (KJV) understates it; Maclaren insists the word “means much more than supplied with nourishment. It is the word for doing the office of shepherd.” This is the first time God is called a shepherd in Scripture.

Where the English smooths the original

• הַמַּלְאָךְ֩ הַגֹּאֵ֨ל “the angel who has redeemed me” — ham·malʽāḵ hag·gōʽēl (H4397 + H1350). The redeemer-word gōʽēl is the kinsman-redeemer (the role of Boaz in Ruth, the title God claims in Isaiah). Benson, Poole, Geneva and K&D all read this “Angel” not as a creature but as Christ / the pre-incarnate Word — “no created angel can deliver us, but Christ only.” It is here, says Ellicott, that gōʽēl appears for the first time in Scripture.
• יְבָרֵךְ֮ yəḇārēḵ (H1288) is singular — “may he bless” — governing the threefold subject (God… God… the Angel). K&D quote Luther: “he does not say benedicant (plural)… these three are one God and one blesser.” The number of the verb is the doctrine.
• וְיִדְגּ֥וּ “may they grow” badly understates wə-yiḏgū (H1711), a hapax built on the word for fish (dāg): “let them spawn / teem like fish.” Barnes: “the word grow… refers to the spawning or extraordinary increase of the finny tribe.” The image is explosive fertility, not gradual growth.

Where the English smooths the original

• וַיֵּ֣רַע בְּעֵינָ֑יו “he was displeased” renders the vivid idiom way·yēraʻ bə-ʻênāw (H7489), literally “and it was evil in his eyes.” The Pulpit keeps it: “it was evil in his eyes.” The root rāʻaʻ is “to spoil, break” — Joseph sees the crossed hands as a blunder to be fixed.
• וַיִּתְמֹ֣ךְ “took” softens way·yiṯmōḵ (H8551), “he laid hold of / grasped to support and lift.” The verb is firm: Joseph takes his blind father's hand to physically shift it. Gill: “he took him by the right hand, and lifted it up.”
• אֶפְרַ֖יִם רֹ֥אשׁ ... רֹ֥אשׁ מְנַשֶּֽׁה The clause repeats rō˞š (“head”) three times in two verses — Ephraim's head, Ephraim's head, Manasseh's head — the tug-of-war over which head wears the right hand. BSB streamlines the repetition; the Hebrew hammers it.

Where the English smooths the original

• לֹא־כֵ֣ן “Not so!” is lō-ḵēn (H3808 + H3651) — “not thus,” a blunt correction from son to father. The terseness is the urgency; Joseph believes a mistake is in progress.
• זֶ֣ה הַבְּכֹ֔ר “This one is the firstborn” — zeh hab·bə·ḵōr, again the word bəḵōr (H1060). Joseph's entire appeal rests on birth-order; the very category Jacob is consciously transcending. The Pulpit (citing Lawson) notes Joseph was “sorry that an honor was not given to the eldest which he would naturally expect.”
• שִׂ֥ים יְמִינְךָ֖ “put your right hand” — śîm yəmînəḵā, imperative. Joseph instructs his dying father where to place the hand of blessing — the right hand (yāmîn) again the load-bearing word, the seat of the greater portion.

Where the English smooths the original

• יָדַ֤עְתִּֽי ... יָדַ֔עְתִּי “I know, my son, I know” — yāḏaʻtî… yāḏaʻtî (H3045) doubled. The repetition is the dying man's calm certainty against his son's protest; Gill: “he repeats it to confirm it.” Not confusion but conviction — the blind father sees more than the seeing son.
• וְאוּלָ֗ם “nevertheless” — wə-ʽūlām (H199), a strongly adversative particle. The Pulpit renders it “and over against that… that which stands in front of, or opposite to, another thing.” It is the very word (ʽūlām) flagged by K&D as appearing also in Gen 28:19 — a deliberate “yet” that overturns expectation.
• מְלֹֽא־הַגּוֹיִֽם “a multitude of nations” — məlō-hag·gōyim (H4393 + H1471), literally “the fullness of the nations.” Cambridge: “to become ‘the fulness of the nations’ is to be as full of population as all the nations of the world; a strong hyperbole.” The phrase is famously echoed by Paul in Rom 11:25 (plērōma tōn ethnōn).

Where the English smooths the original

• בְּךָ֗ “By you” — bəḵā is singular: “in/by thee.” Cambridge corrects KJV's “In thee” to “By thee” — Ephraim and Manasseh become the very formula Israel will speak: “God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” Ellicott: “the Israelites to this day use Jacob’s formula in blessing their children.”
• יְבָרֵ֤ךְ ... וַיְבָ֨רֲכֵ֜ם The keyword bāraḵ (H1288) saturates the verse: he blessed them, Israel shall bless, God's blessing made standard. The chapter that opened with a received blessing (v. 3) closes its central act with a blessing that becomes liturgy for all generations.
• וַיָּ֥שֶׂם אֶת־אֶפְרַ֖יִם לִפְנֵ֥י מְנַשֶּֽׁה “he put Ephraim before Manasseh” — way·yāśem… lip̄nê, “set… to the face of.” The narrator states plainly what the crossed hands enacted: the younger is placed first, and even the blessing-formula names Ephraim first. The reversal is now permanent and verbal.

Where the English smooths the original

• אָנֹכִ֖י מֵ֑ת “I am about to die” — ʽānōḵî mēṯ, literally “I [am] dying” (mēṯ, H4191, participle). Poole: “I am about to die; the present time for that which will shortly and certainly be.” The emphatic pronoun ʽānōḵî sets the dying “I” against the living “God” of the next clause.
• אֱלֹהִים֙ ... עִמָּכֶ֔ם “God will be with you” — ʾlōhîm… ʻimmāḵem, the “with-you” (Immanu-) promise in the plural (with you all). Against the departing patriarch stands the abiding God; Benson: “They leave us, but he will never fail us.”
• וְהֵשִׁ֣יב אֶתְכֶ֔ם “bring you back” — wə-hēšîḇ (H7725, Hiphil of šûḇ, “turn/return”). The promise is exodus and homecoming in one verb: God will cause to return the people to Canaan, fulfilled, as Gill notes, “as the bones of Joseph were” (Josh 24:32).

Where the English smooths the original

• שְׁכֶ֥ם אַחַ֖ד “one portion” — literally “one šəḵem” (H7926), “shoulder / ridge / mountain-slope.” The word is also the proper name Shechem. Ellicott and Cambridge both read a deliberate pun: the “shoulder-land” names the city of Shechem, where Joseph's bones were finally buried (Josh 24:32; John 4:5). BSB's “ridge of land” catches the geography but mutes the wordplay that is the whole point.
• לָקַ֙חְתִּי֙ ... בְּחַרְבִּ֖י וּבְקַשְׁתִּֽי “which I took… with my sword and bow” — lāqaḥtî… bə-ḥarbî ū-ḇə-qaštî. This is a famous crux: Scripture records no such conquest by the peaceable Jacob. K&D and the Pulpit read the perfect prophetically (“which I take” / “shall take” in my descendants); Onkelos paraphrases “with my prayer and entreaty” to avoid warlike Jacob. The plain Hebrew says sword and bow; the meaning is genuinely disputed.
• הָֽאֱמֹרִ֔י “the Amorites” — hā-ʾmōrî (H567). Shechem was strictly Hivite (Gen 34); Ellicott notes “the term Amorite may be used to give greater glory to the exploit,” or as a loose name for all the upland Canaanites (cf. Gen 15:16, where the same “Amorite” marks the conquest's appointed time).