1. Some time later Joseph learned that his father was very sick. So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim and went to his father.
2. When Joseph arrived, someone told Jacob, also called Israel, “Your son Joseph has come to see you.” Jacob was weak. So he used all his strength and sat up on his bed.
3. Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God All-Powerful appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan. God blessed me there.
4. He said to me, ‘I will give you many children. I will make you the father of many peoples. And I will give your descendants this land forever.’
5. Your two sons were born here in Egypt before I came. They will be counted as my own sons. Ephraim and Manasseh will be my sons just as Reuben and Simeon are my sons.
6. But if you have other children, they will be your own. But their land will be part of the land given to Ephraim and Manasseh.
7. When I came from Northwest Mesopotamia, Rachel died in the land of Canaan. We were traveling toward Ephrath. This made me very sad. I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath.” (Today Ephrath is Bethlehem.)