Here is the passage that I referred to earlier about how Joseph acquired all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, essentially making all of Egypt vassals to Pharaoh. But you also have a little incident that foreshadows things to come. Joseph takes his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to his father and Jacob claims the boys as his own. Basically, he is taking the boys into his inheritance at the same level as Reuben and Simeon. Rather, they take Joseph's place. You never hear of the tribe of Joseph or of Josephites as you do Danites, Levites, or Benjaminites. You could say that one of the boys takes Joseph's place and the other takes Simeon's place, as his tribe is left out of the inheritance. We'll learn more about that in the next chapter, but his sins at Shechem come back to haunt him. So, though Jacob had twelve sons, and twelve tribes came from Israel, two of those tribes for much of the Bible actually belong to Joseph through his sons of Ephraim and Manasseh. You will see this a lot in the books of Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges... wherever the tribes are spoken about in depth, especially as relates to land allotments, censuses, etc. And why do we always say "Ephraim and Manasseh" when Manasseh is actually the elder? This passage explains. Jacob blessed Eprhaim over his older brother Manasseh, just as Jacob the younger brother had been chosen over the elder Esau, just as Isaac had been chosen rather than his older brother Ishmael. (Do you wonder if possibly Abraham was the younger brother has well? Though he is mentioned first which usually, unless explained otherwise as in here, it means the first is the eldest.) This perpetuates the favoring of the younger son over the older, "more logical" son.
Tomorrow! The blessing's of Israel's sons. Very interesting stuff.
Tomorrow's Reading: Genesis 49:1-50:14
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