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, “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 Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and 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, who were born here in Egypt before I came, 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, and 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, as we were traveling toward Ephrath. This made me very sad, and I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath.” (Today Ephrath is Bethlehem.)