1 Some time later Joseph was told, "Your father is sick." So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.
2 Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you." So Israel became stronger and sat up in bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, "The Mighty God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan. He blessed me there.
4 He said to me, 'I am going to give you children. I will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of nations. And I will give this land to your children after you. It will belong to them forever.'
5 "Now then, two sons were born to you in Egypt. It happened before I came to you here. They will be counted as my own sons. Ephraim and Manasseh will belong to me, in the same way that Reuben and Simeon belong to me.
6 "Any children who are born to you after them will belong to you. Any territory they receive will come from the land that is given to Ephraim and Manasseh.
7 "As I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died. It made me very sad. She died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way. We weren't very far away from Ephrath. So I buried her body there beside the road to Ephrath." Ephrath was also called Bethlehem.