Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 48:17
And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.
It displeased him, because of that affection which parents generally have for their first-born. See Gen 21:11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him,…. To see the younger preferred to the elder; parents, generally speaking, having the greatest regard to the firstborn with respect to honour and estate, and to them, in those times, the patriarchal blessing particularly was thought to belong; but it did not always go to them, but to the younger, as in Jacob’s own case:
and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head; he took him by the right hand, and lifted it up from the head of Ephraim, and held it in order that he might put it by his direction on the head of Manasseh.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When Joseph observed his father placing his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, the younger son, he laid hold of it to put it upon Manasseh’s head, telling his father at the same time that he was the first-born; but Jacob replied, “ I know, my son, I know: he also (Manasseh) will become a nation, and will become great, yet ( as in Gen 28:19) his younger brother will become greater than he, and his seed will become the fulness of nations.” This blessing began to be fulfilled from the time of the Judges, when the tribe of Ephraim so increased in extent and power, that it took the lead of the northern tribes and became the head of the ten tribes, and its name acquired equal importance with the name Israel, whereas under Moses, Manasseh had numbered 20,000 more than Ephraim (Num 26:34 and Num 26:37). As a result of the promises received from God, the blessing was not merely a pious wish, but the actual bestowal of a blessing of prophetic significance and force. – In Gen 48:20 the writer sums up the entire act of blessing in the words of the patriarch: “ In thee (i.e., Joseph) will Israel (as a nation) bless, saying: God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh ” (i.e., Joseph shall be so blessed in his two sons, that their blessing will become a standing form of benediction in Israel); “ and thus he placed Ephraim before Manasseh, ” viz., in the position of his hands and the terms of the blessing. Lastly, (Gen 48:21) Israel expressed to Joseph his firm faith in the promise, that God would bring back his descendants after his death into the land of their fathers (Canaan), and assigned to him a double portion in the promised land, the conquest of which passed before his prophetic glance as already accomplished, in order to insure for the future the inheritance of the adopted sons of Joseph. “ I give thee one ridge of land above thy brethren ” (i.e., above what thy brethren receive, each as a single tribe), “which I take from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and bow” (i.e., by force of arms). As the perfect is used prophetically, transposing the future to the present as being already accomplished, so the words must also be understood prophetically, as denoting that Jacob would wrest the land from the Amorites, not in his own person, but in that of his posterity.
(Note: There is no force in Kurtz’s objection, that this gift did not apply to Joseph as the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, but to Joseph personally; for it rests upon the erroneous assumption, that Jacob separated Joseph from his sons by their adoption. But there is not a word to that effect in Gen 48:6, and the very opposite in Gen 48:15, viz., that Jacob blessed Joseph in Ephraim and Manasseh. Heim’s conjecture, which Kurtz approves, that by the land given to Joseph we are to understand the high land of Gilead, which Jacob had conquered from the Amorites, needs no refutation, for it is purely imaginary.)
The words cannot refer to the purchase of the piece of ground at Shechem (Gen 33:19), for a purchase could not possibly be called a conquest by sword and bow; and still less to the crime committed by the sons of Jacob against the inhabitants of Shechem, when they plundered the town (Gen 34:25.), for Jacob could not possibly have attributed to himself a deed for which he had pronounced a curse upon Simeon and Levi (Gen 49:6-7), not to mention the fact, that the plundering of Shechem was not followed in this instance by the possession of the city, but by the removal of Jacob from the neighbourhood. “Moreover, any conquest of territory would have been entirely at variance with the character of the patriarchal history, which consisted in the renunciation of all reliance upon human power, and a believing, devoted trust in the God of the promises” ( Delitzsch). The land, which the patriarchs desired to obtain in Canaan, they procured not by force of arms, but by legal purchase (cf. Gen 24 and Gen 33:19). It was to be very different in the future, when the iniquity of the Amorites was full (Gen 15:16). But Jacob called the inheritance, which Joseph was to have in excess of his brethren, (lit., shoulder, or more properly nape, neck; here figuratively a ridge, or tract of land), as a play upon the word Shechem, because he regarded the piece of land purchased at Shechem as a pledge of the future possession of the whole land. In the piece purchased there, the bones of Joseph were buried, after the conquest of Canaan (Jos 24:32); and this was understood in future times, as though Jacob had presented the piece of ground to Joseph (vid., Joh 4:5).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
17. And when Joseph saw. Because by crossing his arms, Jacob had so placed his hands as to put his left hand upon the head of the first-born, Joseph wished to correct this proceeding, as if it had been a mistake. He thought that the error arose from dimness of vision; but his father followed the Spirit of God as his secret guide, in order that he might transfer the title of honor, which nature had conferred upon the elder to the younger. For, as he did not rashly assume to himself the office of conveying the blessing; so was it not lawful for him to attempt anything according to his own will. And at length it was evident by the event, that whatever he had done had been dictated to him from heaven. Whereas Joseph took it amiss, that Manasseh, who by the right of nature was first, should be cast down to the second place, this feeling arose from faith and from holy reverence for the prophetic office. For he would easily have borne to see him make a mistake in the order of embracing the youths; if he had not known that his father; as a minister of divine grace, so far from acting a futile part, was but pronouncing on earth what God would ratify in heaven. Yet he errs in binding the grace of God to the accustomed order of nature: as if the Lord did not often purposely change the law of nature, to teach us that what he freely confers upon us, is entirely the result of his own will. If God were rendering to every one his due, a certain rule might properly be applied to the distribution of his favors; but since he owes no one anything, he is free to confer gifts at his own pleasure. More especially, lest any one should glory in the flesh, he designedly illustrates his own free mercy, in choosing those who had no worthiness of their own. What shall we say was the cause, why he raised Ephraim above his own brother, to whom, according to usage, he was inferior? If any one should suppose that Ephraim had some hidden seed of excellence, he not only vainly trifles, but impiously perverts the counsel of God. For since God derives from himself and from his own liberality, the cause, why he prefers one of the two to the other: he confers the honor upon the younger, for the purpose of showing that he is bound by no claims of human merit; but that he distributes his gifts freely, as it seems good unto him. And while this liberty of God is extended to every kind of good, it yet shines the most clearly in the first adoption, whereby he predestinates to himself, those whom he sees fit, out of the ruined mass. Wherefore, be it our part to leave to God his whole power untouched, and if at any time, our carnal sense rebels, let us know that none are more truly wise than they who are willing to account themselves blind, when contemplating the wonderful dealings of God, in order that they may trace the cause of any difference he makes, to himself alone. We have seen above, that the eyes of Jacob were dim: but in crossing his arms, with apparent negligence, in order to comply with God’s purpose of election, he is more clear-sighted than his son Joseph, who, according to the sense of the flesh, inquires with too much acuteness. They who insanely imagine that this judgment was formed from a view of their works, sufficiently declare, by this one thing, that they do not hold the first rudiments of faith. For either the adoption common both to Manasseh and to Ephraim, was a free gift, or a reward of debt. Concerning this second supposition all ambiguity is removed, by many passages of Scripture, in which the Lord makes known his goodness, in having freely loved and chosen his people. Now no one is so ignorant; as not to perceive that the first place is not assigned to one or the other, according to merit; but is given gratuitously, since it so pleases the Lord. With regard to the posture of the hands, the subtlety of certain persons, who conjecture that the mystery of the cross was included in it, is absurd; for the Lord intended nothing more than that the crossing of the right hand and the left should indicate a change in the accustomed order of nature.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
17. It displeased him Hebrews, it was evil in his eyes . He looked upon it as an evil omen, and interfered to correct what he regarded a mistake of his father . Nor was he the first or the last fond father who has been displeased with the order of divine providence touching his sons .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim it displeased him, and he held up his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.” ’
Joseph is upset. As a father he wants his sons to be treated fairly (possibly he remembers what the result was of his father’s favouritism). He is so incensed that he interrupts the blessing. Joseph’s action demonstrates how important this was all seen to be. It was a matter of precedence, which was accepted everywhere in the ancient world, that the firstborn received the primary blessing, although there were exceptions. In the Keret Legend found at Ugarit it says, ‘The youngest of them I will make firstborn’. But possibly Jacob remembers his own past. He too was the younger and yet he received the firstborn’s blessing. And something in his heart tells him that this is right here. It is in the end God Who is sovereign and will do His will.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 48:17. When Joseph sawit displeased him Jacob was guided by the spirit of prophecy in what he did, Joseph only by paternal affection. Though Joseph himself was endowed with the spirit of prophecy, he possessed it not now; for prophets were not always inspired, nor with the knowledge of all things. Old Jacob speaks with prophetic energy: I know it, my son, I know it, Gen 48:19. He also shall be great; but his younger brother shall be greater than he; his posterity shall be greater, both in number and in dignity: and in completion of this, the family of Ephraim was a more numerous tribe than that of Manasseh, Num 1:32-34. and in many respects had the pre-eminence, Num 18:20. Deu 33:17. Joshua and Jeroboam both were of this tribe; and the kingdom of the ten tribes is frequently called that of Ephraim, Isa 9:17; Isa 11:13; Isa 28:1. Hos 5:12-13; Hos 5:15. What is called a multitude of nations, shall become a multitude of nations, is, in the Hebrew, fulness of nations, that is, of families; as much as to say, “His offspring shall replenish the country with numerous families:” the fulness of the earth, and the fulness of the sea, is that which the earth and the sea contain, and which replenishes them, Psa 96:11. Isa 42:10. Psa 24:1.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 48:17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.
Ver. 17. And when Joseph saw that, &c. ] So great a prophet and diviner as Joseph was, in this was out in his judgment. He seeth not that man’s dignity is “not by works,” or nature, but grace and “election.” Rom 9:7-8 ; Rom 9:11-12
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 48:17-22
17When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him; and he grasped his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Place your right hand on his head.” 19But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also will become a people and he also will be great. However, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”
20He blessed them that day, saying,
“By you Israel will pronounce blessing, saying,
‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!'”
Thus he put Ephraim http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/special_topics/laying_on_hands.htmlbefore Manasseh. 21Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers. 22I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”
Gen 48:17 “it displeased him” This VERB in the Qal stem (BDB 949, KB 1269, Qal IMPERFECT) is a strong VERB denoting Joseph’s feeling about this reversal. The VERB can describe
1. distress, Gen 21:11-12
2. displeasure, Num 11:10; Jos 24:15; 1Sa 8:6; 1Sa 18:8; 2Sa 11:25; Neh 2:10
3. grief, Deu 15:10; 1Sa 1:8; Neh 2:3
4. hostility, Deu 15:9; Deu 28:54; Deu 28:56
5. evil, Gen 38:10; 2Sa 11:27
6. went ill with, Psa 106:32; 2Sa 20:6
Obviously #2 fits this context best, but it is a strong word. Joseph’s feelings about what Jacob did were not a minor issue! He interrupted the blessing in an attempt to move Jacob’s hand. Even Joseph did not always know the Lord’s will. Jacob, not Joseph, is the Patriarch of the covenant family.
Gen 48:19 The VERB “I know” (BDB 393, KB 390, two Qal PERFECTS) is repeated twice for emphasis. Jacob knew what he was doing (apparently by divine leadership). The reversal of expectations would continue.
Gen 48:20 “Israel” The “he” of line 1 refers to Jacob/Israel, but Israel in the second line could refer to the nation (a collective, cf. TEV).
“May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh” This is going to be a blessing proverb which was used by the people of God.
Gen 48:21 “Behold I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers” The “I” is emphatic. Jacob is the Patriarch. This is another allusion to the fact that the whole family will be delivered from Egypt and that they will return to the Promised Land (cf. Gen 15:12-16).
Gen 48:22 “I give you one portion more than your brothers” This term “portion” (BDB 1014 I) is literally “shoulder” in Hebrew. It is the name of the city of Shechem. Some think it refers to this geographical location because of the remainder of Gen 48:22, which refers to the slaughter of the Shechemites, but this seems unusual because in the book of Genesis this is such a negative act. Others say that the word “shoulder” means that they were a stature higher, i.e. inherited more-the double inheritance of the firstborn. Some say that it refers to Shechem being the territory which Ephraim will inherit and others say it refers to Shechem being the site where Joseph will be buried (cf. Jos 24:32). Manasseh will inherit on both sides of the Jordan (the only tribe to do so). Ephraim will be the largest of the tribes in number and land allocation (Judah second). Ephraim will dominate the northern part of Canaan, as Judah does the south. The leader Joshua is from Ephraim, as is Samuel!
“which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow” This seems to be a historical event, but we do not have a record of it. The rabbis speculate that after the slaughter of the Shechemites that the other Canaanite kings came against Jacob and that he defeated them in battle. There is no record of this.
The term Amorite is a collective term to describe all of the Canaanite tribes (cf. Gen 15:16). See Special Topic: PRE-ISRAELITE INHABITANTS OF PALESTINE .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
displeased. Hebrew was evil in his eyes.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
laid his: Gen 48:14
displeased him: Heb. was evil in his eyes, Gen 28:8, Gen 38:10, Num 11:1, Num 22:34, *marg. 1Sa 16:7, 1Ki 16:25, 1Ch 21:7, Pro 24:18, Rom 9:7, Rom 9:8, Rom 9:11
Reciprocal: Mat 25:33 – his
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 48:17. It displeased him Joseph had placed his children so as that Jacobs right hand should be put on the head of Manasseh the eldest, Gen 48:12-13; but Jacob would put it on the head of Ephraim the youngest, Gen 48:14. This displeased Joseph, who was willing to support the reputation of his firstborn, and would therefore have removed his fathers hands, (Gen 48:17-18,) but Jacob gave him to understand that he knew what he did, and that he did it neither by mistake nor in a humour, nor from a partial affection to one more than the other, but from a spirit of prophecy.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
48:17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it {g} displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.
(g) Joseph fails by binding God’s grace to the order of nature.