Genesis 48:13
וַיִּקַּח יוֹסֵף אֶת־שְׁנֵיהֶם אֶת־אֶפְרַיִם בִּֽימִינוֹ מִשְּׂמֹאל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאֶת־מְנַשֶּׁה בִשְׂמֹאלוֹ מִימִין יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּגֵּשׁ אֵלָֽיו׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּקַּ֣ח יוֹסֵף֮ אֶת־שְׁנֵיהֶם֒ אֶת־אֶפְרַ֤יִם בִּֽימִינוֹ֙ מִשְּׂמֹ֣אל יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְאֶת־מְנַשֶּׁ֥ה בִשְׂמֹאל֖וֹ מִימִ֣ין יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיַּגֵּ֖שׁ אֵלָֽיו׃
λαβὼν δὲ Ἰωσὴφ τοὺς δύο υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ, τόν τε Ἐφράιμ ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ, ἐξ ἀριστερῶν δὲ Ἰσραήλ, τὸν δὲ Μανασσὴ ἐξ ἀριστερῶν, ἐκ δεξιῶν δὲ Ἰσραήλ, ἤγγιαεν αὐτοὺς αὐτῷ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et posuit Ephraim ad dexteram suam, id est, ad sinistram Israël: Manassen vero in sinistra sua, ad dexteram scilicet patris, applicuitque ambos ad eum.
Luego José los tomó a los dos: a Efraín lo puso a su derecha, para que quedara a la izquierda de Israel, y a Manasés a su izquierda, para que quedara a la derecha de Israel, y los acercó a él.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y tomólos José á ambos, Ephraim á su diestra, á la siniestra de Israel; y á Manasés á su izquierda, á la derecha de Israel; é hízoles llegar á él.
And Joseph took both of them — with Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel ’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel ’s right hand — and brought them close to him.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Joseph positions his two sons for Jacob's (Israel's) blessing: he places Ephraim at his own right hand, which corresponds to Israel's left side, and Manasseh at his own left hand, corresponding to Israel's right side. He then brings both boys close to his father.
Key words
- yiqqach ("he took", H3947G) — qal narrative form, marking the next event in the sequence of actions Joseph performs.
- shenehem ("the two of them", H8147) — dual cardinal number with pronominal suffix, explicitly grouping Ephraim and Manasseh as a pair before naming each individually.
- yemino ("his right [hand]", H3225G) — feminine singular construct noun with 3ms suffix, anchoring Ephraim's position relative to Joseph.
- semol ("left", H8040G) — masculine singular construct noun, used twice (once for Joseph's left, once for Israel's left/right), creating the crossed spatial arrangement.
- yagesh ("he brought near", H5066H) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb: Joseph does not merely approach but actively causes the boys to come close to Israel.
What the text says
The verse is built on two parallel object clauses marked by 'et (H0853), each naming a son and specifying two spatial relations: one relative to Joseph's own hands (bi-ymino, "at his right"; bi-smolo, "at his left") and one relative to Israel's hands (mi-semol Yisra'el, "from the left of Israel"; mi-ymin Yisra'el, "from the right of Israel"). Because Joseph and Israel face each other, Ephraim placed at Joseph's right ends up at Israel's left, and Manasseh at Joseph's left ends up at Israel's right. The construct chains (semol Yisra'el, ymin Yisra'el) grammatically tie each side-noun directly to Israel's name, so the text specifies the position not from an absolute viewpoint but relative to the old man about to bless them.
The final verb yagesh is hiphil, a causative stem: Joseph does not simply walk toward Israel, he causes the two boys to be brought near him. This distinguishes the act of positioning (verses on right/left) from the separate act of physically closing the distance for the blessing that follows in the next verse.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate (posuit... ad dexteram... id est, ad sinistram Israël) omits an explicit rendering of shenehem ("the two of them") as a distinct clause and adds the phrase "ad dexteram scilicet patris" ("namely, at the father's right"), a clarifying gloss not present in the Hebrew text, which only says "from the right of Israel" without the added noun "patris" ("father"). The LXX (λαβὼν... τοὺς δύο υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ) preserves the pairing of "his two sons" and the crossed right/left structure closely, rendering the final verb ἤγγισεν ("he brought near") consistent with the Hebrew hiphil yagesh.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.