Genesis 48:14

וַיִּשְׁלַח יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־יְמִינוֹ וַיָּשֶׁת עַל־רֹאשׁ אֶפְרַיִם וְהוּא הַצָּעִיר וְאֶת־שְׂמֹאלוֹ עַל־רֹאשׁ מְנַשֶּׁה שִׂכֵּל אֶת־יָדָיו כִּי מְנַשֶּׁה הַבְּכֽוֹר׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּשְׁלַח֩ יִשְׂרָאֵ֨ל אֶת־יְמִינ֜וֹ וַיָּ֨שֶׁת עַל־רֹ֤אשׁ אֶפְרַ֙יִם֙ וְה֣וּא הַצָּעִ֔יר וְאֶת־שְׂמֹאל֖וֹ עַל־רֹ֣אשׁ מְנַשֶּׁ֑ה שִׂכֵּל֙ אֶת־יָדָ֔יו כִּ֥י מְנַשֶּׁ֖ה הַבְּכֽוֹר׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἐκτείνας δὲ Ἰσραὴλ τὴν χεῖρα τὴν δεξιὰν ἐπέβαλεν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν Ἐφράιμ, οὗτος δὲ ἦν ὁ νεωτερος, καὶ τὴν ἀριστερὰν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν Μανασσή, ἐναλλὰξ τὰς χεῖρας.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Qui extendens manum dexteram, posuit super caput Ephraim minoris fratris: sinistram autem super caput Manasse qui major natu erat, commutans manus.

Spanish

Pero Israel cruzó las manos a propósito y extendió su mano derecha para ponerla sobre la cabeza de Efraín, aunque era el menor, y su mano izquierda la puso sobre la cabeza de Manasés, a pesar de que él era el primogénito.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Entonces Israel extendió su diestra, y púsola sobre la cabeza de Ephraim, que era el menor, y su siniestra sobre la cabeza de Manasés, colocando así sus manos adrede, aunque Manasés era el primogénito.

English

But Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger; and crossing his hands, he put his left on Manasseh ’s head, although Manasseh was the firstborn.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 48:14 describes Jacob (called here by his other name, Israel) stretching out his hands to bless his two grandsons, deliberately crossing them so that his right hand rests on Ephraim, the younger son, and his left hand on Manasseh, the firstborn. The verse itself supplies the reason: Manasseh was the bekhor ("firstborn").

Key words

yish.Lach ("he stretched out", H7971) — qal narrative verb; marks the physical initiating action of the gesture.
ye.mi.N-o ("his right [hand]", H3225) — construct noun + possessive suffix; the construct form ties the hand directly to Israel as the acting subject, emphasizing whose hand is used, not merely "a" right hand.
ha.tza.'Ir ("the young [one]", H6810) — adjective with article, forming with the pronoun hu' ("he", H1931) a short nominal clause ("and he was the younger") inserted into the narrative to clarify Ephraim's status before the crossing is explained.
si.Kel ("he laid cross-wise", H7919) — piel perfect; the root elsewhere relates to "understanding" or "acting with insight," but here in the piel stem it denotes the physical act of crossing the hands, a specialized sense not conveyed by a literal gloss of the root.
ha.be.Khor ("the firstborn", H1060) — noun with article, functioning as predicate in a verbless clause after ki ("for", H3588), stating the reason for the crossing without any explicit verb "to be."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence moves in two narrative steps joined by va-consecutive verbs: first Israel "stretches out" (yish.Lach) his right hand and "places" (i.Ya.shet) it on Ephraim's head, with a parenthetical clause — "and he was the younger" — breaking into the action to inform the reader of Ephraim's birth order before the hand placement is even finished being described. Then the left hand is placed on Manasseh's head. The verb si.Kel, piel perfect, summarizes the whole crossing motion after the fact, and the following ki clause supplies the causal reason using a verbless nominal sentence: "Manasseh [was] the firstborn." The perfect aspect of si.Kel, following the narrative va-forms, marks this as a completed, deliberate act rather than another link in the narrative chain, giving it a slightly summarizing or explanatory weight within the sentence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders si.Kel as ἐναλλὰξ τὰς χεῖρας ("interchanging the hands"), and the Vulgate uses commutans manus ("exchanging the hands") — both versions render the piel verb as an adverbial participial phrase rather than a separate finite clause as in the Hebrew. The Vulgate additionally specifies Ephraim as "minoris fratris" ("younger brother") and Manasseh as "qui major natu erat" ("who was born the elder"), making explicit the sibling relationship that the Hebrew and LXX leave implicit through the nominal clauses alone.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.