Genesis 48:20

Summary

Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, declaring that Israel will use their names in future blessings, and asks that God make them like Ephraim and Manasseh. The verse closes by noting that Jacob placed Ephraim's name before Manasseh's in this blessing formula.

Key words

• yevarakhem ("he blessed", H1288) — piel (intensive) verb with narrative vav and a 3mp pronominal suffix, "them"; opens the verse as the main narrated action.
• yevarekh ("it will bless" / "he will bless", H1288) — piel imperfect, active form; grammatically Israel is the subject who blesses, not the recipient of blessing.
• yesimkha ("may he make you", H7760A) — qal imperfect with 2ms suffix; the imperfect here carries an optative/jussive nuance ("may he make"), expressing wish rather than simple future.
• 'Elohim ("God", H0430G) — plural noun functioning as the grammatical subject of yesimkha, standard usage for the divine name with singular verbal agreement understood in context.
• lifnei ("before", H6440G) — construct plural noun ("face of") + preposition, used spatially/hierarchically to mark Ephraim's position relative to Manasseh.

What the text says

The verse is built in two blessing units introduced by le'mor ("saying", H0559) infinitives. The first unit, bekha yevarekh Yisrael ("by you Israel will bless"), uses the piel imperfect yevarekh with Israel as grammatical subject — the sentence describes Israel as the one who will bless others in the future, invoking the boys' names as the content of that blessing formula. The second unit shifts to a wish expressed through the qal imperfect yesimkha ("may he make you"), with 'Elohim as subject, followed by two comparative prepositional phrases, ke-'Efrayim ("like Ephraim", H0669G) and ve-khi-Menashe ("and like Manasseh", H4519G), naming the standard against which the wish is measured.

The closing clause uses the qal narrative verb vayasem ("he put", H7760H) with the direct object marker 'et before 'Efrayim, followed by lifnei Menashe ("before Manasseh"). This construct-plural noun lifnei denotes positional precedence, stating that Ephraim's name was placed ahead of Manasseh's within the blessing act just performed — a detail the grammar marks structurally rather than through explicit ranking vocabulary.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew bekha yevarekh Yisrael is grammatically active — "Israel will bless [by you]" — with Israel as the one performing future blessing. Both the LXX (ἐν ὑμῖν εὐλογηθήσεται Ἰσραήλ, "in you Israel will be blessed") and the Vulgate (in te benedicetur Israël, "in you Israel will be blessed") render this with a passive verb, making Israel the recipient of blessing rather than its future agent. Additionally, the provided LXX text shows ὡς ὡς Μανασσή — the comparison to Ephraim is not present, only "as as Manasseh" appears, differing from the Hebrew's двух-term comparison to both 'Efrayim and Menashe.