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Numbers 26:35-37
These were the descendants of Ephraim by their clans: through Shuthelah, the Shuthelahite clan; through Beker, the Bekerite clan; through Tahan, the Tahanite clan.These were the descendants of Shuthelah: through Eran, the Eranite clan.These were the clans of Ephraim; those numbered were 32,500. These were the descendants of Joseph by their clans.
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Deuteronomy 33:17
In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
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Genesis 39:1-23
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did,Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well- built and handsome,and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said,“ Come to bed with me!”But he refused.“ With me in charge,” he told her,“ my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.She caught him by his cloak and said,“ Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,she called her household servants.“ Look,” she said to them,“ this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.Then she told him this story:“ That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me.But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying,“ This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison,the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
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Genesis 37:1-36
Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.He said to them,“ Listen to this dream I had:We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”His brothers said to him,“ Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers.“ Listen,” he said,“ I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said,“ What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem,and Israel said to Joseph,“ As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”“ Very well,” he replied.So he said to him,“ Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem,a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him,“ What are you looking for?”He replied,“ I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”“ They have moved on from here,” the man answered.“ I heard them say,‘ Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.“ Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other.“ Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands.“ Let’s not take his life,” he said.“ Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe— the ornate robe he was wearing—and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.Judah said to his brothers,“ What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.He went back to his brothers and said,“ The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.They took the ornate robe back to their father and said,“ We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”He recognized it and said,“ It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.“ No,” he said,“ I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
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Genesis 49:22-26
“ Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall.With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility.But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb.Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
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Genesis 46:20
In Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.
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Genesis 30:24
She named him Joseph, and said,“ May the Lord add to me another son.”
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Genesis 48:1-22
Some time later Joseph was told,“ Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.When Jacob was told,“ Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.Jacob said to Joseph,“ God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed meand said to me,‘ I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’“ Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers.As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath”( that is, Bethlehem).When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked,“ Who are these?”“ They are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said,“ Bring them to me so I may bless them.”Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.Israel said to Joseph,“ I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him.But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.Then he blessed Joseph and said,“ May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,the Angel who has delivered me from all harm— may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.”When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.Joseph said to him,“ No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”But his father refused and said,“ I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.”He blessed them that day and said,“ In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing:‘ May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.Then Israel said to Joseph,“ I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”
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Numbers 2:18-19
On the west will be the divisions of the camp of Ephraim under their standard. The leader of the people of Ephraim is Elishama son of Ammihud.His division numbers 40,500.