When Did Yaakov Bless Ephraim and Menashe/1

When Did Yaakov Bless Ephraim and Menashe?

Introduction

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Adults or Youths?

In Bereshit 48, Yaakov gives Yosef's children tribal status and blesses them.  The placement of the narrative a few verses after the statement "וַיִּקְרְבוּ יְמֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לָמוּת" and just a chapter before his actual death suggests that the event is taking place towards the end of his life.  The fact that Yaakov is on a sickbed and tells Yosef that he is soon to die, would seem to confirm this.  Two aspects of the story, nonetheless, make one question the chronology:

• "מִי אֵלֶּה" – Upon noticing Yosef's sons in verse 8, Yaakov asks "Who are these?" as if he had never met them before.  If the story is taking place seventeen years after Yaakov's arrival in Egypt, how is it that Yaakov does not recognize his grandchildren?¹
• "וַיּוֹצֵא יוֹסֵף אֹתָם מֵעִם בִּרְכָּיו" – Before Yaakov blesses Menashe and Ephraim, we are told that Yosef took them out from between his thighs.  The image that is evoked is of two little boys emerging from his lap.  Yet, if Yaakov is near death, Ephraim and Menashe should be in their early twenties, not young children.² How s the depiction to be understood?

 

¹ See Bereshit 47:28, "וַיְחִי יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם שְׁבַע עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה".

² They were born at some point during the years of plenty so they could be anywhere in their early twenties.  [There were 7 years of plenty and two years of famine before Yaakov descended to Egypt and Yaakov dies 17 years after arrival.]