Fruitful in the Land of Affliction — Manasseh and Ephraim Are Born

Joseph is thirty years old when he enters Pharaoh’s service and administers the seven abundant years. Before the famine begins, two sons are born to him in Egypt. Their names interpret Joseph’s experience: Manasseh marks relief from his toil and painful separation, while Ephraim confesses that “God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Joseph is becoming fruitful outside Canaan, yet he has not forgotten the God of his fathers or the family story from which he came. These sons will later become enormously important. Genesis 48 explicitly recalls that Ephraim and Manasseh were born to Joseph in Egypt before Jacob arrived, and Jacob will adopt them into his own tribal inheritance structure. What begins here as the naming of two Egyptian-born sons will become part of the future shape of Israel.