GroundedNarrativeGenesis 48–49 (selected)
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One reading, Genesis 48–49 (selected). It crosses the chapter line on purpose. The chapter numbers are a later overlay; the argument is the unit.
The deathbed blessings
Genesis 48–49 (selected)narrative
The deathbed blessings
The history
Blind old Jacob, like his blind old father before him, blesses the next generation, and crosses his hands to set the younger ahead of the elder one final time, the pattern the whole book has run on. He curses the cruelty of Simeon and Levi, still remembering Dinah decades later, and he hands the scepter not to the favored Joseph but to Judah, the brother who offered himself. Then he gathers his feet into the bed and dies, and is carried back to the cave of Machpelah, to lie with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah, the wife he did not choose.
Sarna · Westermann · Alter
14But 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. 7Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. 10The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his. 33When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.