Genesis 48:17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

It displeased him Joseph had placed his children so as that Jacob's right hand should be put on the head of Manasseh the eldest, Genesis 48:12-13; but Jacob would put it on the head of Ephraim the youngest, Genesis 48:14. This displeased Joseph, who was willing to support the reputation of his firstborn, and would therefore have removed his father's hands, (Genesis 48:17-18,) but Jacob gave him to understand that he knew what he did, and that he did it neither by mistake nor in a humour, nor from a partial affection to one more than the other, but from a spirit of prophecy.

Genesis 48:17

17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeasedc him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.