‘And to Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, which Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for he said, “God has made me forget all my labour and all my father's house.” And the name of the second he called Ephraim, “for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” '
Not only was the land fruitful, but Joseph and his wife were fruitful as well, and they had two sons ‘before the year of famine came'.
“Potiphera”, a similar name to Potiphar. They were probably two renderings of the same not uncommon Egyptian name.
“Manasseh.” This means ‘making to forget'. This was because the joy of having a firstborn son, added to the privileged position he now enjoyed, enabled him to forget what had gone before.
“All my father” s house.' He has also been able to forget the treatment at the hands of his brothers. But this does not mean that he totally forgot his home for, as we discover later, he had fond memories of his father and of Benjamin.
“Ephraim.” From the root ‘to be fruitful'. This demonstrated his joy in the fruitfulness of the land and in his own fruitfulness.