And Joseph said unto his father, they [are] my sons, whom God hath given me in this [place],.... In the land of Egypt; he accounts his sons as the gifts of God, as children are, Psalms 127:3; and it was not only a sentiment of the Jews, that children are the gift of God; hence the names of Mattaniah, Nathaniel, c. but of Heathens, as the Greeks and Romans, among whom are frequent the names of men which show it, as Theodorus, Deodatus, Apollodorus, Artemidorus, &c.
and he said, bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them not in a common way, barely wishing them prosperity and happiness, but as a patriarch and prophet, under the influence and inspiration of the Spirit of God, declaring what would befall them, and what blessings they should be partakers of, in time to come.