“And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.”
He blessed them that day and said: in your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: may God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. The blessing formula — may God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh — becomes the standard blessing of Israel. Ephraim, the younger, named first. The application: the reversal of order established in the blessing becomes the permanent order. The covenant pattern of the younger elevated becomes the blessing-formula by which Israel's children are blessed.
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