Ephraim, a “multitude of nations?”

How did Ephraim become a “multitude of nations”?

From Genesis 48.

8. When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, they asked, “Who are these?”

9 “These are the children that God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so I can bless them.” 10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing due to old age, and he could hardly see. Then Joseph drew his sons close to him, and his father kissed and hugged them. 11 Israel told Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your sons as well.”

12Then Joseph took them off Israel’s knees and bowed with his face to the ground. 13And Joseph took them both, Ephraim on his right to the left hand of Israel and Manasseh on his left to the right hand of Israel, and brought them close to him. 14 But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, although he was the youngest, and crossing his arms, he laid his left hand on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was his firstborn.

… 17 When José saw that his father put his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he was upset; so he took his father’s hand to pass it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” 19But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. However, his younger brother will be older than he, and his offspring will be a group of nations.

Here we have a problem. As far as we can tell, through verifiable and respected sources, the descendants of the Jews of Ephraim never gave birth to another nation as we know it, let alone a multitude, or even a “group” (NIV) of nations. Later I can share how the NIV and a couple of others had the audacity to go to another Hebrew word entirely here. The Hebrew word that translates as “crowd” may be “assembly” and the like, but nothing as small as a “group”, for which the Hebrew uses a completely different word.

Tracking down the idea of ​​”assembly” in Genesis and elsewhere, it most often refers to the multitudes of people within the nation of Israel, so we have gained little by using that word. All major translations and most of the minor ones use “crowd” as their preferred word.

So we’re in a bind. Ephraim’s descendants were not nation makers. I quote from Wikipedia here:

“As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Ephraim was conquered by the Assyrians,

[that’s in the Bible, several times] and the exiled tribe; the manner of his exile led to his later history being lost. [Hence the “10 lost tribes” that everyone wants to claim as their own].

“However, several modern groups claim descent [only several, not a multitude], with different levels of academic and rabbinic support. The Samaritans claim that some of their adherents are descended from this tribe, and many Persian Jews claim descent from Ephraim. Further afield, in India, Telugu Jews claim descent from Ephraim and call themselves Bene Ephraim, relating similar traditions to those of the Mizo Jews, whom the modern state of Israel considers descendants of Manasseh.[23]

Various Western Christian groups, particularly those in the Church of God in Christ, claim that the entire United Kingdom is a direct descendant of Ephraim, and that the entire United States is a direct descendant of Manasseh, based on the interpretation that Jacob had said these two the tribes would become the most supreme nations in the world…”

So when Ephraim, with all of Israel, was invaded by Assyria, did the resulting intermarriage with the nations produce peoples of Jewish blood throughout the known world?

There is no help there. Let’s go back to the Scriptures. Joshua maybe? When he conquered Canaan, he and his people became lords, but above all extinguishers, of many nations. Joshua was from Ephraim! But could the Canaanite nations be considered his and Ephraim’s “descendants”? Were the Canaanites now Israelites, Ephraimites? And was not Joshua co-heir of Canaan with all the people of Israel?

Jeroboam, the soon to be wicked Ephraimite, also ruled over the ten “tribes” of Israel. Are the ten tribes really ten nations? But does Jeroboam force them all to be Ephraimites so that the prophecy will now be fulfilled?
Some have further altered the text by changing the word “multitude” to “fullness” and making the nations singular. Ephraim must be the “fullness of the nation,” whatever that means.

Ephraim was always an important part of Israel, even though most of the time it was important in a negative way. They were bigger (later smaller) than Manasseh, which would fulfill the first part of the prophecy. But “fullness” doesn’t seem to be quantifiable and so it’s not easy to see when it’s fulfilled.

We are running out of options. I don’t think we should accept a bad option if there seem to be no good ones. We can relegate all this to the future, and speak of a time when the lost tribes will meet, and populate nations and fulfill this prophecy directly…

… or is there a last way if that is not the way. Instead of focusing on “multitude”, we can take a closer look at the Hebrew word for “nations”. It’s familiar to us, I think. It is the popular “Goy”(s) or “Goyim” in the plural. We translate it often, gentiles. Because any nation other than Israel is just a nation. The word is also translated as “people” when the text demands it. And there is a ray of light for us. Is Genesis 48:19 one of those times where “Goyim” should be translated as “people” and not “nations”?

“People” is used to translate “goy” (the singular, not the plural) in isolated passages in some of the prophets. Once in Kings. In Joshua, 3 times most translators went this way, one time in particular that is of interest to this discussion, in Joshua 5:6:

“For the children of Israel went forty years in the wilderness, until all the people who were men of war, who had come out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord:”

Joshua is obviously not talking about a nation. It was a subset of the nation of Israel, the men of war who came out of Egypt and disobeyed and died. Nation will not fit here, but “people” will, and that is where the translators went.

So although “goy” or “goyim” usually means a foreign nation, its basic idea is a group of people (hence the NIV understanding). With that understanding of the Hebrew word, the text lines up beautifully.

Ephraim will be great. Older than Manasseh, at least initially. Tons of tribes, clans, and families will emerge from Ephraim, and his people will dominate Israel, for better or worse.

Perhaps it is important to note here how some prophecies are temporary and based on people’s circumstances. Ephraim, like Abel, Isaac, Jacob, David… were not firstborn sons, but anyway they were chosen by God to be his blessed. Ephraim did indeed gain ascendancy, as Jacob saw ahead of time. According to the first census of Israel, where Ephraim had 8,000 more than his brother Manasseh. And Ephraim became the father of many clans in Israel.

But Ephraim fell from that grace. I’m not sure why. But at the end of the book of Numbers, in the second census, Ephraim had lost 8,000 souls while Manasseh gained 20,000. A further fall was achieved by leading Israel, through Jeroboam’s idolatry, into the pit of total rejection of God. To this day, no one knows what happened to Ephraim. May this fall teach us.

We are a chosen generation, to be sure, but pride can still mark us. harm us destroy us