Genesis 48:20-22

"And he blessed them that day, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh; and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die, but God will be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

The blessing was concluded; and it may be inferred that Joseph accepted it as coming from God, and as not being due to any unwillingness on his father's part to honor Joseph's personal wishes in the matter.

The concluding statement of the chapter to the effect that Joseph would receive "one portion" above his brethren is a disputed text and is somewhat ambiguous in meaning. The word rendered portion also means mountain or mountain slope, shoulder, or Shechem. Jacob does not appear from any other Biblical passages to have been a warrior; hence, the statement that he had won it with his sword and bow is surprising. Of course, this could easily be a glimpse into some event spoken of nowhere else in the Scripture. All things considered, it seems best to regard this as a prophecy that children of Joseph would inherit the area around Shechem at a point in time centuries later when the inheritance would be divided among the sons of Jacob. "The words are a prophetic utterance pointing forward to the conquest of Canaan; and Jacob here ascribes to himself what would be done by his posterity in wresting the area from the Amorites."[11] Many scholars have pointed out here that the prophetic tense is used in which the past is used for the future, indicating the CERTAINTY of what was prophesied.

We pause before leaving this chapter to think upon the vast significance of it. By Jacob's legal adoption of the two sons of Joseph who would inherit on a parity with the other sons of Jacob, he assured Joseph of the double portion. He gave Rachel three of the Twelve Patriarchs instead of only two. He set up the situation in which Levi could be separated for the work of the Lord and still retain the number twelve, considered by the Hebrews a sacred number, as the total number of the Patriarchs, the head of the Twelve Tribes of the Old Israel.