Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s household.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, “For”, he said, “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.”
- KJV And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.
- NKJV Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.”
- NASB Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh; “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my trouble and all of my father’s household.”
- NLT Joseph named his older son Manasseh, for he said, “God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father’s family.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Joseph names his firstborn Manasseh, saying God made him forget his hardship and his father's house.
Overview
The name Manasseh ('making to forget') testifies that God healed Joseph's painful past. Joseph gives God the credit for relief from his suffering. His faith interprets his life through God's gracious hand even in exile.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 30:5For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.
- Prov 31:7Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
- Deut 33:17His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.”
- Gen 41:30but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will devastate the land.
- Ps 30:11You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
- Gen 48:5And now your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here shall be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.
- Isa 57:16For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me, with the breath of those I have made.
- Gen 48:18–20“Not so, my father!” Joseph said. “This one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
- Isa 65:16Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth, and whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the former troubles will be forgotten and hidden from My sight.
- Gen 48:13–14And Joseph took both of them—with Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand—and brought them close to him.
- Ps 45:10Listen, O daughter! Consider and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house,
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 41:51 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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