Ephraim (Person)

Joseph’s younger son, born of Joseph and Asenath before the seven years of famine in Egypt (Gn 41:52). He was the ancestor of an Israelite tribe, and his name came to designate the northern kingdom of Israel (Is 7:5, 8; Jer 31:18–20; Hos 5:3–5). Ephraim’s boyhood overlapped the last 17 years of his grandfather, the patriarch Jacob, who migrated to Egypt during the years of famine. Thus Ephraim could learn of God’s promises and blessings directly from Jacob. After Jacob exacted an oath from Joseph to bury him in Canaan he adopted his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh. That adoption gave the two brothers the position and legal rights equal to Jacob’s eldest sons, Reuben and Simeon (Gn 48:5).

See also Ephraim, Tribe of.