What Does Genesis 50:23 Mean?

And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. Joseph lives long enough to see Ephraim's great-grandchildren and Manasseh's grandchildren (through Machir). The generational depth that Joseph witnesses: great-grandchildren through Ephraim: is the fulfillment of the blessing Jacob pronounced over Ephraim and Manasseh: "let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth" (Genesis 48:16). Joseph sees in his own lifetime the beginning of the multiplication he received by blessing.

"The children of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own": the adoption formula echoes Jacob's adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh as his own (Genesis 48:5). Joseph adopts his grandchildren through Manasseh's son Machir to his own household: the same pattern of adoption within the patriarchal family that Jacob used for Joseph's sons. The practice of adoption within the family continues: Joseph as grandfather adopting the children of his grandson Machir into his own lineage. The family-adoption as covenant inclusion is a persistent thread.

Machir son of Manasseh is a significant figure in later Israelite history: his descendants receive the Gilead territory east of Jordan as their inheritance (Numbers 32:39 to 40), and the tribe that eventually controls that territory is the Manassite Machirites. Joseph seeing Machir's children is Joseph seeing the seedbed of a significant territorial claim that the Numbers and Joshua narratives will later trace. The 110-year life of Joseph spans from his birth to the third generation of his grandchildren: a generational arc that represents the fulfillment of his tribal legacy beginning within his lifetime.