Bible Strands
Genesis 41:51
Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s household.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joseph speaks this declaration at the moment he names his firstborn son, Manasseh, immediately following the birth of his two sons by Asenath and preceding the onset of the seven-year famine.
The words — The Hebrew verb נָשַׁךְ (na.sha.kha) literally means "to cause to forget," which Joseph applies directly to his past hardship and his father’s household.
The thread — The motif of divine action overriding human memory connects to the famine’s erasure of Egypt’s former abundance in Genesis 41:30 and the transition from weeping to joy in Psalm 30:5.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to recognize that God’s provision in a new location actively displaces past trauma, demanding trust in divine sovereignty over personal history and identity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Psalms 30:5 For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.
- Proverbs 31:7 Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
- Genesis 41:30 but 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.
- Deuteronomy 33:17 His 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.”
- Psalms 30:11 You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
- Genesis 48:5 And 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.
- Genesis 48:13 And 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.
- Genesis 48:18 “Not so, my father!” Joseph said. “This one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
- Psalms 45:10 Listen, O daughter! Consider and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house,
- Isaiah 57:16 For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me—the breath of life I have made.