What Does Ephraim Mean in the Bible Read through 2 lenses

Joseph "he adds". The increasing faculty; whatever it is put over multiplies.

Egypt "narrow place". From the Hebrew root for a strait or siege; the pressed condition where the adding faculty is tested.

Manasseh "causing to forget". The power to stop carrying your father's house and your losses; born first, so release comes before increase.

Ephraim "doubly fruitful". A dual form: not fruitful but twice fruitful, a yield that returns doubled from the place that squeezed you.

Asenath "meaning uncertain". An Egyptian name with no settled sense; she mothers both faculties, so your increase is half-native to the narrow place.

Potipherah "meaning uncertain". Egyptian priests were the schooled class, keepers of records and measures, and the forgetting and doubling descend from that side.

On "meaning uncertain". On is Heliopolis, Egypt's sun-temple city and seat of learning; your doubling has that for a grandfather.

• Teaching: The adding part of you fathers 2 things inside the narrow place, first the power to forget what you carried, then a doubled fruitfulness, and both come through a mother out of that place and a priestly line from the sun city; the tight place is where both are born.