John Chrysostom : Words of a grateful heart, of a God-fearing spirit keeping fresh in his mind God's kindnesses. He to whom my forebears were pleasing, he is saying, who reared me from youth to the present, who from the beginning snatched me from every trouble, who showed such care for me, he "will bless these children; my name will be invoked in them, as also the name of my forebears Abraham and Isaac, and they will grow into a teeming multitude on the earth." Do you see Jacob's insight and, at the same time, his humility? His insight, on the one hand, in foreseeing with the eyes of faith, and so giving precedence to Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. And on the other his humility, in making no mention at all of his own virtue but instead invoking a blessing on them on the basis of the satisfaction given by his forebears and the kindnesses done to him. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 66.1