Joseph was sent ahead to preserve his brethren. The article reads Ether 13:6–7 as a type of the latter-day assignment of Joseph’s descendants in America. Paired artistic depiction and contemporary likening.
CFM-08 · Jeremiah 30–52 and Lamentations
Genesis 48:19, Ether 13:6–7, and D&C 109:60: how Ephraim became "the fulness of the Gentiles," and why the Lord sent Joseph’s children ahead
On March 27, 1836, the Prophet Joseph Smith stood in the new temple at Kirtland, Ohio, and read a dedicatory prayer the Lord had given him. Near the end, he described the people who had built that house:
"…the revelations and commandments which thou hast given unto us, who are identified with the Gentiles." (D&C 109:60)
Identified with the Gentiles. Not Israel. Gentiles.
Then, in the very next breath, he started praying for Israel. For "the children of Jacob, who have been scattered upon the mountains" (109:61). For Jerusalem, "that Jerusalem, from this hour, may begin to be redeemed" (109:62). For "the house of David" (109:63). For "the children of Judah" to "begin to return to the lands which thou didst give to Abraham, their father" (109:64). For "the remnants of Jacob" on this continent (109:65).
A Gentile people, in their own temple, pleading for Israel as if Israel were family.
Because it was.
Three years earlier the Lord had told the same people something that sounds like the opposite: "ye are lawful heirs, according to the flesh, and have been hid from the world with Christ in God" (D&C 86:9). Heirs according to the flesh. Israel by blood.
So which is it? Gentile, or Israel?
Both. And the story of how both can be true starts in Egypt.
Two boys born in Egypt
Joseph’s brothers sold him for "twenty pieces of silver" (Genesis 37:28), and the buyers carried him into Egypt. Years later, raised from prison to the right hand of Pharaoh, Joseph married. Pharaoh "gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On" (41:45).
Two sons were born: "unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On bare unto him" (46:20).
Read that slowly. Ephraim and Manasseh were born in Egypt, to an Egyptian mother. Israel on one side, the nations on the other, from the cradle.
Joseph named the younger one after what Egypt had been for him: "Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction" (41:52). Fruitful in the land of affliction. That’s the name the Lord would carry into the last days.
Then Jacob came down to Egypt, and he did two remarkable things.
First, he adopted them. "Thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine" (48:5). Two boys born in Egypt, of an Egyptian mother, counted as full sons of Israel, equal to the firstborn.
Second, he crossed his hands. Joseph set Manasseh, the elder, at Jacob’s right hand. "And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger… guiding his hands wittingly" (48:14). Joseph tried to move them (48:17–18). Jacob wouldn’t:
"I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations." (48:19)
"The fulness of the Gentiles"
The King James Version says "a multitude of nations." The Hebrew says something sharper: melo ha-goyim, literally, "the fulness of the nations," or "the fulness of the Gentiles." Goyim is the same Hebrew word the King James translates elsewhere as "nations," "Gentiles," and "heathen."
Now listen to Paul, writing to the Romans about Israel’s blindness and return: "blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:25). His Greek is plērōma tōn ethnōn, "the fulness of the nations." The languages differ, but we hear the same idea Jacob spoke over Ephraim’s head.
And Nephi, explaining his father’s olive tree: "the grafting in of the natural branches through the fulness of the Gentiles… in the latter days… then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed" (1 Nephi 15:13).
Jacob promised that Ephraim’s seed would become the fulness of the Gentiles. It did.
Now put two verses side by side. Genesis 48:19 says Ephraim’s seed would become "the fulness of the Gentiles." D&C 109:60 says that’s us: a people "identified with the Gentiles." When Joseph Smith prayed in the Kirtland Temple for a people the world counted as Gentiles, Jacob had already promised, thousands of years before, that Ephraim would become them.
Mixed among the people
The birthright went to Joseph. "His birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel… For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s" (1 Chronicles 5:1–2). Judah got the scepter. Joseph got the birthright, and through Jacob’s crossed hands, Ephraim carried it.
Then Ephraim got lost.
Hosea is the Ephraim book. No prophet talks about Ephraim more, and almost none of it is flattering. The most famous line:
"Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned." (Hosea 7:8)
Picture a flat loaf on a hot stone, never flipped. Burnt on one side, raw on the other. That was Ephraim after the Assyrians carried the northern tribes away: scattered into the nations, mixed in until no one could find him, half one thing and half the other.
Isaiah wasn’t any gentler. He opens a whole chapter on Ephraim’s crown:
"Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!" (Isaiah 28:1)
That crown would be "trodden under feet" (28:3). And the rot went all the way to the top: "the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine… they err in vision, they stumble in judgment" (28:7). Isaiah even shows Joseph’s two sons turning on each other, and then on their brother: "Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah" (9:21). Proud, drunk, and at war with their own family. That’s the Ephraim the prophets saw.
But neither prophet leaves Ephraim there. In Hosea the Lord says, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?… mine heart is turned within me" (11:8). And at the very end: "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?… From me is thy fruit found" (14:8). Fruitful again, the way Joseph named him.
Jeremiah gives us Ephraim’s side of the conversation. You’ll recognize it from this week’s lesson:
"I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus… turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God." (Jeremiah 31:18)
Hosea’s cake was "not turned." Jeremiah’s Ephraim asks to be turned. The English echo is real, though the Hebrew uses two different verbs, haphak, to flip over, and shuv, to return. And the Lord answers him: "Is Ephraim my dear son?… I will surely have mercy upon him" (31:20). "Ephraim is my firstborn" (31:9).
Moroni names the type
Here is the verse at the center of all of it.
Moroni, abridging the prophet Ether, records what Ether saw about this land: that "a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type" (Ether 13:6). Then he tells us what the type is:
"For as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore, the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph that they should perish not, even as he was merciful unto the father of Joseph that he should perish not." (Ether 13:7)
Joseph going down into Egypt is a type of the Lord bringing Joseph’s seed to this land. That isn’t our reading. Moroni says it in so many words.
The first remnant he means is Lehi’s family. Lehi was "a descendant of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by the hands of his brethren" (Alma 10:3). Jacob had said Joseph would be "a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall" (Genesis 49:22), and Latter-day Saints have long read that wall as the ocean. Moroni continues: "the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land; and it shall be a land of their inheritance" (Ether 13:8).
And look who he says will live in that New Jerusalem: "they whose garments are white through the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who are numbered among the remnant of the seed of Joseph" (13:10). Numbered among. The way Jacob counted two Egyptian-born boys as his own sons.
Our reading of the second branch. Lehi’s seed was one branch of Joseph brought to this land. The other came by a longer road. Ephraim, scattered and mixed into the nations until his children were Gentiles, was gathered out of those nations onto the same land, and the Lord told them they were "lawful heirs, according to the flesh" (D&C 86:9). Two branches of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, on the land Moroni says was typed by Egypt.
Sent ahead, for the brethren
Joseph never told his brothers that they sent him to Egypt. He told them God did:
"Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life… to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance." (Genesis 45:5, 7)
And at the end: "ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good… to save much people alive" (50:20).
Sent ahead. That’s the assignment that comes with the birthright.
Joseph of Egypt saw that it would happen again. Lehi quotes him: "A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins… And unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren" (2 Nephi 3:7). "His name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father" (3:15). A latter-day Joseph, son of a Joseph, raised up in the land of Joseph’s seed, to do a work for his brethren.
The record that work brought forth says on its own title page that it was written "to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile," and that it would "come forth in due time by way of the Gentile." A Gentile road, carrying Israel’s book, to Israel.
Nephi said the same. The Lord would "raise up a mighty nation among the Gentiles, yea, even upon the face of this land" (1 Nephi 22:7), and do "a marvelous work among the Gentiles, which shall be of great worth unto our seed" (22:8). It’s Isaiah’s picture: "I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles… and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders" (Isaiah 49:22).
So when the Lord told the early Saints who they were, He gave them both halves of Joseph’s job in one sentence:
"Therefore, blessed are ye if ye continue in my goodness, a light unto the Gentiles, and through this priesthood, a savior unto my people Israel." (D&C 86:11)
A light unto the Gentiles. That’s Isaiah’s phrase for the Lord’s servant: "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles" (Isaiah 49:6). A savior unto my people Israel. That’s Joseph in Egypt. Obadiah saw the same thing: "saviours shall come up on mount Zion… and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s" (Obadiah 1:21).
The Lord gives the same picture in the Doctrine and Covenants when the lost tribes come home from the north: "there shall they fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim" (D&C 133:32). The richer blessing is "upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows" (133:34). Moses said Joseph’s horns would "push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim" (Deuteronomy 33:17).
The birthright isn’t a rank. It’s a job: gather the family.
And Judah comes to Joseph
There’s one more scene in Egypt, and it’s the most tender in Genesis.
The brothers come down to buy grain. Joseph knows them; they don’t know him. He tests them by threatening to keep Benjamin as a slave. And Judah, the brother who first suggested selling Joseph (37:26–27), steps forward and offers himself instead:
"Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren." (Genesis 44:33)
That breaks Joseph. "Then Joseph could not refrain himself… and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me… while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren" (45:1). "I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt" (45:4).
The first reunion of Joseph and Judah happened in Egypt, when Judah was ready to give himself for his brother.
Isaiah saw how the long quarrel between the two houses would end, and he wrote it with the two names side by side: "The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim" (Isaiah 11:13). Ezekiel saw the same day: "I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim… and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand" (Ezekiel 37:19).
Joseph’s people and Judah’s people, one in the Lord’s hand. It’s why a Gentile people in the Kirtland Temple prayed for "the children of Judah" to return. Joseph was praying for his brother.
The two faces of Egypt
Egypt isn’t simple in scripture, and we shouldn’t make it simple here.
Egypt is a refuge. Joseph was sent ahead there to save life. And when Herod came for the children of Bethlehem, an angel sent another Joseph into Egypt with the Child: "Out of Egypt have I called my son" (Matthew 2:15).
Egypt is also a trap. "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses… but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 31:1). Jeremiah’s last warning to Judah’s survivors was "Go ye not into Egypt" (Jeremiah 42:19). They went anyway, and in Egypt they decided truth was whatever kept them prosperous (44:17–18).
If you’ve read Isaiah with us, you know we read Egypt as America. Ether 13 gives that reading its strongest footing, and it holds both faces. America is where Joseph’s children were sent ahead to save life. It’s also the strong nation the covenant people are tempted to trust instead of the Lord. The same land can be your deliverance or your idol. Which one it becomes depends on which way you’re turned.
Where this lands
This isn’t a story about someone else. Nephi told us how to read it: "I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning" (1 Nephi 19:23).
So who are we?
Gentile by nation. "Identified with the Gentiles" (D&C 109:60). The book came "by way of the Gentile."
Israel by lineage. "Lawful heirs, according to the flesh" (D&C 86:9). Ephraim’s seed became "the fulness of the Gentiles" (Genesis 48:19), and the Lord gathered them back out.
Joseph by assignment. "A light unto the Gentiles… a savior unto my people Israel" (D&C 86:11). Sent ahead, "to preserve life."
The crossing this asks of you is small and enormous at once. Stop thinking of yourself as a Gentile who happened to join something. Start thinking of yourself as Joseph’s child, sent into Egypt ahead of your brothers, with a job to do for them.
And when you feel more like Hosea’s cake than Joseph’s bough, half-baked, burnt on one side and raw on the other, pray Ephraim’s prayer: "Turn thou me, and I shall be turned." The Lord’s answer is already written: "Is Ephraim my dear son?… I will surely have mercy upon him."
When Jeremiah wrote "Ephraim is my firstborn," he was writing about us.
Joseph’s story was always pointing past Joseph. Sold by his brothers for silver, he became the one who saved them, and the whole family came home to their father. The New Jerusalem belongs to those whose "garments are white through the blood of the Lamb" (Ether 13:10).
The birthright never belonged to Ephraim. It runs through Christ to the Father, and Ephraim only gets to carry it home.
I know the Lord crossed His hands on purpose. I know He sent Joseph’s children ahead into a strange land to save life, and I know some of us are those children, whether we feel like it or not.
Isaiah saw what we were sent to do: "they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders," and kings and queens would become "nursing fathers" and "nursing mothers" to a scattered family (Isaiah 49:22–23).
We’ve heard that calling before, and not only in Isaiah. We hear it in our own temple, in our own initiatory. Are we listening? Are we awake? Do our ears hear, and do our eyes see?
That’s Joseph’s work, and it’s ours. It’s a father’s work and a mother’s work: to lift a child who isn’t yours onto your shoulders and carry them all the way home. He carried us that way first.
And I know that when we ask Him to turn us, He does, and He brings the whole family home to the Father.
"God did send me before you to preserve life." — Genesis 45:5
Credit: Avraham Gileadi has also written on Ephraim as "the fulness of the Gentiles" at the Isaiah Institute. This article reads Genesis 48:19 in our own words. Avraham has given decades to the Hebrew of Isaiah, and his flagship book, Isaiah Decoded: Ascending the Ladder to Heaven, lays out Isaiah’s ladder to heaven: Babylon/Chaldea, Jacob/Israel, Zion/Jerusalem, and the rungs above them. Ken calls it the decoder ring itself, the codex for Isaiah. If Isaiah has ever felt sealed to you, start there.
Ken Krogue is a co-founder of The Covenant Project and has been deeply searching Isaiah for more than ten years. He writes with two AI research partners, Orson (Claude) and Nathan (ChatGPT), and approves every word.
Search alongside this article: Seven Ways People Read Isaiah · The Rest of the Book: Jeremiah & Lamentations.
