Genesis 48:8 - Exposition

And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these ? The failing sight of the patriarch ( Genesis 48:10 ) probably was the reason why he did not sooner recognize his grandchildren, and the fact that he did not at first discern their presence shows that his adoption of them into the number of the theocratic family was prompted not by the accidental impulse of a natural affection excited through beholding the youths, but by the inward promptings of the Spirit of God.