15 And the word of YHWH came unto me, saying:
16 'And thou, son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it: For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions; then take another stick, and write upon it: For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and of all the house of Israel his companions;
17 and join them for thee one to another into one stick, that they may become one in thy hand.
18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying: Wilt thou not tell us what thou meanest by these?
19 say into them: Thus saith YHWH GOD: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them unto him together with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in My hand.
Ezekiel 37
The seeds of Judah and Joseph have special places in the midst of the Children of Israel, which can be clearly seen in the opening quotation. The tribes are seen as companions of either one or the other, for they both represent leadership within the Israelite family. This was foreseen by their father, Jacob.
8 Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise; thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; thy father's sons shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, as long as men come to Shiloh; and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washeth his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes;
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
22 Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a fountain; its branches run over the wall.
23 Those who possess arrows have bitterly argued with him, and hated him;
24 But his bow abode firm, and the arms of his hands were made supple, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, from thence, from the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel,
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
26 The blessings of thy father are mighty beyond the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of the nizir among his brethren.
Genesis 49
I reworded the 23rd verse to make it somewhat clearer and I replaced the word prince in the original translation in the 26th verse with the Hebrew transliteration nizir because prince is not an accurate translation of the Hebrew word. The root נזר means to dedicate, crown; to set something apart for a special purpose; an ornamental placed on the head as a sign of dedication.
Joseph, unbeknown to any of his household, had been dedicated by YHWH for a special purpose which only YHWH knew the nature of. Joseph merely went where the Holy Spirit led him and in all circumstances brought honor to the name of the God of his fathers. This may be the reason his seed in the person of Joshua led the Children of Israel back into the promised land, and why the Children of Israel later asked Gideon to be their king, but whose reply was that YHWH was their king and neither he nor his house would rule over them. Envy and pride got the best of Jeroboam who knew the heart of his ancestors and that they never had a desire to be in the stead of YHWH as the King of Israel. He knew that eventually the "kingship" would return to the house of David, but he failed to trust that YHWH would alter the nature of that kingship so that ultimate authority would return to Him!
YHWH has a special love for Judah and Joseph and they are destined to put aside their differences and become the leaders they were created to be!
12 And He will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the dispersed of Israel, and gather together the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and they that harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14 And they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines on the west; together shall they spoil the children of the east; they shall put forth their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
Isaiah 11
6 For thus saith YHWH: sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout at the head of the nations; announce ye, praise ye, and say: 'O YHWH, save Thy people, The remnant of Israel.'
7 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together; a great company shall they return hither.
8 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them; I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born.
17 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: 'Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf untrained; turn thou me, and I shall be turned, for Thou art YHWH my God.
19 Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me? Is he a child that is dandled? For as often as I speak of him, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore My heart yearneth for him, I will surely have compassion upon him, saith YHWH.
Jeremiah 31
By the Word of YHWH, the House of Judah and the House of Joseph/Ephraim will be one Israelite nation in the land promised to their fathers. Judah must acknowledge Ephraim and Ephraim must do the same and acknowledge Judah in the land they will have returned to as separate entities. The one who refuses to recognize the other will suffer the consequences, for the Word of YHWH will not fall to the ground!
YAH YAHWAH - יה יהוה is the spiritual representation of Joseph and Judah; Joseph was the 11th son, which is 2, and received a double blessing, Judah was the 4th son. Let he who has ears to hear and a heart to understand.....