Arcana Coelestia # 6282
6282. 'May he bless the boys' means, May he make it possible for them to have truth and goodness. This is clear from the meaning of 'blessing' as endowing with truth and goodness, for in the spiritual sense 'a blessing' does not imply anything else, 1420, 1422, 4981; and from the representation of Ephraim and Manasseh, to whom 'the boys' refers here, as the Church's understanding and the Church's will, to which truth and good were to be imparted, truth to its understanding and good to its will.
Matthew 24:9-10
9
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.