Jacob called to his sons, and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.
Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father.
“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power.
Boiling over like water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed, then defiled it. He went up to my couch.
“Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence.
My soul, don’t come into their council. My glory, don’t be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their self-will they hamstrung cattle.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
“Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up?
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be.
Binding his foal to the vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.
His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 1. And Jacob called. In the former chapter, the…
1. And Jacob called. In the former chapter, the blessing on Ephraim and Manasseh was related Genesis 48:1, because, before Jacob should treat of the state of the whole nation about to spring from him, it was right that these two grandsons should be inserted into the body of his sons. Now, as if carried above the heavens, he announces, not in the character of a man, but as from the mouth of God, what shall be the condition of them all, for a long time to come. And it will be proper first to remark, that as he had then thirteen sons, he sets before his view, in each of their persons, the same number of nations or tribes: in which act the admirable lustre of his faith is conspicuous. For since he had often heard from the Lord, that his seed should be increased to a multitude of people, this oracle is to him like a sublime mirror, in which he may perceive things deeply hidden from human sense. Moreover, this is not a simple confession of faith, by which Jacob testifies that he hopes for whatever had been promised him by the Lord; but he rises superior to men, at the interpreter and ambassador of God, to regulate the future state of the Church. Now, since some interpreters perceived this prophecy to be noble and magnificent, they have thought that it would not be adorned with its proper dignity, unless they should extract from it certain new mysteries. Thus it has happened, that in striving earnestly to elicit profound allegories, they have departed from the genuine sense of the words, and have corrupted, by their own inventions, what is here delivered for the solid edification of the pious. But lest we should depreciate the literal sense, as if it did not contain speculations sufficiently profound, let us mark the design of the holy Spirit. In the first place, the sons of Jacob are informed beforehand, of their future fortune, that they may know themselves to be objects of the special care of God; and that, although the whole world is governed by his providence, they, notwithstanding, are preferred to other nations, as members of his own household. It seems apparently a mean and contemptible thing, that a region productive of vines, which should yield abundance of choice wine, and one rich in pasturers, which should supply milk, is promised to the tribe of Judah. But if any one will consider that the Lord is hereby giving an illustrious proof of his own election, in descending, like the father of a family, to the care of food, and also showing, in minute things, that he is united by the sacred bond of a covenant to the children of Abraham, he will look for no deeper mystery. In the second place; the hope of the promised inheritance is again renewed unto them. And, therefore, Jacob, as if he would put them in possession of the land by his own hand, expounds familiarly, and as in an affair actually present, what kind of habitation should belong to each of them. Can the confirmation of a matter so serious, appear contemptible to sane and prudent readers? It is, however, the principal design of Jacob more correctly to point out from whence a king should arise among them, who should bring them complete felicity. And in this manner he explains what had been promised obscurely, concerning the blessed seed. In these things there is so great weight, that the simple treating of them, if only we were skillful interpreters, ought justly to transport us with admiration. But (omitting all things else) an advantage of no common kind consists in this single point, that the mouth of impure and profane men, who freely detract from the credibility of Moses, is shut, so that they no longer dare to contend that he did not speak by a celestial impulse. Let us imagine that Moses does not relate what Jacob had before prophesied, but speaks in his own person; whence, then, could he divine what did not happen till many ages afterwards? Such, for instance, is the prophecy concerning the kingdom of David. And there is no doubt that God commanded the land to be divided by lot, lest any suspicion should arise that Joshua had divided it among the tribes, by compact, and as he had been instructed by his master. After the Israelites had obtained possession of the land, the division of it was not made by the will of men. Whence was it that a dwelling near the sea-shore was given to the tribe of Zebulun; a fruitful plain to the tribe of Asher; and to the others, by lot, what is here recorded; except that the Lord would ratify his oracles by the result, and would show openly, that nothing then occurred which he had not, a long time before, declared should take place? I now return to the words of Moses, in which holy Jacob is introduced, relating what he had been taught by the Holy Spirit concerning events still very remote. But some, with canine rage, demand, Whence did Moses derive his knowledge of a conversation, held in an obscure hut, two hundred years before his time? I ask in return, before I give an answer, Whence had he his knowledge of the places in the land of Canaan, which he assigns, like a skillful surveyor, to each tribe? If this was a knowledge derived from heaven, (which must be granted,) why will these impious babblers deny that the things which Jacob has predicted, were divinely revealed to Moses? Besides, among many other things which the holy fathers had handed down by tradition, this prediction might then be generally known. Whence was it that the people, when tyrannically oppressed, implored the assistance of God as their deliverer? Whence was it, that at the simple hearing of a promise formerly given, they raised their minds to a good hope, unless that some remembrance of the divine adoption still flourished among them? If there was a general acquaintance with the covenant of the Lord among the people; what impudence will it be to deny that the heavenly servants of God more accurately investigated whatever was important to be known respecting the promised inheritance? For the Lord did not utter oracles by the mouth of Jacob which, after his death, a sudden oblivion should destroy; as if he had breathed, I know not what sounds, into the air. But rather he delivered instructions common to many ages; that his posterity might know from what source their redemption, as well as the hereditary title of the land, flowed down to them. We know how tardily, and even timidly, Moses undertook the province assigned him, when he was called to deliver his own people: because he was aware that he should have to deal with an intractable and perverse nation. It was, therefore, necessary, that he should come prepared with certain credentials which might give proof of his vocation. And, hence, he put forth these predictions, as public documents from the sacred archives of God, that no one might suppose him to have intruded rashly into his office.
Gather yourselves together Jacob begins with inviting their attention. For he gravely enters on his subject, and claims for himself the authority of a prophet, in order to teach his sons that he is by no means making a private testamentary disposition of his domestic affairs; but that he is expressing in words, those oracles which are deposited with him, until the event shall follow in due time. For he does not command them simply to listen to his wishes, but gathers them into an assembly by a solemn rite, that they may hear what shall occur to them in the succession of time. Moreover, I do not doubt, that he places this future period of which he speaks, in opposition to their exile in Egypt, that, when their minds were in suspense, they might look forward to that promised state. Now, from the above remarks, it may be easily inferred, that, in this prophecy is comprised the whole period from the departure out of Egypt to the reign of Christ: not that Jacob enumerates every event, but that, in the summary of things on which he briefly touches, he arranges a settled order and course, until Christ should appear.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 When God shall bring you out of Egypt, and…
When God shall bring you out of Egypt, and because that he speaketh of the Messiah, he nameth it the last days.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–12 Gen 49:1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and…
Gen 49:1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you [that] which shall befall you in the last days.
Ver. 1. Gather yourselves together.] This is Jacob’s swan-like song, {a} his last bequeath, his farewell to the world; and it is a most heavenly one. The wine of God’s Spirit is usually strongest and best at last in the hearts of his people: his motions, quickest when natural motions are slowest; most sensible when the body begins to be senseless most lively when holy men are dying. Look how the sun shines most amiably toward the descent and rivers, the nearer they draw to the sea, the sooner they are met by the tide: so it is with the saints when nigh to death; when grace is changing into glory, they deliver themselves usually to the standers-by most sweetly. So, besides Jacob, did Moses, Joshua, Paul, and he in whose one example is a globe of precepts, our Lord Jesus Christ, in that last heavenly sermon and prayer of his, Joh 14:1-31; Joh 15:1-27; Joh 16:1-33; Joh 17:1-26 Whereunto let me add that faithful martyr, John Diazius, who was cruelly butchered by his own brother Alphonsus Diazius, and that merely for his religion. {See Trapp on "Gen 4:8"} I remember, saith Senarclaeus, his friend and bedfellow, who wrote the history of his death, when he and I were at Newburg, the very night before he was murdered, he prayed before he went to bed more ardently than ordinary, and for a longer time together. After which he spent a good part of the night in discoursing of the great works of God, and exhorting me to the practice of true piety. And truly I felt myself so inflamed and quickened by his words, that when I heard him discoursing, I thought I heard the Spirit of God speaking unto me. This, and much more, Senarclaeus writes to Bucer, {b} who at that time had employed Diazius to overlook the correct printing of a book of his that was then in the press.
Read full note →
That I may tell you that which shall befall you.] But how knew Moses this last speech of Jacob, being born so long after? Partly by revelation, and partly also by tradition. For the words of dying men are living oracles, and their last speeches are long remembered. And the accomplishment of all these prophecies in their due time, as the following scriptures show, adds much to the authority of Moses’s writings, and confirms them to be "faithful and true," as he saith, Joh 21:24.
{a} Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis, Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor. - Ovid., Epist.
{b} Ego vero illius oratione sic incendebar, ut cum eum disserentem audirem, Spiritus sancti verba me audire existimarem. - Ibid.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Or, in the following times, or latter days, when…
Or, in the following times, or latter days, when you shall enter into and be settled in the Land of Promise. Hereby he signifies, that he speaks here of things which concern not so much their persons as their posterity.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 8 Here is, I. The preface to the prophecy, in…
Here is, I. The preface to the prophecy, in which, 1. The congregation is called together (Gen 49:2): Gather yourselves together; let them all be sent for from their several employments, to see their father die, and to hear his dying words. It was a comfort to Jacob, now that he was dying, to see all his children about him, and none missing, though he had sometimes thought himself bereaved. It was of use to them to attend him in his last moments, that they might learn of him how to die, as well as how to live: what he said to each he said in the hearing of all the rest; for we may profit by the reproofs, counsels, and comforts, that are principally intended for others. His calling upon them once and again to gather together intimated both a precept to them to unite in love, (to keep together, not to mingle with the Egyptians, not to forsake the assembling of themselves together,) and a prediction that they should not be separated from each other, as Abraham's sons and Isaac's were, but should be incorporated, and all make one people. 2. A general idea is given of the intended discourse (Gen 49:1): That I may tell you that which shall befal you (not your persons, but your posterity) in the latter days; this prediction would be of use to those that came after them, for the confirming of their faith and the guiding of their way, on their return to Canaan, and their settlement there. We cannot tell our children what shall befal them or their families in this world; but we can tell them, from the word of God, what will befal them in the last day of all, according as they conduct themselves in this world. 3. Attention is demanded (Gen 49:2): "Hearken to Israel your father; let Israel, that has prevailed with God, prevail with you." Note, Children must diligently hearken to what their godly parents say, particularly when they are dying. Hear, you children, the instruction of a father, which carries with it both authority and affection, Pro 4:1.
II. The prophecy concerning Reuben. He begins with him (Gen 49:3, Gen 49:4), for he was the firstborn; but by committing uncleanness with his father's wife, to the great reproach of the family to which he ought to have been an ornament, he forfeited the prerogatives of the birthright; and his dying father here solemnly degrades him, though he does not disown nor disinherit him: he shall have all the privileges of a son, but not of a firstborn. We have reason to think Reuben had repented of his sin, and it was pardoned; yet it was a necessary piece of justice, in detestation of the villany, and for warning to others, to put this mark of disgrace upon him. Now according to the method of degrading, 1. Jacob here puts upon him the ornaments of the birthright (Gen 49:3), that he and all his brethren might see what he had forfeited, and, in that, might see the evil of the sin: as the firstborn, he was his father's joy, almost his pride, being the beginning of his strength. How welcome he was to his parents his name bespeaks, Reuben, See a son. To him belonged the excellency of dignity above his brethren, and some power over them. Christ Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren, and to him, of right, belong the most excellent power and dignity: his church also, through him, is a church of firstborn. 2. He then strips him of these ornaments (Gen 49:4), lifts him up, that he may cast him down, by that one word, "Thou shalt not excel; a being thou shalt have as a tribe, but not an excellency." No judge, prophet, nor prince, is found of that tribe, nor any person of renown except Dathan and Abiram, who were noted for their impious rebellion against Moses. That tribe, as not aiming to excel, meanly chose a settlement on the other side Jordan. Reuben himself seems to have lost all that influence upon his brethren to which his birthright entitled him; for when he spoke unto them they would not hear, Gen 42:22. Those that have not understanding and spirit to support the honours and privileges of their birth will soon lose them, and retain only the name of them. The character fastened upon Reuben, for which he is laid under this mark of infamy, is that he was unstable as water. (1.) His virtue was unstable; he had not the government of himself and his own appetites: sometimes he would be very regular and orderly, but at other times he deviated into the wildest courses. Note, Instability is the ruin of men's excellency. Men do not thrive because they do not fix. (2.) His honour consequently was unstable; it departed from him, vanished into smoke, and became as water spilt upon the ground. Note, Those that throw away their virtue must not expect to save their reputation. Jacob charges him particularly with the sin for which he was thus disgraced: Thou went est up to thy father's bed. It was forty years ago that he had been guilty of this sin, yet now it is remembered against him. Note, As time will not of itself wear off the guilt of any sin from the conscience, so there are some sins whose stains it will not wipe off from the good name, especially seventh-commandment sins. Reuben's sin left an indelible mark of infamy upon his family, a dishonour that was a wound not to be healed without a scar, Pro 6:32, Pro 6:33. Let us never do evil, and then we need not fear being told of it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–12 And Jacob called upon his sons,.... Who either were…
And Jacob called upon his sons,.... Who either were near at hand, and within call at the time Joseph came to visit him, or if at a distance, and at another time, he sent a messenger or messengers to them to come unto him:
and said, gather yourselves together; his will was, that they should attend him all together at the same time, that he might deliver what he had to say to them in the hearing of them all; for what he after declares was not said to them singly and alone, but when they were all before him:
Read full note →
that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days; not their persons merely, but their posterity chiefly, from that time forward to the coming of the Messiah, who is spoken of in this prophecy, and the time of his coming; some things are said relating to temporals, others to spirituals; some are blessings or prophecies of good things to them, others curses, or foretell evil, but all are predictions delivered out by Jacob under a spirit of prophecy; some things had their accomplishment when the tribes of Israel were placed in the land of Canaan, others in the times of the judges, and in later times; and some in the times of the Messiah, to which this prophecy reaches, whose coming was in the last days, Heb 1:1 and Nachmanides says, according to the sense of all their writers, the last days here are the days of the Messiah; and in an ancient writing of the Jews it is said (x), that Jacob called his sons, because he had a mind to reveal the end of the Messiah, i.e. the time of his coming; and Abraham Seba (y) observes, that this section is the seal and key of the whole law, and of all the prophets prophesied of, unto the days of the Messiah.
(x) Zohar in Gen. fol. 126. 1. (y) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 57. 4. & 58. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–10 Jacob is here upon his death-bed making his will:…
Jacob is here upon his death-bed making his will: what he said here he could not say when he would, but as the Spirit gave him utterance, who chose this time that divine strength might be perfected in this weakness. The twelve sons of Jacob were in their day men of renown; but the twelve tribes of Israel, which descended and were denominated from them, were much more renowned, we find their names upon the gates of the new Jerusalem, Rev. xxi, 12. In the prospect of which their dying father saith something remarkable of each son, or of the tribe that bore his name. Here is,
I. The preface, ver. 1, 2.
Read full note →
II. The prediction concerning each tribe, ver. 3-28.
III. The charge repeated concerning his burial, ver. 29-32.
IV. His death, ver. 33.
Gather yourselves together - Let them all be sent for to see their father die, and to hear his dying words. "Twas a comfort to Jacob, now he was dying, to see all his children about him tho' he had sometimes thought himself bereaved: 'twas of use to them to attend him in his last moments, that they might learn of him how to die, as well as how to live; what he said to each, he said in the hearing of all the rest, for we may profit by the reproofs, counsels and comforts that are principally intended for others. That I may tell you that which shall befall you, not your persons but your posterity, in the latter days - The prediction of which would be of use to those that come after them, for confirming their faith, and guiding their way, at their return to Canaan. We cannot tell our children what shall befall them, or their families, in this world; but we can tell them from the word of God, what will befall them in the last day of all, according as they carry themselves in this world.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 Jacob, about to die, calls his sons together that…
CHAPTER XLIX
Jacob, about to die, calls his sons together that he may bless them,
Read full note →
or give prophetic declarations concerning their posterity, 1, 2.
Prophetic declaration concerning Reuben, 3, 4.
Concerning Simeon and Levi, 57;
concerning Judah, 8-12;
concerning Zebulun, 13;
concerning Issachar, 14, 15;
concerning Dan, 16-18;
concerning Gad, 19;
concerning Asher, 20;
concerning Naphtali, 21;
concerning Joseph, 22-26;
concerning Benjamin, 27.
Summary concerning the twelve tribes, 28.
Jacob gives directions concerning his being buried in the cave
of Machpelah, 29-32.
Jacob dies, 33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLIX
Verse 1. That which shall befall you in the last days.] It is evident from this, and indeed from the whole complexion of these important prophecies, that the twelve sons of Jacob had very little concern in them, personally considered, as they were to be fulfilled in the last days, i. e., in times remote from that period, and consequently to their posterity, and not to themselves, or to their immediate families. The whole of these prophetic declarations, from Ge 49:2-27 inclusive, is delivered in strongly figurative language, and in the poetic form, which, in every translation, should be preserved as nearly as possible, rendering the version line for line with the original. This order I shall pursue in the succeeding notes, always proposing the verse first, in as literal a translation as possible, line for line with the Hebrew after the hemistich form, from which the sense will more readily appear; but to the Hebrew text and the common version the reader is ultimately referred.
2. Come together and hear, O sons of Jacob!
And hearken unto Israel your father.
Bishop Newton has justly observed that Jacob had received a double blessing, spiritual and temporal; the promise of being progenitor of the Messiah, and the promise of the land of Canaan. The promised land he might divide among his children as he pleased, but the other must be confined to one of his sons; he therefore assigns to each son a portion in the land of Canaan, but limits the descent of the blessed seed to the tribe of Judah. Some have put themselves to a great deal of trouble and learned labour to show that it was a general opinion of the ancients that the soul, a short time previous to its departure from the body, becomes endued with a certain measure of the prophetic gift or foresight; and that this was probably the case with Jacob. But it would be derogatory to the dignity of the prophecies delivered in this chapter, to suppose that they came by any other means than direct inspiration, as to their main matter, though certain circumstances appear to be left to the patriarch himself, in which he might express his own feelings both as a father and as a judge. This is strikingly evident, 1. In the case of Reuben, from whom he had received the grossest insult, however the passage relative to him may be understood; and, 2. In the case of Joseph, the tenderly beloved son of his most beloved wife Rachel, in the prophecy concerning whom he gives full vent to all those tender and affectionate emotions which, as a father and a husband, do him endless credit.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Gen 49:1. Gather yourselves together — It was his…
Gen 49:1. Gather yourselves together — It was his will that they should all be sent for to see their father die, and to hear his dying words. It would be a comfort to him, who had sometimes thought himself bereaved, to see all his children about him when he was dying, and he hoped it would be a blessing to them to attend him in his last moments, and witness his confidence and hope in God, the serenity and peace of mind in which he could quit this world and all its concerns, to enter the invisible and eternal state. It appears that what he said to each he said in the audience of all the rest, for we may profit by the reproofs, counsels, and encouragements which are principally intended for others. In the last days — Or following times, when they should be settled in the land of promise. Hereby he signified that he was about to speak of things which concerned their posterity rather than themselves. “It is an opinion of great antiquity,” says Bishop Newton, on the Prophecies, “that the nearer men approach to their dissolution, their souls grow more divine, and discern more of futurity.
And what I conceive might principally give rise to this opinion, was the tradition of some of the patriarchs being divinely inspired in their last moments, to foretel the state and condition of the people descended from them; as Jacob summoned his sons together, that he might inform them of what should befall them in the latter days.” — Vol. 1. p. 85, second edition. We cannot tell our children what shall befall them or their families in this world; but we can tell them, from the word of God, what shall befall them in the last day of all, according as they conduct themselves in this world.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v1 - Jacob Blesses His Sons
- Jacob Blesses His Sons
5. מכרה mekêrāh, “weapon;” related: כיר kārar or כרה kārāh dig. “Device, design?” related: מכר mākar “sell,” in Arabic “take counsel. Habitation.”
Read full note →
10. מחקק mechoqēq, “lawgiver, judge, dispenser of laws.” This word occurs in six other places - Num 21:18; Deu 33:21; Jud. Deu 5:14; Psa 60:9; Psa 108:9; Isa 33:22; in five of which it clearly denotes ruler, or judge. The meaning “sceptre” is therefore doubtful. שׁילה shı̂ylôh, Shiloh, a softened form of שׁילון shı̂ylôn, a derivative of שׁל shol, the ultimate root of שׁלה shālâh, שׁלם shālam, and possibly שׁלט shālaṭ, and hence, denoting “the peacemaker, the prince of peace.” It is not employed as an appellative noun. But it is used afterward as the name of a town, now identified as Seilun. This town probably had its name, like many other ancient places from a person of the same name who built or possessed it.
From the special conference with Joseph we now pass to the parting address of Jacob to his assembled sons. This is at the same time prophetic and benedictory. Like all prophecy, it starts from present things, and in its widest expanse penetrates into the remotest future of the present course of nature.
Gen 49:1-2
And Jacob called his sons - This is done by messengers going to their various dwellings and pasture-grounds, and summoning them to his presence. And he said. These words introduce his dying address. “Gather yourselves together.” Though there is to be a special address to each, yet it is to be in the audience of all the rest, for the instruction of the whole family. “That which shall befall you in the after days.” The after days are the times intervening between the speaker and the end of the human race. The beginning of man was at the sixth day of the last creation. The end of his race will be at the dissolution of the heavens and the earth then called into being, and the new creation which we are taught will be consequent thereupon. To this interval prophecy has reference in general, though it occasionally penetrates beyond the veil that separates the present from the future creation.
The prophet has his mind filled with the objects and events of the present and the past, and from these he must draw his images for the future, and express them in the current language of his day. To interpret his words, therefore, we must ascend to his day, examine his usage of speech, distinguish the transient forms in which truth may appear, and hold fast by the constant essence which belongs to all ages. “Hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken to Israel your father.” This is a specimen of the synthetic or synonymous parallel. It affords a good example of the equivalence, and at the same time the distinction, of Jacob and Israel. They both apply to the same person, and to the race of which he is the head. The one refers to the natural, the other to the spiritual. The distinction is similar to that between Elohim and Yahweh: the former of which designates the eternal God, antecedent to all creation, and therefore, equally related to the whole universe; the latter, the self-existent God, subsequent to the creation of intelligent beings, and especially related to them, as the moral Governor, the Keeper of covenant, and the Performer of promise.
Gen 49:3-4
Reuben, as the first-born by nature, has the first place in the benedictory address. My might. In times and places in which a man’s right depends on his might, a large family of sons is the source of strength and safety. “The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power” - the rank and authority which belong to the first-born. “Boiling over as water.” That which boils over perishes at the same time that it is pernicious. This is here transferred in a figure to the passionate nature of Reuben. “Thou shalt not excel.” There is here an allusion to the excellency of dignity and power. By the boiling over of his unhallowed passions Reuben lost all the excellence that primogeniture confers. By the dispensation of Providence the double portion went to Joseph, the first-born of Rachel; the chieftainship to Judah; and the priesthood to Levi. The cause of this forfeiture is then assigned. In the last sentence the patriarch in a spirit of indignant sorrow passes from the direct address to the indirect narrative. “To my couch he went up.” The doom here pronounced upon Reuben is still a blessing, as he is not excluded from a tribe’s share in the promised land. But, as in the case of the others, this blessing is abated and modified by his past conduct. His tribe has its seat on the east of the Jordan, and never comes to any eminence in the commonwealth of Israel.
Gen 49:5-7
“Simon and Levi are brethren,” by temper as well as by birth. Their weapons. This word is rendered plans, devices, by some. But the present rendering agrees best with the context. Weapons may be properly called instruments of violence; but not so plots. “Habitations” requires the preposition in before it, which is not in the original, and is not to be supplied without necessity. “Into their counsel.” This refers to the plot they formed for the destruction of the inhabitants of Shekem. “They houghed an ox.” The singular of the original is to be understood as a plural denoting the kind of acts to which they were prompted in their passion for revenge. Jacob pronounces a curse upon their anger, not because indignation against sin is unwarrantable in itself, but because their wrath was marked by deeds of fierceness and cruelty. “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” He does not cut them off from any part in the promised inheritance; but he divides and scatters them.
Accordingly they are divided from one another in their after history, the tribe of Simon being settled in the southwest corner of the territory of Judah, and Levi having no connected territory, but occupying certain cities and their suburbs which were assigned to his descendants in the various provinces of the land. They were also scattered in Israel. For Simon is the weakest of all the tribes at the close of their sojourn in the wilderness Num 26:14; he is altogether omitted in the blessing of Moses Deut. 33, and hence, obtains no distinct territory, but only a part of that of Judah Jos 19:1-9; and he subsequently sends out two colonies, which are separated from the parent stock, and from one another 1 Chr. 4:24-43. And Levi received forty-eight towns in the various districts of the land, in which his descendants dwelt, far separated from one another. This prediction was therefore, fulfilled to the letter in the history of these brothers. Their classification under one head is a hint that they will yet count but as one tribe.
Gen 49:8-12
Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, comes in for the supremacy after the three former have been set aside. His personal prowess, the perpetuity of his dominion, and the luxuriance of his soil are then described. “Thee shall thy brethren praise.” This is an allusion to his name, which signifies praise Gen 29:35. As his mother praised the Lord for her fourth son, so shall his brethren praise him for his personal excellence. Ardor of temperament, decision of character, and frankness of acknowledgment are conspicuous even in the blemishes of his early life. Tenderness of conscience, promptitude in resolve, capacity for business, and force of eloquence come out in his riper years. These are qualities that win popular esteem. “Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies.” They shall flee before him, but shall not escape his powerful grasp. They shall be compelled to yield to his overwhelming power. “Thy father’s sons shall bow down to thee.” Not only his enemies, but his friends, shall acknowledge his sway. The similar prediction concerning Joseph Gen 37:6-8 was of a personal nature, and referred to a special occasion, not to a permanent state of affairs. It had already received its main fulfillment, and would altogether terminate with the lifetime of Joseph. The present announcement refers to Judah not as an individual, but as the head of a tribe in Israel, and will therefore, correspond in duration with that commonwealth.
Gen 49:9
A lion’s whelp is Judah. - In physical strength Judah is compared to the lion, the king of beasts. At first he is the lion’s whelp, the young lion, giving promise of future vigor; then the full-grown lion, exulting in his irresistible force, seizing and overmastering the prey, and after reaping the fruits of his victory, ascending to his mountain lair and reposing in undisturbed security. The lioness is brought into the comparison with propriety, as in defense of her cubs she is even more dangerous than the male to the unwary assailant. After being satiated with prey, the lion, reposing in his majesty, will not disturb the passer-by; but who shall rouse him up and escape?
Gen 49:10
From his physical force we now pass to his moral supremacy. “The sceptre,” the staff of authority. “Shall not depart from Judah.” The tribe scepter did not leave Judah so long as there was a remnant of the commonwealth of Israel. Long after the other tribes had lost their individuality, Judah lingered in existence and in some measure of independence; and from the return his name supplanted that of Israel or Jacob, as the common designation of the people. “Nor the lawgiven from between his feet.” This is otherwise rendered, “nor the judicial staff from between his feet;” and it is argued that this rendering corresponds best with the phrase “between his feet” and with the parallel clause which precedes. It is not worth while contending for one against the other, as the meaning of both is precisely the same. But we have retained the English version, as the term מחקק mechoqēq has only one clear meaning; “between the feet” may mean among his descendants or in his tribe; and the synthetic parallelism of the clauses is satisfied by the identity of meaning.
Lawgiver is to be understood as judge, dispenser or administrator of law. Judah had the forerank among the tribes in the wilderness, and never altogether lost it. Nahshon the son of Amminadab, the prince of his tribe, was the ancestor of David, who was anointed as the rightful sovereign of all Israel, and in whom the throne became hereditary. The revolt of the ten tribes curtailed, but did not abolish the actual sovereignty of Rehoboam and his successors, who continued the acknowledged sovereigns until some time after the return from the captivity. From that date the whole nation was virtually absorbed in Judah, and whatever trace of self-government remained belonged to him until the birth of Jesus, who was the lineal descendant of the royal line of David and of Judah, and was the Messiah, the anointed of heaven to be king of Zion and of Israel in a far higher sense than before. “Until Shiloh come.”
This is otherwise translated, “until he come to Shiloh,” the place so called. This is explained of the time when “the whole assembly of the children of Israel was convened at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there” Jos 18:1. We hold by the former translation:
1. Because Shiloh has not yet been named as a known locality in the land of promise.
2. Judah did not come to Shiloh in any exclusive sense.
3. His coming thither with his fellows had no bearing whatever on his supremacy.
4. He did not come to Shiloh as the seat of his government or any part of his territory; and
5. The real sovereignty of Judah took place after this convention at Shiloh, and not before it.
After the rejection of the second translation on these grounds, the former is accepted as the only tenable alternative.
6. Besides, it is the natural rendering of the words.
7. Before the coming of Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, the highest pitch of Judah’s supremacy in its primary form has to be attained.
8. On the coming of Shiloh the last remnant of that supremacy was removed, only to be replaced by the higher form of pre-eminence which the Prince of Peace inaugurates.
And unto him be the obedience of the peoples. - “Unto him” means naturally unto Shiloh. “The obedience” describes the willing submission to the new form of sovereignty which is ushered in by Shiloh. The word is otherwise rendered “gathering;” but this does not suit the usage in Pro 30:17. “The obedience” intimates that the supremacy of Judah does not cease at the coming of Shiloh, but only assumes a grander form.
Of the peoples. - Not only the sons of Israel, but all the descendants of Adam will ultimately bow down to the Prince of Peace. This is the seed of the woman, who shall bruise the serpent’s head, the seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed, presented now under the new aspect of the peacemaker, whom all the nations of the earth shall eventually obey as the Prince of Peace. He is therefore, now revealed as the Destroyer of the works of evil, the Dispenser of the blessings of grace, and the King of peace. The coming of Shiloh and the obedience of the nations to him will cover a long period of time, the close of which will coincide with the limit here set to Judah’s earthly supremacy in its wider and loftier stage. This prediction therefore, truly penetrates to the latter days.
Gen 49:11-12
The exuberant fertility of Judah’s province is now depicted. We now behold him peacefully settled in the land of promise, and the striking objects of rural plenty and prosperity around him. The quiet ass on which he perambulates is tied to the vine, the juice of whose grapes is as copious as the water in which his robes are washed. The last sentence is capable of being rendered, “Red are his eyes above wine, and white his teeth above milk.” But a connection as well as a comparison seems to be implied in the original. Judea is justly described as abounding in the best of wine and milk. This fine picture of Judah’s earthly abode is a fitting emblem of the better country where Shiloh reigns.
Gen 49:13
Zebulun means “dwelling,” to which there is an allusion in the first clause of the verse. “At the haven of seas.” This tribe touched upon the coast of the sea of Kinnereth and of the Mediterranean. It probably possessed some havens for shipping near the promontory of Karmel: and its northwestern boundary touched upon Phoenicia, the territory of Zidon. He is placed before Issakar, who was older, because the latter sank into a subordinate position.
Gen 49:14-15
“An ass of bone,” and therefore, of strength. “Couching between the hurdles” - the pens or stalls in which the cattle were lodged. Rest in a pleasant land he felt to be good; and hence, rather than undertake the struggle for liberty and independence, he became like the strong ass a bearer of burdens, and a payer of tribute. He is thus a hireling by disposition as well as by name Gen 30:18.
Gen 49:16-18
The sons of the handmaids follow those of Leah. “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.” He will maintain his position as a tribe in the state. When threatened by overwhelming power he will put forth his native force for the discomfiture of the foe. The adder is the cerastes or horned serpent, of the color of the sand, and therefore, not easily recognized, that inflicts a fatal wound on him that unwarily treads on it. The few facts in the history of Dan afterward given correspond well with the character here drawn. Some of its features are conspicuous in Samson Judg. 13–16. “For thy salvation have I waited, O Lord.” The patriarch, contemplating the power of the adversaries of his future people, breaks forth into the expression of his longing desire and hope of that salvation of the Almighty by which alone they can be delivered. That salvation is commensurate with the utmost extent and diversity of these adversaries.
Gen 49:19
Gad also shall be subject to the assaults of the enemy. But he shall resist the foe and harass his rear. This brief character agrees with his after history. He is reckoned among the valiant men in Scripture 1Ch 5:18.
Gen 49:20
Asher shall have a soil abounding in wheat and oil. He occupies the low lands along the coast north of Karmel. Hence, the products of his country are fit to furnish the table of kings. Gad and Asher are placed before Naphtali, the second son of Bilhah. We cannot tell whether they were older, or for what other reason they occupy this place. It may be that Naphtali was of a less decisive or self-reliant character.
Gen 49:21
Naphtali is a hind let loose. The hind or “gazelle” is agile and nimble. When free on its native hills, it roams with instinctive confidence and delight. It is timid and irresolute in confinement. This is probably the character of Naphtali. “He giveth goodly words.” Here we pass from the figure to the reality. Eloquence in prose and verse was characteristic of this particular tribe. The only important historical event in which they are concerned is the defeat of Jabin’s host, which is celebrated in the song of Deborah and Barak Jdg 4:5. In this passage we may study the character of the tribe.
Gen 49:22-26
Jacob had doubtless been made acquainted with the history of his beloved son Joseph from the time of his disappearance until he met him on the borders of Egypt. It had been the meditation and the wonder of his last seventeen years. When he comes to Joseph, therefore, the mingled emotions of affection and gratitude burst forth from his heart in language that cannot be restrained by the ordinary rules of speech. The first thing connected with Joseph in the patriarch’s mind is fruitfulness. The image is vivid and striking. “Son of a fruitful tree.” A branch or rather a shoot transplanted from the parent stem. “By a well;” from which it may draw the water of life. “Whose daughters” - luxuriant branches. Run over a wall - transcend all the usual boundaries of a well-enclosed garden. This fruitfulness attaches to Joseph in two respects. First, he is the prudent gatherer and the inexhaustible dispenser of the produce of Egypt, by which the lives of his father and brethren were preserved. And then he is in prospect the twofold tribe, that bursts the bounds assigned to a twelfth of the chosen people, and overspreads the area of two tribes.
Gen 49:23-24
The memory then reverts to the past history of Joseph. A new figure is now called up. A champion is assailed by a host of archers. They vex him, shoot at him, and in every way act the part of an enemy. But his bow continues elastic, and his arms are enabled to bend it, because he receives strength from the God of his fathers, “the Might of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.” Such is the rich and copious imagery that flows from the lips of Jacob. “The Might,” the exalted upholder; “the Shepherd, the Stone,” the fostering guardian as well as the solid foundation of his being. His great hands upheld Joseph against the brother and the stranger. “From him.” This seems the free rendering of the word requisite to bring the two members of the parallel into harmony.
Gen 49:25-26
These two thoughts - the peaceful abundance of his old age, which he owed to Joseph, and the persecutions his beloved son had endured - stir the fountains of his affections until they overflow with blessings. “From the God of thy father” - the Eternal One who is the source of all blessing. “And the Almighty,” who is able to control all adverse influences. “Blessings of heaven above” - the air, the rain, and the sun. “Blessings of the deep” - the springs and streams, as well as the fertile soil. “Blessings of the breasts and the womb” - the children of the home and the young of the flocks and herds. “Have prevailed.” The benedictions of Jacob pronounced upon Joseph exceed those that came upon Jacob himself from his fathers. To Joseph is given a double portion, with a double measure of affection from a father’s heart. “Unto the bound of the perpetual hills.” Like an overflowing flood they have risen to the very summits of the perpetual hills in the conceptions of the venerable patriarch. “Of him who was distinguished from his brethren;” not only by a long period of persecution and humiliation, but by a subsequent elevation to extraordinary dignity and pre-eminence.
It is to be noted that this benediction, when fairly interpreted, though it breathes all the fondness of a father’s heart, yet contains no intimation that the supremacy or the priesthood were to belong to Joseph, or that the Messiah was to spring from him. At the same time Joseph was in many events of his history a remarkable type of the Messiah, and by intermarriage he, as well as many foreigners, was no doubt among the ancestors of the Messiah 2Ki 8:18, 2Ki 8:26.
Gen 49:27
Benjamin is described as a wolf who is engaged morning and evening, that is, all day long, in hunting after prey. He was warlike by character and conduct Judg. 20–21, and among his descendants are Ehud, Saul, and Jonathan.
Gen 49:28-33
After the benediction Jacob gives directions concerning his burial. “All these are the twelve tribes”. This implies that the benedictions refer not to the heads only, but to the whole tribes. “Each according to his blessing.” All are blessed, but the form of the blessing is suited to the character of the individual “Bury me with my fathers” - with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah. This dying command he now lays on the twelve, as he had before bound Joseph by oath to its performance. “Gathered up his feet into the bed.” He had been sitting upright while pronouncing the benedictory address and giving his last directions. He now lies down and calmly breathes his last.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Last. Hebrew, "future days." It was an ancient and…
Last. Hebrew, "future days." It was an ancient and commendable custom, for parents to assemble their children in their last moments, to give them salutary instructions. They often also foretold to them what should happen. See Deuteronomy xxxi; Josue xxiv; 1 Kings xii; Tobias iv. 3; 1 Machabees ii. Cyrus and Socrates both believed that they had then an insight into futurity. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Jacob’s blessing of his sons. Judah and his brethren.…
TENTH SECTION
Jacob’s blessing of his sons. Judah and his brethren. Jacob’s last arrangements. His burial in Canaan. His death.
Read full note →
Gen_49:1-33
1And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. 2Gather yourselves together, and 3hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: 4Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest 5up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch. Simeon and 6Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O, my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united; for in 7their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in 8Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down 9before thee. 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 an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 11Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his 12clothes in the blood of the grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. 13Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shall be for an haven 14of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. Issachar is a strong ass, couching down between two burdens. 15And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute. 16Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. 18I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord! 19Gad, a troop shall overcome him; but he shall overcome at the last. 20Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall 21yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words. 22Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. 23The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 24But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob: (from thence is 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 lieth under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb: 26The blessings of thy father have prevailed above 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 him that was separate 27from his brethren. Benjamin shall raven as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the 28prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite; 30In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. 31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. 33And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
[There is quite a number of rare Hebrew words and phrases in this 49th chapter; but as it is difficult to separate the philological and textual consideration of them from the more general interpretation, the reader is referred to the places in the Exegetical and Critical where they will be found discussed, and to marginal notes subjoined.—T. L.]
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
In this most important and most solemn closing prophecy of Genesis, there come into consideration: 1. The prophetic development generally; 2. the character of its contents: 3. its poetical form; 4. its origin; 5. the analogies; 6. the literature; 7. the points of particular interest.
1. The prophetic development. The blessing of Jacob forms the close, the last full bloom of the patriarchal prophecy, or of the theocratic promise of the patriarchal time. The seed of the protevangel passes, in its unfolding, through the blessing of Noah, through the promises given to Abraham (especially the closing one of Genesis 22), and, finally, through the blessing of Isaac, and the promises made to Jacob, to become, at last, the prophetic form of life, as it is manifested in the future of the twelve tribes. Thenceforth, in respect to its tenor, is the Messianic germ more distinctly unfolded than in the promises hitherto; whilst the poetic form, which is so peculiar a feature of the Messianic predictions, attains in them to the full measure of its bloom. We shall mistake the meaning of this blessing, unless we estimate it according to the theocratic degree of its development, or, if we do not bear in mind that it stands midway between the blessing of Isaac and the Mosaic promises.
In respect to the fundamental ideas contained in these benedictions, it may be said that the blessing of Judah forms evidently its central point, to which that of Joseph makes a corresponding contrast. The spirit of Israel finds its corresponding expression in the one, the heart of Jacob in the other. The others group themselves around these, not as isolated atoms, but in significant relations. The declarations made in respect to Reuben, Simeon, Levi, link themselves together, and have a direct view to the distinction of Judah. In those of Zebulun and Issachar, who, as sons of Leah, are placed before the sons of the handmaids, there is a reversal of the natural order of succession, since Zebulun, the younger, precedes. There seems to have been a motive here similar to that which led to the preference of Ephraim to Manasseh. Zebulun’s preference seems to consist in this, that he has place between two seas, extending from the Galilean sea to the Mediterranean, an indication of a richer worldly position. Dan closes the group which, like a constellation of seven stars, forms itself around Judah. Then follows the ejaculation (Gen_49:18), in which there seems to be again a sound of Judah’s destiny. In the natural order, Naphtali would have come next; but the blessing includes both the two sons of Leah’s handmaid, Gad and Asher, between the sons of Rachel’s handmaid, Dan and Napthali. It is not easy to see the reason of this, unless it was somehow to reinforce the line of Rachel through Naphtali; or we may suppose that the position of the three named before Joseph led to Joseph and Benjamin. Gad is like Joseph an invincible hero in defensive war. Asher makes the prelude to the rich blessing of Joseph in natural things. Naphtali ranks with Benjamin in impetuousness and decision of character. It is strictly in accordance with the spirit of prophecy, that the picture here given of the future of Israel’s tribes should have its light and shade, its broad features, and its mere points of gleaming, and that it should be just as indeterminate in its chronology. In respect to the nature of its contents, Knobel maintains that this portion of Scripture is incorrectly called the blessing of Jacob. The blessing of Moses, Deuteronomy 33, is rightly so designated, because it contains only good for the tribes; whilst this, on the contrary, has much that is to their disadvantage. “Judah and Joseph, as the most important, are treated in the most favorable manner; Naphtali, also, is spoken of favorably in respect to deeds of heroism, and poetic art, as Asher for his productive territory. To a tolerable degree the same may be said of Gad, who, indeed, is overcome, but overcomes at last; whilst it is not saying much for Zebulun that he shall dwell by the seas. What is declared of Issachar, that he yields himself to labor like an ass, or concerning Dan, that like a serpent he lurks in the path, or of Benjamin, that he shall be like a ravening wolf, contains, at least, a mingling of disapprobation,” etc. This shows but a poor comprehension of the prophetic forms of speech. If, in a good sense, Judah is a lion rampant, why, in the same sense, may not Benjamin be a wolf, especially a victorious one, that “in the evening divides the spoil?” And why should not Dan, who is judge in Israel, be compared with the serpent in view of his strategical cunning? Along with Naphtali, the swift-footed deer may also be named, in no unfavorable way, the strong-boned ass Issachar, who, in his comfortable love of peace, devotes himself to peasant service, and to the transport of burdens between the Galilean sea and the southern regions. Next to these animal figures, whose characteristics are to be regarded according to the oriental usage, and not moralized upon in our occidental way, comes the figure of the plant: Joseph the fruitful vine, supplemented by the human figure: Joseph, the archer, or mark for the archer’s arrows. Less developed is the figure of Asher, the royal purveyor, or of Zebulun the shipper, or that of Reuben drawn from the instability of water. Is it an evil doom pronounced upon Reuben, pointing, as it does, to his sin, that he should be deposed from the birthright? Rather, according to the Scripture, is it a misfortune when a man embraces a calling to which he is unequal, as, for example, Saul and Judas. The prince of the twelve tribes must be something more than an unstable vapor. It was, however, by this determination that Reuben was guarded from his own destruction. He remains the first below the first-born, and, from this state of forbearance and protection he may still develop the more moderate blessing pronounced Deu_33:6. Simeon and Levi have not, like Reuben, so repented of their old guilt, that it may not be again charged upon them, with a malediction of the deed that may yet become a blessing, if it is the occasion of chastising, warning and purifying them. How their dispersion in Israel, which is imposed upon them as a penalty, may be transformed into a distinction, is shown in the position of Levi, and in the blessing later pronounced upon him, Deu_33:8. Through this dispersion, Simeon, indeed, disappears as a tribe, but he becomes incorporated with Judah, the best of the twelve (Jdg_1:3). Benjamin, “the ravening wolf,” becomes, in the blessing of Moses, a protector of the beloved of Jehovah. Zebulun is praised for his maritime position; Issachar, the broad-limbed peasant, rejoices in his tents. Gad, the fighter in Genesis, becomes, in the blessing of Moses, a lion like Judah; and so Dan is a young lion, ready to spring, as before he was compared, in a similar manner, to a darting serpent. Naphtali is still described as full of grace, though in more expressive language. Asher, who, in Genesis, is full of bread, is changed, in the Mosaic blessing, to the “abounding in oil.” We need not wonder therefore, that Joseph, who is ever praised, is compared, in the blessing of Moses, to the ox and the buffalo. In the later benediction, the blessing of Judah becomes more mysterious, more individual, more spirituous, whilst yet there is a falling back of the rich development presented in Genesis. This designation, therefore: the blessing of Jacob, is well grounded, besides being expressly confirmed in Gen_49:28. In regard to the relations, or the perspective of this prophecy, it is incorrect to say, as Baumgarten and Kurtz do, that the seer here looks at the time of the Judges as giving the fulness of his picture. Thus to limit the prophecy in the olden time, is to divest it of its character as true prediction, and make it a mere presaging. Each prophecy, indeed, has its own provisional points of aim and rest, belonging to the time in whose forms and colors it clothes itself, yet still, in its last aim, ever points to the perfection of the kingdom of God. This, moreover, is here expressed in the very letter, “באהרית הימים, literally, at the end of the days, that is, in the last time, ἐπ’ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν (LXX)—not the future in general, but the closing future, in fact, the Messianic time of the completion,” etc. (Keil, p. 284). True it is, that the period from the time of the Judges to that of David appears as the determinate foreground view of the seer, but this is, itself, a symbolic configuration, in which he looks through, and beholds the whole Messianic future, even to its close, though not in its perfectly developed features. Just so does the protevangel point already to the end, but only in its most general outlines as the salvation of the future.
2. The blessing, in the character of its contents. In each prophecy we must distinguish three capital points: 1) Its basis in the present, or its point of departure; 2) its nearest form of the future; 3) the symbolical significance of the same for the wider fulfilling of the redemption history. And so here Israel is at the standpoint of promise as hitherto unfolded; in the prophetic clearness of its illumination, he sees the characters of his sons, and the real prophetic as it lies in their individuality. What is more clear than that Judah already reveals the lion nature, Joseph that of the fruitful tree, or that Reuben, Simeon, and Levi do already show clear points of distinction in their lives. But in the character of the sons he sees, too, the first unfolding of the tribes in Canaan, even as it reveals itself from the time of the Judges to that of David. Then Reuben is no more the first-born, yet still well provided for in a way corresponding to his impatient nature. The dispersion of Simeon and Levi has already begun. The tribe of Judah advances more and more towards the royal dignity. Zebulun has his position, so favorable for worldly intercourse, between the Galilean and the Mediterranean seas. Issachar has drawn his lot in the rich regions of the plain of Jezreel, etc. But now one would go entirely out of the prophetic sphere, if he should mistake the theocratic redemption idea, as it shines through these outlines and colors, or their symbolical character. This character comes clearest into view in Judah.
3. The poetic form. With the sacred appearance of the people of God, the people of the new world, comes the speech of the new world: that is its poetry, perfectly developed. There is already the rhythmical song, the beautiful parallelism, the exuberance of figures, the play upon names (Gen_49:8; Gen_49:13; Gen_49:16; Gen_49:19-20; Gen_49:22; according to Knobel also 15 and 21), the play upon words (Gen_49:8; Gen_49:19), the peculiar forms of expression, the elevation of spirit, the heart feelings; and all these form a poetry corresponding to the greatness of the objects as well as to the character of the speaker, who shows so many traits of the human heart in his deep emotion, and in the grandeur of his faith in God.
4. The last remark takes us to the subject of origin. The reckless inclination of our times to disconnect the choicest productions of genius from the names with which they are associated, and to ascribe them, in any and every way, to some unknown author, finds a special occasion for its lawless criticism in the passage of Scripture now before us. Nevertheless, the reference of it to Jacob, and in the form in which it stands, still finds its many and able supporters. Those who now best represent this view are Delitzsch, Baumgarten, Diestel, Hengstenberg, Keil, and others. On the other hand, the ascription to Jacob is wholly rejected by De Wette, Schumann, Bleek, Knobel, and others. This is due, in part, to the spirit of rationalism, a fundamental assumption of which is that prophecies must have arisen after the events they are supposed to predict. Governed by this, Knobel transfers the origin of the passage to the time of David, and is inclined, with Bohlen and others, to ascribe it to the prophet Nathan. Knobel deems it a weighty objection, that a “simple nomade” could never have produced anything of the kind, especially an enfeebled and aged one. This may be carried farther, so as to deny generally that the patriarchal nomades could have carried with them anything of the spirit of the Messianic future; which would show that this confident assumption of the critic runs clear into absurdity. In respect to the last ground see the Analogies. As far as concerns the objection of Heinrich and others, namely, if the patriarch could foretell the future at all, why did he not go beyond the Davidian period, it may be said that it is too narrow, too limited in its scope, to demand attention. On the question, whether the poem is to be ascribed to the Elohist, or to the Jehovist, see Knobel, p. 335. As it will not exactly suit either the Elohist or the Jehovist, Knobel has to betake himself to his documentary storehouse that he keeps ever lying behind the scenes. As to what concerns the age and authority of our document, a writer who lived at the time of the first formation of the Aaronic priesthood, would have hardly ventured to place the tribe of Levi in so unfavorable a light as that in which it here appears. And so, too, the tribes of Reuben and Simeon would never have allowed any Hebrew song-writer to make such a representation of their ancestors. In respect to its character, the poem claims for itself not only a patriarchal age, but also a patriarchal sanction. Nevertheless, a distinction may be safely made between the patriarchal memorabilia (whose safe-keeping was doubtless attended to by Joseph) and a canonical recension which did not venture to change anything essential.
5. The analogies. The dying Isaac (Genesis 27), the dying Moses (Deuteronomy 32), the dying Joshua (Joshua 24), the dying Samuel (1 Samuel 12), the dying David (2 Samuel 23), in the Old Testament, the dying Simeon, the dying Paul, and the dying Peter, in the New, prove for us the fact, that the spirit of devoted men of God, in anticipation of death, soars to an elevated consciousness, and either in priestly admonitions, or prophetic foreseeings, attests its divine nature, its elevation above the common life, and its anticipation of a new and glorious existence. The testimony of antiquity is harmonious in respect to such facts,—even heathen antiquity. So declared the dying Socrates, that he regarded himself as in that stage of being when men had most of the foreseeing power (Plato: Apologia Socratis). Pythagoras taught that the soul sees the future, when it is departing from the body. In Cicero, and other writers, we find similar declarations. (See Knobel, p. 49.) Knobel, however, presents it, as a grave question, whether the narrator means to assert a direct gift of prophetic vision in the dying Jacob, or whether there is not rather intended an immediate derivation of knowledge from God. This is just the way in which orthodox interpreters oftentimes place the divine inspiration in contrast with, and in contradiction to, their human preconditionings; whereas a rational comprehension of life sees here a union of natural human states (consequently a more fully developed power of anticipation in the dying) with the illuminating spirit of revelation that shines through them.
6. The literature of the passage, see the Introduction, p. 120. The Catalogue, by Knobel, p. 356. Note in Keil, p. 286. See Marg. Note, p. 661.
7. The division: 1) The introduction (Gen_49:1-2); 2) the group of Judah, or the theocratic number seven, under the leading of the Messianic first-born (Gen_49:3-18): a. The declarations that are introductory to Judah, Reuben, Simeon, Levi (Gen_49:3-7); b. Judah the praised, the prince among his brethren (Gen_49:8-12); c. the brothers associated with Judah, as types of the Jewish universalism, of the Jewish ministry, and of the Jewish public defence: Zebulun, Issachar, Dan (Gen_49:13-18); 3) the group of Joseph, or the universalistic (Egyptian) number five, under the leading of the earthly firstborn (Gen_49:19-27): a. the tribes that are introductory to Joseph’s position, the culture tribes: Gad, Asher, Naphtali (Gen_49:19-21); b. Joseph, the devoted, as the Nazarite (or the one separated) of his brethren (Gen_49:22-26); c. Benjamin, the dispenser and the propagator of the universal blessing of Israel (Gen_49:27); 4) the closing word, and connected with it, Jacob’s testamentary provision for his burial (Gen_49:28-33).
[Excursus.—Jacob’s Dying Vision of the Tribes and the Messiah.—There is but one part of the Scripture to which this blessing of Jacob can be assigned, without making it a sheer forgery, and that, too, a most absurd and inconsistent one. It is the very place in which it appears. Here it fits perfectly. It is in harmony with all its surroundings; whilst its subjective truthfulness—to say nothing now of its inspiration, or its veritable prophetic character—gives it the strongest claim to our credence as a fact in the spiritual history of the world, or of human experience. There is pictured to us a very aged patriarch surrounded by his sons. He has lived an eventful life. He has had much care and sorrow, though claiming to have seen visions of the Almighty, and to have conversed with angels. His sons have given him trouble. Their conduct has led him to study closely their individual characteristics. He lives in an age when great importance is attached to the idea of posterity, and of their fortunes, as the sources of peoples and races. This is more thought of than their immediate personal destiny. It is, of all ages, the farthest removed from that sheer individualism, which, whether true or false, is now becoming so rife in the world. Men lived in their children, for the future, as they looked back “to be gathered to their fathers,” in the past. The idea of a continued identity of life in families, tribes, and nations, making them the same historical entities age after ago, is in no book so clearly recognized as in the Bible, and in no part of the Bible is it more striking than it is in Genesis, though we are presented there with the very roots of history. Along with this were the ideas of covenant and promise, which, whether real or visionary, were most peculiar to that time, and to this particular family. In such a subjective world, the patriarch lives. At the approaching close of his long pilgrimage of one hundred and forty-seven years, he gathers around him his sons, and his sons’ sons, to give them his blessing, or his prophetic sentences, as they were regarded in his day. This is, in itself, another evidence of inward truthfulness. He had derived from his fathers the belief, that, at such a time, the parental benediction, or the contrary, carried with it a great spiritual importance. It was not confined to this family; such a belief was very prevalent in the ancient world. It was a partial aspect of a still more general opinion, that the declarations of the dying were prophetic. How much of this do we find in Homer. It is still in the world. The most sceptical would be cheered by the blessing, and made uneasy by the malediction of a departing acquaintance, much more, of a dying father. Besides this, Jacob had specially inherited the notion, and the feeling, from his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. Thus affected, he would no more die without such a benedictory close, than a loving and prudent father, at the present day, could leave the earth without making his testament. Keep all this in vew, and think how much more impressive is the scene from its being in a foreign land, whither they had been driven by famine, and from which, as the firmly-believed promise assured them, they were eventually to go forth a great people.
Having thus placed before us the accessories of the vision, we may ask the question, was it real? that is, subjectively real, if the term is not deemed a paradox. Were these utterances merely formal sentences? Was it all a ceremony with the dying old man,—a solemn one, indeed, but requiring only certain usual benedictory formulas. Or did he see something? that is, was there corresponding to each of these utterances an actual state of soul, visionary, ecstatic, clairvoyant—call it what you will,—the product of an excited imagination, the movement of a weak or shattered brain, a delirious dream, or a true psychological insight, dim indeed, irregular, flitting, fragmentary, yet real as an action of the soul coming in close view of the supernatural world, and by the aid of it, seeing something, however shadowly, of the successions and dependencies in the natural and historical? Think of it as we may, all that need be contended for here, as most important in the letter interpretation, is the inner truthfulness of such a vision state, and its harmonious connection with the whole subjective life that had preceded it. This granted, or established, the outward truth these visions represent, or are supposed to represent, may be safely trusted to the credence of the serious thinker. Such a vision, with such antecedents, and such surroundings, compels a belief in higher realities connected with them; though still the vision itself, if we may so call it, is to be interpreted primarily in its subjective aspect, leaving the inferences from it to another department of hermeneutics as belonging to theology in general, the analogies of Scripture, and what may be called its dogmatic, in distinction from its purely exegetical interpretation (see Excursus on the Flood, p. 315 and marginal note). It may be conceded that commentators have been too minute in their endeavors to trace in this imagery a connection with particular events in subsequent history; as though Jacob had before him the historical event itself, just as it took place, and invented the imagery as a mode of setting it forth. Better to have left it as it was, with no attempt to go beyond what may be supposed to have been actually seen by the dying man—flitting images of his sons, as individual persons in some future aspects of their genealogical history,—these images reflected from his own spiritual experience of their characteristics,—truly prophetic, but not getting far out of their individual traits, as so well known to him by their conduct. Though all the pictures are thus more or less prophetic, they are still subordinate to one that stands out in strongest light—the vision of one coming from afar, the Shiloh prophecy, wherein is unfolded the Messianic idea inherited from his father,—a sight he catches of the Promised Seed, the one “in whom all nations should be blessed,” the “one to whom the gathering of the peoples (עַמִים, in the plural, the Gentiles) should be.” This is the central vision, coming from the central feeling, and around it all the rest are gathered. They are to it as the historical frame to the picture. All their importance comes from it. Judah is more closely connected with this central vision than all the rest. Joseph we would have thought of, though Judah’s late noble conduct had done much to draw the father’s heart towards him; but here comes in the thought of something controlling the merely natural subjective state. The main thing, however, is the Messianic idea regarded by itself, and for this the history of Jacob and his father, the feelings and belief in which he had lived, that ever-vivid idea of a covenant God, that other conception of a Goel, or “Redeeming angel” delivering from all evil,—the very name suggesting the idea of some human kinsmanship—afford an ample ground. He calls this one who is to come by the mysterious name of Shiloh. Commentators have given themselves unnecessary trouble about the exact objective point indicated by the word. It may refer to the great Deliverer, or to the great deliverance that would characterize his coming. The closest examination of this anomalous form shows that, in some way, there enters into every aspect of it, whether as proper name, or as epithet, the idea of peace, stillness, gentleness, and yet of mighty power. It is perfectly described, Isa_42:2 : “He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the streets; a bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking wick he shall not quench; but he shall bring forth righteousness victoriously.” Why does the dying man speak this unusual word Shiloh? Unusual then,—perhaps before unuttered,—unusual since in the form it takes, although the verbal root is more common. A reason can hardly be given for it. It was, most likely, a strange, if not wholly unknown, name to those who then heard it uttered. We can trace it to no antecedents. It was a wondrous, a mysterious name. A startling dream-like character pervades the whole chapter, with its sudden transitions, its rapt outpourings, its quick changes of scene, defying all the canons of any mere rhetorical or poetical criticism; but this vision aspect appears especially in the unexpected coming in of this remarkable word Shiloh, and the extraordinary use that is made of it. It suggests the mysterious פִּלְאִי (rendered secret) of Jdg_13:18, the Wonderful, פֶּלֶא of Isa_9:6, and the incommunicable one, Gen_32:30, who says, “why inquirest thou after my name? “The patriarch himself, perhaps, could not have explained, how or why he used it, or in what way it came to him, whether by some conscious association, or as having its birth in a sudden arresting of the mind by some new and wondrous thought, like that which prompted the strange ejaculation in verse 18. It was intended to be mysterious (we may reverently, say who believe in the prophetical character of the vision), that men might ponder much upon it, and be the better prepared to understand its glorious import, when it should be fully realized upon the earth. The whole vision is like other prophecy in this, that it is the remote appearing strangely as seen from a present standpoint, and through intervening historical scenes regarded as more or less near. We cannot reduce the perspective to chronological order. We can only seize the prominent point of view in the picture, and feel that the other parts, with their greater or lesser degrees of light and shade, are all subordinate.
So, too, there must not be pressed too closely, in our exegesis, what is said about Judah, and the sceptre, and the מְחֹקֵק, the ruler’s staff, or as otherwise rendered, “the law-giver, from between his feet.” We cannot square it with the monarchy of Herod, or any precise historical change of magistracy. We cannot make out, as indicated by it, a Jewish royalty to a certain period, or a Jewish independence, general or partial, to some other period. But when we view it as expressing chiefly the relation of Judah to the other tribes, his surviving as a tribal name, and giving the name Jews (Judæi) to the whole Israelitish people, after the other tribes had lost their historical identity, and when we remember about what time even this ceased to be, and the Jews (Judæi) became utterly denationalized politically, whether as an independent or a subject people, we see a light and a power in the picture which is unmistakable,—a point of view which we may suppose to have flashed upon the seer’s mind, without regarding it as occupied with any precise historical dates or dynasties, contemplated merely in their political aspects. Until here (עַד כּי) means unto and then ceasing, or unto and not after. Judah shall survive them all, but he too shall disappear when Shiloh comes, and the “gathering of the people” takes place. Then was to be fulfilled that ancient prayer which was sung by the whole Israelitish nation before they lost the world-idea founded on the patriarchal promises, and the later narrow, exclusive spirit took full possession of them: “That thy way may be known in the earth, thy saving health among all nations,—let the peoples praise thee, O God, let all the peoples praise thee.” See Psa_67:3-4, and other similar passages.
What, then, was the historical date of this writing, and of the vision it records, whether subjective or objective, genuine or forged? There has been a strenuous effort to assign it to a later period. And why? Because it assumes to prophesy, and all prophecy must have been written after the events. This is the canon, the bare dictum rather, to which everything else must yield. Take it, however, out of its place in Genesis, and the thoughtful mind cannot avoid seeing that there is no other which does not destroy its subjective character, obliterate all the marks of its inward truthfulness, and make it not only a lie, a forgery, but a most unmeaning one. Had it been made up at any other time, it would have had more distinctness of historical reference. What it told us, whether it had been more or less, would have had a more unmistakable application. Had it been all a fiction, made after the supposed events, they would never have been left in such a dream-like, shadowy state, unless on the hypothesis of such a style being carefully imitated, with a skilful throwing in of the antique coloring, and that, for reasons elsewhere given (see p. 637), would have been incredible, we might almost say, inconceivable. There would have been no such irregularities as we find, no such shadows; the dim perspective would have been filled up; for in any such case it would have been a sheer forgery, a conscious lie in every part, with every word and figure showing design. It would have given evidence of its being the language of art rather than of emotion which uses words simply as the vehicles of its utterance, rather than with any studied aim of conveying precise conceptions, whether true or false. The metaphors which, even in their incongruities, fit so well into the picture of the patriarch’s dying condition, with its antecedents and surroundings, would have been made more suggestive of the known historical than of those individual traits on which they are so evidently grounded. The young lion, the lioness, the foal bound to the vine, the strong ass between his two burdens, the serpent by the way, the adder in the path, the hind let loose and giving goodly words, the ravening wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at night dividing the spoil—all these would either have been entirely left out, or they would have been made to mean more, in their particular applications, as well as in their general bearing. They are far more truthful in the supposed vision of the dying man, than they would be in such a conscious forgery, even though we might regard the former as only a dream of delirium. The picture, too, of the future power to whom “the gathering of the peoples should be,” would have been painted in more gorgeous splendor, instead of being left like a far-off light, guiding to a sublime hope, and yet giving so dim a view of the Messianic royalty. Thus to speak of it is not to disparage its true excellence as viewed from the place it occupies in the earliest Scripture. It is, indeed, the whole of it, a divine vision, with its central glory, yet irregularly refracted and reflected to us from a broken and uneven human mirror. This central light has grown brighter in the trance of Balaam (Num_24:17); how much clearer still has it become, and higher in the prophetic horizon, as it appears in the nearer visions of the evangelical Isaiah: “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is rising upon thee.”
Again, when we regard the record in question as the forgery of a later date, its moral aspect wholly changes. It is strange that they who talk of prophecies made after the event do not see what a moral stigma they cast upon the supposed makers. It is usual for this “higher criticism” to speak, or affect to speak, with great respect of the Hebrew prophets as very sincere and honest men, upright, professing a stern morality, in advance of their age, etc.; but what are they, on this hypothesis, but base liars, conscious, circumstantial liars,—yea, the boldest as well as the most impious of blasphemers! It is no case of self-deluding prognostication, or of a fervid zeal creating in the mind a picture of the future, which the seer honestly believes as coming from the Lord. They know that the events are not future, but that they themselves have falsely and purposely put themselves in the past. They have simply antedated, or forged an old name, turning history into prediction, and greatly confusing and exaggerating it to keep up the imposture. And then the daring impiety of the thing for men professing such awe of Jehovah, the Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, with his immutable truth, his everlasting righteousness,—the God who especially abhors falsehood, “who is of purer eyes than to behold evil,—that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh the diviners mad, that turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolishness,—that confirmeth the word of his servants, and performeth the counsel of his messengers.” Take, for example, the prophecies of “the later Isaiah,” as this “rational school” are fond of styling him, and whom they so greatly praise for the loftiness of his morality. He lives after the events he assumes to predict, he knows that they have come to pass, and yet with what bold blasphemy he throws himself upon Jehovah’s prescience as the attestation of his prophetic power, and challenges the ministers of false religions to produce anything like it in the objects of their worship: “Let them bring forth and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, and things to come, that we may know that ye are gods; who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and before the time, that we may say, He is true? Behold the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” See how this impostor who pretends to predict a captivity that is past, represents God as specially challenging to himself foreknowledge, and proclaiming it to be the ground of trust in his messenger: “I am God, and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done; calling from the East the man that executeth my counsel, from a far country; yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass.”
The absurdity and difficulty of such a hypothesis become still more striking when considered in reference to this patriarchal document. Had it been a concoction of later times, some things in it would certainly not have appeared as they actually do in the vision as it has come down to us. Lange has well shown this in what he says, p. 650, about the tribes of Levi and Simeon, and those condemning utterances, which, neither in the times of the judges nor of the kings, would the tribes of Reuben and Dan, much less the proud Levitical priesthood, have ever borne. Above all does such a view become incredible when this pretended ancient prophecy is ascribed to Nathan, as is done by Bohlen, Knobel and others. Who was Nathan? and what is there recorded of him that can be supposed to have made him the fit instrument for such an imposition. We have but little about him, but that is most distinct. See 1 Chronicles 17 where he brings to David the message concerning the Lord’s house, and 2 Samuel 12. The latter passage, especially, presents an unmistakable character, warranting a most intense admiration of the man. He is no mere theoretical moralist. Seneca wrote some of the choicest ethical treatises, containing sentiments which some have represented as vying with, or even surpassing, those of Paul; and yet he was more than suspected of conniving at some of the worst crimes of his imperial master Nero. How different the character, and the attitude, of the old Hebrew prophet! How sternly practical was he, as well as theoretically holy. The king had covered over his adultery by marriage. Had Seneca been there, or some philosophical courtier of his class, he would have pronounced it well, whilst of the murder, and the manner of it, he would have thought himself, perhaps, not called to speak; seeing that such events were not strangers to thrones and palaces, and a prudential, respect for authority might justify silence, when speech, perhaps, might be useless as well as dangerous. The Hebrew seer was of another school. He appears before the king, now in the height of his power, Rabbah fallen, and all his enemies subdued. He addresses him in that parable of the poor man and his lamb, which has ever challenged, and must continue to challenge, the admiration of the world. Not by ethical abstractions, but by a direct appeal to the conscience, lying oft below the individual’s consciousness, yet most mysteriously representing to him the voice of God, he uncovers the strange duality of the human soul, and brings out the monarch’s sentence, yea, even his malediction, upon himself: “As Jehovah liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.” Every reader of the Bible is familiar with the scene. The prophet’s interview with the self-forgetting king is unsurpassed by anything in the world’s literature, historic, epic, or dramatic. The human soul never appeared purer or loftier than in that wise, that gentle, and, at the same time, most powerful, rebuke of royal unrighteousness. This is what we have of Nathan. And now to think of such a man deliberately sitting down to fabricate a lie, to personate the character of old Jacob, the revered father of his nation, treating with contempt the old records or old traditions of his day, making no scruple of rejecting them, or of altering them in any way to suit his purposes, making them falsely seem prior to events already past, and with all this, most absurdly as well as dishonestly, assuming to foist upon his cotemporaries, at that later day, what they had never before heard of as connected with the sacred ancestral name. Think of him minutely forging the scene presented by the dying old man, and the sons surrounding his bed, racking his invention, like some modern Chatterton or Defoe, to find figures, and speeches, and antique idioms, to put into his mouth, conscious all the time of lying in the whole and every part—such inconsistent, unmeaning lying, too—and then palming it off as an old prophecy! Incredible! We could not believe it of the most scoffing Sadducee of Jacob’s race, how much less of the truthful, incorruptible, holy Nathan, in name and character so like the one whom our Saviour pronounced “an Israelite in whom there was no guile.”
There is no need of going farther in this to meet the rationalist. The same mode of argument, and from the same point of view, may be applied to all their hypotheses of pseudo Jacobs, pseudo Isaiahs, apocryphal Moses, and personated Jeremiahs. The later they bring down this patriarchal document, especially, the greater becomes the wildness and the absurdity. Their theories of prophecy after the event, it will bear to be repeated, are utterly inconsistent with any moral respect for these old Jewish lights, whom they affect to admire as far-seeing men, most patriotic, most humanitarian, elevated in their views of reform, rising above the prejudices of a dogmatic legal tradition, righteous beyond the formal worship and superstitions of their times, but not to be regarded as veritable seers of the future, or as specially inspired by God in any way different from all “lofty-minded men,” or as assuming to be such, except in a rhetorical or poetical way. Most pious are they, most reverent, yet have they no scruple about announcing in the name of Jehovah events as foretold which they knew to be past at the time of the announcement, or to be utterly false as assumed divine messages. There were, it is true, some men of old who did this, but in what abhorrence they were held we learn from Jer_23:25-32, and 1Ki_22:19-20.
There arises here a sharp issue, as has been already said, but it cannot be evaded. There is no honest middle-ground of compilation and tradition mixed together. The Bible statements are of such a nature as not to allow the supposition. They are so peculiar, so linked together, they form such a serial unity, that we must believe it all a forgery, Nathan, David, as well as Jacob and his blessing, or we must give credence to it as being, all together, a coherent, chronological, consistent history. (See p. 99, introduction, and marginal note.) It is, throughout, delusion, imposture, forgery, nonentity, or it is the most serious and truthful chapter in all this world’s history. If the former view staggers even the most sceptical,—if, in itself, it is more incredible than any supernatural events recorded in such forgeries, then must we come back heartily to the old belief,—the Bible a most truthful book,—all true (allowing for textual inaccuracies)—all subjectively true, at all events, although admitting of human misconceptions in respect to the science and mediate causalities of things narrated, or that which often comes to the same thing, human imperfections necessarily entering into the language employed as the medium of their record. In other words, everything is honestly told, and believed by the writers to be just as they have told it. Whether it be narrative, description, statistical statement, precept, sentiment, thought, devotional feeling, pious emotion of any kind, moral musing, sceptical soliloquizing, as in Ecclesiastes, passionate expostulation, as in Job, prophetic announcements grounded on visions or voices believed to come from the Lord,—all is given just as it was experienced, known, or believed to be known, heard, received from accredited witnesses living in or near the very times, conceived, felt, remembered seen by the eye of sense, seen in the ecstatic trance, dreamed in the visions of the night, or in any way present to their souls as knowledge, thought, memory, or conception, most carefully and truthfully recorded. There is no fiction here, no invention, no art, no “fine writing,” no mere aiming at rhetorical effect,—no use of metaphors, images, or impassioned language, except as the expression of inward vivid and emotional states that imperatively demanded them as the best medium for their utterance.
We must choose between this or the grossest forgery. The more the issue is distinctly seen, the more certain, for every thoughtful mind, the only decision it allows. This human, so appearing, demands the superhuman and divine. This natural, subjective truthfulness once admitted, thoroughly and heartily admitted, the supernatural cannot be excluded. It must come in somewhere in both its forms,—whether it be the objective supernatural which the Scripture itself records, or the inward, spiritual supernatural, still more wonderful, connected with the very existence of such a book in such a world.—T. L.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Gen_49:1-2. The introduction.—That I may tell you.—He has called them to his dying bed; but its highest purpose is that he may tell them how he himself lives on in them.—That which shall befall you.—According to their dispositions and character, which he has long known. He announces to them the destiny which shall befall them as a consequence of their characters as shown in the events of their lives, but this as seen in the divine light.—In the last days, באחרית הימים.—The expression is used in reference to the world time as a whole, and denotes, especially, the Messianic time of the completion (Isa_2:2; Eze_38:8, and other places; see Keil, p. 284).—Ye sons of Jacob, hearken unto Israel your father.—Sons of Jacob are they predominantly; sons of Israel must they evermore become. From nature and from grace, from human disposition and from divine guidance is their future to be formed.
2. Gen_49:3-18. The group of Judah. a. The blessings that are introductory to Judah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi.—Reuben, thou art my first-born.—My strength. The meaning of first-born explained. He is the first fruits of his vigor spiritually as well as bodily.—The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.—A reference to the dividing of the birthright into two rights. In the dignity there lie together the priesthood and the double inheritance. The power is the germ of the warlike chieftainship. Further on Jacob disposes of the power in favor of Judah; the double inheritance he gives to Joseph. The priesthood does not here specially appear; and it is this feature that speaks for the antiquity of the blessing.—Unstable as water.—The verb used here denotes literally the bubbling and exhalation of boiling water. Spiritually it denotes a rash and passionate impulsiveness, LXX, ἐξύβρισας. For other interpretations see Knobel. This trait of character is immediately explained:—Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed (see Gen_35:22).—This impulsiveness shows itself likewise in his offer of his two sons as hostages. Later it shows itself, in the tribe, in the insurrection of Dathan and Abiram, who desired a share in the priesthood—a claim which, doubtless, had reference to the lost birthright of their father. At a still later period, the tribe of Reuben, and that of Gad, desire to have their inheritance specially given them together in the conquered district, on the other side of Jordan, Num_32:1; in which case their request was granted on condition that they should help fight out the war for the conquest of Canaan. Through this Reuben gets an isolated position on the southwestern border, in the pasture land over the Arnon. Again, in the erection of the altar at the Jordan, on their return (Joshua 22), there manifests itself the same old impetuosity, which might have occasioned a civil war, had they not sufficiently excused it.—Thou shalt not excel (that is, thou shalt not have the dignity). See 1Ch_5:1. Joseph has the double inheritance, and, so far, the בְּכֹרָה (or birthright); whilst Judah became prince. To a certain degree, therefore, as Delitzsch remarks, the first-born of Rachel comes into the place of the first-born of Leah. “In order that God’s righteous ruling here may not be arbitrarily imitated by men, the law forbids (Deu_21:15-17) that any preference should be shown to the first-born sons of a beloved wife, over those born of one less favored.” Delitzsch. The good will, and fraternal fidelity, which belonged to Reuben’s character, appear in the history of the tribes. Points of interest in the character of this tribe: the victory, in connection with the Gadites, over the Amorite king Sihon; also over the Gadarenes (1Ch_5:8-10). The less significant blessing of Moses (Deu_33:6), simply indicating the danger of transgression. A reproach cast upon them (Jdg_5:15) for their divisions, etc., in the nation’s peril.—He went up to my couch.—Jacob speaks indirectly (of him) in the third person. Was it because he turned away from him in displeasure? We may rather suppose that he turns himself to the other sons in order to fix their attention upon his sentence.—Simeon and Levi.—True brothers in their disposition, as it appeared in their treatment of the Shechemites. Therefore it is, that they are included in one declaration. Its most obvious aim is to revoke for them also their leadership.—Instruments of cruelty.—They must have been something else than swords. Clericus, Knobel, and others, understand מְכֵרֹתֵיהֶם as denoting malicious and crafty purpose, marriage proposals, etc., an explanation that seems not easy.1—Into their secret.—As he would clear himself from their fanaticism, so also, in respect to the prophetic destiny would he clear his people, and the Church of God. It is the very nature of a secret plot, or of a factious conspiracy, to make itself of more importance than the community, and thus to produce disunion.2—Unto their assembly, mine honor.—My life, or my soul (Psa_7:6; Psa_16:9). The expression here is well chosen. The believer cannot trust his personality, with its divine dignity, to a congregation in which secret conspiracies, and fanaticism, are allowed to be the ruling powers. So, too, is the expression קהל significantly chosen, as also the verb יחד. There is no union, no communion, between the soul of Israel, and the companionship of such fleshly zeal.—They slew a man.—Man is taken collectively.—A wall (an Ox Lange more properly renders it 3).—They cut the sinews of the hinder foot of the cattle in order to destroy them. This was done after the manner of war mentioned Jos_11:6; Jos_11:9; 2Sa_8:4, with relation to the horses of the Canaanites and Syrians. According to Gen_34:28, they could not have done it to any cattle that they could carry off with them; and this, therefore, must be taken as a supplemental account.—Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce (Lange, violent).—They were not personally cursed, but only their excess and their angry doings; neither are they reproved for simply being angry.—I will divide them.—A prophetic expression of divine authority. So speaks the spirit of Israel, giving command for the future, as the spirit of Paul, though far absent in space (1Co_5:3). This dispersion was the specific remedy against their insurrectionary, wrathful temper. In the first place, they could not dwell together with others as tribes, and, secondly, even as single tribes must they be broken up and scattered. Thus it happened to the weakest of these two tribes (Simeon, Num_26:14), in that it held single towns, as enclosed territory, within the tribe of Judah (Jos_19:1-9) with which it went to war in company (Jdg_1:3-17), and in which it seems gradually to have become absorbed. In the days of Hezekiah, a portion of them made an expedition to Mount Seir (1Ch_4:42). In the blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 33), Simeon is not named. Levi, too, had no tribal inheritance, but only an allotment of cities. At a later day, by reason of his tithe endowment, he is placed in a more favorable relation to the other tribes; nevertheless, he lacked the external independence, and because of the privations they suffered, they yielded themselves sometimes, as individuals, to the priestly service of idolatry. The turning, however, of Levi’s dispersion to a blessing, threw an alleviating light upon the lot of Simeon, who, together with Benjamin, came into closest union with Judah.
b. Judah (Gen_49:8-12).—Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.—Luther happily remarks that Jacob says this as one who hitherto had been in vain looking about for the right one: Judah, thou art the man. For the history of Judah and the literature pertaining to this blessing, see Knobel, p. 362.—Shall praise.—A play upon the name Judah, as meaning one who is celebrated. At a later day this name (Judea, Jews) passes over to the whole people. Originally it is the name of one for whom thanks are given to God.—Thy hand shall be upon the neck.—The enemies flee or bow themselves; as victor, or lord, he lays his hand upon their necks. His power in peace corresponds to his greatness in war; a contrast which, further on, appears still more strongly.—Shall bow down before thee.—He, the foremost and strongest against the foe, shall, therefore, be chief among his brethren. “That he should be a נָגִיד, a prince, among them (1Ch_5:2), is his reward for the part he took in that blessed turn which the history of Israel received through Joseph.” Delitzsch.—Thy father’s children.—All of them; not merely thy mother’s sons, but all thy brethren.—A lion’s whelp.—גּוּר is to be distinguished from כְּפִיר as quite a young lion. The expression denotes, therefore, the innate lion-nature which Judah had shown from his youth up, not only Judah personally, but the tribe especially. His faults were no malicious ones; on the contrary, he early withstood his brethren in their evil design, and, at a later period, became their reconciling mediator before Joseph.—From the prey, my son, thou art gone up.—By Knobel and others this language is interpreted of the lion seizing his prey in the plain, and then carrying it up to his abode in the mountains (Son_4:8), which seems especially applicable to Judah, as dwelling in the hill-country. We prefer, however, the interpretation of Herder, Gesenius, and others, who understand the word of growing, advancing in strength and size, and especially because it is said מִטֶּרֶף, from the prey, in the sense of through, or by the means of, the prey; since it is with the prey that the lion goes back to the hills. At the same time, growth, in warlike deeds of heroism, forms a contrast to the quiet yet fearful ambush of the lion. The old lion is stronger than the young one; and more fearful still is the lioness, especially in defence of her young. So lies down the strong-grown Judah; who shall venture to attack, or drive him up for the chase? This prophetic lion-figure was especially realized in the royal and victorious dominion of David; although even in the wilderness, the tribe of Judah marched before the other tribes—a figure of the young lion.?—The sceptre shall not depart from Judah.—The sceptre is the mark of royal power. The ruler’s staff, מְחֹקֵק, seems, from the parallelism, to express the same thing. The word denotes that which establishes, makes laws; hence the ruler’s staff. Here, however, is meant the staff or mace of the warrior chief; and so it would be the ducal, or field-marshal’s staff. In correspondence with this the term רַגְלָיו (at his feet) would seem like an allusion to the army that follows the chieftain, although the expression would primarily present the figure of the chief sitting upon his throne, with his sceptre between his feet. In respect to the sceptre, and representations of princes with the sceptre between their feet, see Knobel, p. 364. If we had to choose, we should prefer the interpretation of Ewald and others, according to which רגליו here, according to the connection, must mean the people or army. For other explanations see Knobel. Judah is not merely to possess the sceptre, but also command with it, and rule with vigor.4—Until Shiloh come.—[Lange translates, until he (Judah) comes home as the restgiver.] The expression עַד־כּי does not denote the temporal terminus where Judah’s lordship ceases, but the ideal terminus where it reaches its glorious perfection. According to the first supposition, the place has been, in various ways, interpreted of the Messiah. With the dominion of Herod did the sceptre depart from Judah, and, therefore, then must the Messiah, or Shiloh, have made his appearance. The different interpretations of the word Shiloh do not require of us here a more copious exegesis; we may simply refer to the commentaries. There are, 1. The verbal prophetic Messianic interpretations, that שִׁילֹה is the abstract for the concrete (see the verb שׁלה), and denotes the author of tranquility, the Messiah. This is the old Jewish, the old Catholic, and the old Protestant interpretation. Those who still hold it are Hengstenberg, Schröder, Keil and others, as also Hofmann, according to his later view. Modifications: a. It is from שִׁיל filius, and וֹ, and so means his son (see, on the contrary, Keil); b. the word stands for אֲשֶׁר לוֹ = שֶׁלּוֹ; until he comes to whom it belongs; namely, the sceptre. This interpretation is made to depend upon a false application of the passage Eze_21:27. In a similar way the LXX, ἕως ἂν ἔλθῃ τὰ ἀποκείμενα αὐτῷ, or ᾧ ἀπόκειται (according to Aquila and others); the Vulgate, qui mittendus est, from the supposition of another verb (שׁלח); 2. unmessianic interpretations: a. Shiloh is the same as Shalomo, king Solomon himself (Abusaid and others).—Shiloh denotes the place Silo (Shiloh), where the ark was set up after the conquest of Canaan (Jos_18:1); and in the sense until he come, that is, generally, until they came (Herder and Tuch); b. Knobel’s view: until they rest (שֶׁלֶה) comes, and to it shall the obedience of the people be; 3. typical interpretations: a. Until he comes to rest (Hofmann’s earlier view); b. until he comes to Shiloh, but in the sense that Shiloh is the type of the city of the heavenly rest, the type of that into which Christ has entered; c. to these we add our interpretation: until he himself comes home (namely, from his warlike career) as the Shiloh, the rest-bringer, the establisher of peace. Suggestions in opposition to the preceding interpretations: 1. That of the personal Messiah. The idea was not fully developed in the time of Jacob. Moreover, by placing him along with Judah, the connection is interrupted. Keil charges Kurtz with presumptuously determining how far, or how much, the patriarch should be able to prophecy; but he himself seems to acknowledge no regular development in the prediction. 2. Shiloh, as a place. That would be, in the first place, a geographical prediction, from which the mention of Sidon greatly differs; in the second place, until the conquest of Canaan, Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim, was leader, so that the sceptre did not belong to Judah. This explanation would be more tolerable if taken in the typical sense of Delitzsch; only we would have to regard Shiloh as the ideal designation of the city of rest, transcending altogether the conception of Shiloh as a place. But now Keil shows us that Shiloh can be no appellative, but only a proper name, originally שִׁילוֹן. 3. There is finally the interpretation אשר לו, which is verbally doing great violence to the expression by taking it as an abbreviated or mutilated form.—Other interpretations demand from us no attention. The grounds of our own interpretation: 1. That Shiloh, as concrete, may denote not only one who rests, but also one who brings or establishes rest (see Keil, p. 290); 2. בּוֹא denotes often a returning home, or forms a contrast to a former departure from home; 3. an analogy in favor of our view, according to which we take שלה as in apposition with the subject Judah, may be found in Zec_9:9 : “Thy king cometh unto thee, just” (a righteous one), יָבוֹא לָךְ צַדִּיק—that is, in the attribute of righteous rule; 4. this explanation alone denotes the degree of unfoldment which the prophecy had received in the patriarchal age. First, the Messiah is implicitly set forth in “the seed of the woman,” then with Seth and Shem, then with Abraham and his seed, afterward with Jacob and Israel, and, finally, here with Judah. What, therefore, is said verbally of Judah, relates typically to the Messiah. He is here, in the same full, theocratic sense, the prince of peace, as in other places Israel is the son of God (Hos_11:1).5—Binding his foal unto the vine.—The territory of Judah is distinguished for vineyards and pasture-land, especially near Hebron and Engedi. On account of the abundance of vines, “they are so little cared for, that the traveller ties to them his beast. In the oldest times the ass, together with the camel, was the animal usually employed in travel; as the Hebrews seem not to have had horses for that purpose before the times of David and Solomon. The ass also suits better here as the animal for riding in time of peace.” Knobel. The same: He washes his garment in wine—that is, wine is produced in such abundance that it can be applied to such a purpose; a poetical hyperbole, as in Job_29:6. On account of the mention of blood, the passage has, in various ways, been interpreted allegorically of the bloody garment of David, or of the Messiah (Isaiah 63).—His eyes red with wine.—(Lange translates it dark gleaming.) He shall be distinguished for dark lustred eyes6 and for white teeth; a figure of the richest and most ornate enjoyment; for there can be no thought here of debauchery—just as little as there was any idea of drunkenness when the brothers of Joseph became merry at the banquet, or in the marriage-supper, John 2.
c. The brothers associated with Judah: Zebulun, Issachar, Dan. Gen_49:13-18.—Zebulun, at the haven of the sea.—Zebulun extends between two seas, the Galilean and the Mediterranean, though not directly touching upon the latter (Jos_19:10); we do not, therefore, see why the word ימים should made us think merely of the Mediterranean. The mention of ships denotes that he had a call to commerce; especially when it is said that he extends unto Sidon. This blessing (Deu_33:19; Josephus: Ant. v. 1, 22; Bell. Jud. iii. 3, 1) is in the highest sense universalistic (as distinguished from theocratic).—Issachar, a strong ass.—Literally, an ass of bone. He possessed a very fruitful district, especially the beautiful plain of Jezreel (Jos_13:17; comp. Jdg_5:15). In the rich enjoyment of his land, he willingly bore the burden of labor and tribute imposed on his agriculture and pasturage. The figure here employed has nothing mean about it.7 The Oriental ass is a more stately animal than the Western. “Homer compares Ajax to an ass; the stout caliph, Merwan II., was named the ass of Mesopotamia.” Knobel.—And he saw that rest was good (Jos. De Bello Jud. iii. 3, 2).—We are not to think here of servitude “under a foreign sovereignty;” yet still the expression tributary (לְמַם עֹבֵד) is used of the Canaanites and of prisoners taken in war; moreover, it may be said that the Israelitish disposition towards servitude was especially prominent in this tribe.—Dan shall judge.—As he is the first son of a handmaid who is mentioned, it is therefore said of him, with emphasis, that he shall have a full inheritance, a declaration which avails for the sons like him in this respect. It may, however, be well understood of them on the ground that they were adopted by the legitimate mothers Rachel and Leah. The expression shall judge is a play upon the name Dan. He shall judge as any one of the tribes. By many this is referred to his self-government, on the ground of the tribe’s independency (Herder and others). According to others (Ephraim, Knobel) the word relates to his transitory supremacy among the tribes; as in the days of Samson. At all events, in the life of the strong Samson there appears that craft in war which is here especially ascribed to Dan. Nevertheless, the expression he shall judge denotes, primarily, a high measure of independence. The tribe of Dan was crowded in its tract between Ephraim and the Philistines (see Knobel, p. 369), and, therefore, a part of it wandered away to the extreme boundary on the north, surprised the Sidonian colony Lais, at the foot of Lebanon, and established there a new city, named Dan, on the ruins of the old (Jos_19:47; Jdg_18:7; Jdg_18:27).—Dan shall be a serpent by the way.—The word יהי may stand poetically for יהיה (Gesen. § 128, 2), and so the form is to be regarded; out of which may arise the question, whether the figure that follows is to be taken in a medial or in a vicious sense. In respect to this, we hold that the sense is primarily medial, but that there may be a vicious allusion. The war stratagems of Samson are not reckoned to his disadvantage; and yet cunning in war passes easily into malicious guile, as it appears in the figure of the adder, and as it was actually practised in the surprise of the peaceful city Lais. “The viper (cerast)8 has in a special degree this common property of the serpent tribe (Gen_3:1). It lays itself in holes, and rests in the road, and falls unexpectedly upon the traveller. It is of the color of the earth, and there is danger from the lightest tread (Diod. Sic. iii. 49).” Knobel. The serpent in the path is by the Targumists, and some church fathers, interpreted of Samson. By Ephraim, Theodoret, and others, it is referred to Antichrist; whereto Luther remarks: Puto diabolum hujus fabulœ auctorem fuisse (see Keil, p. 298). It must always seem remarkable that Dan should be left out in the enumeration of the tribes in the Apocalypse.—I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.—In the exhaustion of the death-struggle, the patriarch here utters a sighing interjaculation. Was it on account of a foresight he had of the future degradation of the tribe of Dan into the practice of idolatry, or of its struggle with the Philistines, or would he declare by it that there was a higher salvation than any achieved by Samson? In no one of these ways does the position of the ejaculation seem to be clearly explained, but only by the supposition that he makes in it a division among his benedictions, separating thereby the group of Judah from that of Joseph.
3. Gen_49:19-21. The group of Joseph.—a. The tribes that are introductory: Gad, Asher, Naphtali.—Gad, a troop shall overcome him.—We can only make an attempt to carry into a translation the repeated play upon words that is here found. Gad occupied on the other side of the Jordan, and was in many ways invaded and oppressed by the eastern hordes, but victoriously drove them back (see 1Ch_5:18; 1Ch_12:8-15). We must here call to mind the brave warriors from Mount Gilead, in the time of the Judges, and especially of Jephthah. In this power of defence Gad is akin to Joseph.—Out of Asher his bread (shall be) fat.—Asher had one of the most productive districts by the Mediterranean, extending from Carmel to the Phœnician boundary, rich in wheat and oil; but together with the fertility of his soil, the blessing expresses also his talent for using and honoring the gifts of nature in the way of culture. A second feature that is found in Joseph. But this is also especially true of Naphtali.—A hind let loose.—There are presented of him two distinct features: he is a beauteous and active warrior, comparable to the so much praised gazelle (2Sa_2:18, etc.). The word שְׁלֻחָה finds its explanation in Job_39:5; see Keil, p. 299.—The second trait: he giveth goodly words.—The first has been especially referred to the victory under Barak, of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun over Jabin; the second to the song of Deborah. At all events, Naphtali is praised for his rich command of language. As he himself, like the gazelle, is poetical in his appearance, so also is his speech rich in poetry. Not without its importance is the reference to Isa_9:1, Mat_4:15, and the fact that the preaching of the gospel first proceeded from these districts. Yet they did not strictly belong to Naphtali. The word, by many, is interpreted of the terebinth, “he is a slender, fast-growing terebinth” (V. Bohlen). There is but little pertinency in this. The traits of Naphtali prepare us especially for Joseph.
b. Joseph. Gen_49:22-26. Joseph comes before us: 1. As a fruit-tree; 2. as an unconquerable archer; 3. as the darling of his father; 4. as the Nazarite, or one separated from his brethren.—A fruitful bough (literally, son of a fruit-tree).—Its place is by a well in a garden. Its daughters—its twigs—run over the garden wall. The word פֹּרָת contains an allusion to Ephraim. Other interpretations see in Knobel (פרת = agna, ovicula).—The archers have sorely grieved him.—The figure does not present to us here the past enmity of the brethren (to which many refer it), but the enmities which the tribe of Manasseh had especially to encounter from the famed Arabian archers.9 Gideon, the vanquisher of the Midianites, belongs especially here.—His bow abode in strength.—The victorious resistance and enduring strength of Ephraim and Manasseh.—The mighty (God) of Jacob.—He who wrestled with Jacob at Peniel, the God El that strengthened Jacob, has strengthened Joseph; he who proves himself the shepherd of his life, his rock at Bethel on whose support he slept as he pillowed his head upon the stone. In a general way, too, the stone may be taken as denoting his rocklike firmness. Jacob’s wonderful guidance and support reflects itself in the history of his son. The bow is the figure of strength, of defence; so also the arm.—Who shall bless thee.—The blessings that are now pronounced.—Blessings of heaven above:—dew, rain, sunshine.—Of the deep that lieth under: fountains, fertilizing waters.—Of the breasts and of the womb: increase of children.—The blessings of my progenitors.—הֹרִום, Vulgate, which the LXX had changed into הָרִים, mountains. The word תאוה here does not mean desire, but limit, from תָּאָה. The blessings of Joseph shall extend to the bounds of the ancient hills; that is, they shall rise higher than the eternal hills, that lift themselves above the earth,—an allusion to the glorious mountains, most fruitful as well as beautiful, in Ephraim and Manasseh, in Bashan and in Gilead. These surpassing blessings beyond those of his forefathers, can only be understood of a richer outward unfolding, and not of deeper or fuller ground.—That was separated from his brethren (Lange renders, devoted as a Nazarite).—See Deu_33:16. He is a Nazarite (a separate one) in both relations—in his personal consecration, as well as in his historical dignity.ž
c. Benjamin. Gen_49:27. From morning until evening is he quick, rapacious, powerful. An intimation of the Awarlike boldness of the tribe (Jdg_5:14; Jdg_20:16; 1Ch_8:40). Ehud. Saul. Jonathan. The dividing of the spoil points to his higher, nobler nature. Paul, the great spoil-divider, from the tribe of Benjamin.
4. Gen_49:28-33. The closing word.—When he blessed them.—It was a blessing for all. The commission in relation to his burial is an enlargement of the earlier one to Joseph. The burial of Leah in Hebron is here mentioned first. His death a peaceful falling to sleep. Though then dying, at that moment, in Egypt, he goes immediately to the congregation of his people. It cannot, therefore, be the grave, or the future burying, that is meant.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1.The blessing of Jacob. An intervening stage in the theocratic revelation between the blessing of Isaac and that of Moses. It is to be taken together with the special blessing upon Joseph in Genesis 48. The nearest addition is the song of Moses and the prophecy of Balaam.
2. The blessing of Jacob denotes already an anticipation of the victory of life over death. As a prophet, Jacob is lifted over the foreboding of death. His death-bed is made glorious by a Messianic glance.
3. What shall befall you.—What lies in the innermost experience of man, that befalls him from the extreme borders of the earth, and out of the far remote in time. The relation between the heart and the destiny. In the heart lie the issues of life (Pro_4:23).
4. On the geography of the passage, see the Book of Joshua, and the geography of Palestine. The blessing of Jacob goes on beyond the whole intervening time of the Israelitish residence in Egypt, contemplating the blessed people as they are spread abroad in the holy land. So in prophecy, although pertaining to all time, the period next following its utterance forms its peculiar picture of life, or its foreground, as it were, without being that in which it finds its close.
5. On the prophetic consecration and illumination of pious souls in the act of dying, see what is said in the Exegetical and Critical.
6. Since Judah is denoted as the prince, and Joseph as the Nazarite among his brethren, so evidently has the whole blessing two middle points. As, moreover, the declaration: I have waited (or I wait) for thy salvation, O Lord, cannot be regarded as having its position arbitrarily, there must be formed by it two distinct groups: one, seven in number, and the other, five. The first group has the theocratic Messianic character, the second, the universalistic. All the single parts of each group are to be referred, symbolically, to their middle point. Both groups, however, are mutually implicated and connected. Judah’s sceptre avails for all the tribes; Joseph is the Nazarite for all his brethren. The first group stands under the direction of the name Jehovah; the second, in respect to its character, falls in the province of Elohim. Typically, the first is predominantly Davidic, the second, Solomonic (Joseph the Nazarite among his brethren); the first has its consummation in Christ, the second, in his church.
7. The crime of Reuben is actually that of incest; its peculiar root, however, was ὕβρις (the violence of his temperament). Just as in the Grecian poetry it is represented as a fountain of gross transgression.
8. In respect to the fanaticism of the brothers Levi and Simeon, see what is said in the Exegetical, and ch. xxxiv. In the sentence of Levi’s dispersion, the thought of a special priestly class evidently appears in the background, yet so that Jacob seems to let it depend on the future to determine whether Judah, or Joseph, is to be the priest, or who else. This shows the great antiquity of the blessing.
9. As the remedy for Reuben’s ὕβρις, or his reckless, effervescent temperament, lies in his disposition and weakness, as proceeding naturally from such a disposition, so the remedy for the fanaticism of Levi and Simeon lies in their dispersion, or the individualizing of the morbidly zealous spirits.
10. Judah—Shiloh. In Isaac’s prediction concerning Jacob there was denoted, for the first time, the Messianic heir of Abraham as ruler, and, therefore, the possessor of a kingdom. Here the dominion branches, in Judah, into the contrast of a warlike and peaceful rule. And, truly, this contrast appears here in the greatest clearness, as announced Gen_49:8. The lion nature of Judah is developed in the lion throughout,—the lion rampant, the lion resting, and even the lioness watching over the lion’s lair. To the same wide extent goes the warlike leadership, whose ruler’s staff, then, is naturally a marshal’s staff, and is to remain so until he has achieved a perfect triumph. Then he returns home as Shiloh, and the people are wholly obedient to him. Now follows the painting of this picture of peace. The contrast of the warlike and the peaceful rule branches out in the governments respectively of David and Solomon. But Christ is the complete fulfilling. He is the victorious champion, and the Prince of Peace, in the highest sense; he is “the lion of the tribe of Judah who hath overcome,” Rev_5:5. He binds to the vine the animal on which he rides, as one employed in peace. As the olive tree dispenses its oil as a symbol of the spirit, so is the vine a fountain of inspiration, dispensing a joy of the spirit. The blessed joy of faith denotes the turning-point to which the old war-time brings us, and whence the new time of peace begins. On this account is the vine presented in its name of honor, שׂרֵקָה (Isa_5:2; Jer_2:21). The washing of his garment in wine, as the blood of the grape, is here put in contrast with the warrior’s bloody panoply in which he returns home. In the festival joy of the new salvation, the painful recollections of the old time disappear (Isaiah 9). He prepares his festival garment; yet is ornate in the midst of enjoyment (Psa_104:15). The figure thus approaches that later representation in which Israel itself is the vine typically, Christ really; the fairest among the children of men.
11. In Zebulun we see denoted the universalistic aspect, in Issachar the willingness for service, in Dan the might of craft in a small worldly power, as against stronger foes (be wise as serpents), all of which were needed for the theocratic unfolding of the group of Judah.
12. I have waited for thy salvation, Jehovah,—thy help—thy deliverance. There comes out strongly here the conception of salvation; and, indeed, as a future salvation, as a salvation from Jehovah, which forms the central point and the aim of every hope of Israel.
13. That a number five forms itself around Joseph should not surprise us, when we take into the account the significance of this number, and its peculiar universalistic position. In correspondence with it we see in Gad the valiant defender of culture, as, the boundary guard against the Eastern hordes; in Asher the cherisher of the material culture; in Naphtali the guardian of the spiritual; in all three, single traits of Joseph.
14. Joseph’s glory. His blessings present the blessing of Israel predominantly in its earthly aspect; still, in the expressions, the ancient mountains, the eternal hills, there lies a symbolical significance that points away beyond the hills of Ephraim and Gilead; especially when it is considered that these blessings are to come upon the head, the crown of the Nazarite, separated, elect,—the personal prince among his brethren. As Judah in his hereditary, so is Joseph in his personal figure. The early figs or bloom of the patriarchal time. As Melchizedek was a gleam from the departing primitive time, so was Elias a fiery meteor with which the law period, in its narrower sense, comes to an end.
15. Benjamin, who in the evening divides the prey. A wild, turbulent youth, an old age full of the blessing of sacrifice for others. That dividing the spoil in the evening is a feature that evidently passes over into a spiritual allusion. Our first thought would be of the dividing of the prey among the young ones, but for this alone the expression is too strong. He rends all for himself in the morning, he yields all in the evening; this is not a figure of Benjamin only, but of the theocratic Israel; and, therefore, a most suitable close (see Isa_53:12).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The dying Jacob as prophet.—His blessing his sons: 1. The sons themselves; 2. the districts; 3. the tribes.—The characteristic diversities of the tribes, a type of the diversity of apostolic gifts.—Moreover, the severe sentences of Jacob become a blessing (see the Exegetical).—Judah, thou art he.—Therein lies: 1. The typical renown of Judah; 2. the archetypal renown of Christ; 3. the representative renown of Christians.—Waiting for the Lord’s salvation, as expressed by the mouth of the dying: 1. A testimony to their future continuance in being: 2. a promise for their posterity.—The blessing of Joseph; Joseph the personal chief, Judah the hereditary; relation between Melchizedek and Abraham.
1. Gen_49:1-2. The introduction. Starke: In this important chapter Jacob is to be regarded not only as a father, but, preëminently, as a prophet of God.—The words of the dying are oftentimes of greatest weight.—Schröder: A choral song of the swan.—The last one of the period that is passing away is called to bless the beginning of the new.—His blessing is, at the same time, a prophecy.—The word of God is first addressed to individuals, and that, too, in deepest confidence.—The trusted of God become the bearers of his word.—When life’s flame begins to be extinguished, there appears, at times, the most vigorous health of the spirit. There is a change of speech, an elevation of language, in this condition of clairvoyance.
Passavant: (Herder:) It is a high outlooking, a heroic announcing in figurative parabolic style; a poetical letter of donation; the most ancient poetical map of Canaan. The poetical mode of speech not arbitrary, but the self-limitation of excited feeling in a measured form of diction.—Lisco: The spiritual peculiarities of the sons of Jacob form the groundwork of the prophecy, and these the father had sufficient opportunity for learning during his long life. The main tenor is their future life and action in Canaan, where he points out, prophetically, to each tribe, its place of residence, and to which he would direct their look and longing, as persons who were to regard themselves only as foreigners in Egypt.
2. Gen_49:3-18. The group of Judah
Gen_49:3-7—a. Reuben, Simeon, Levi. Starke: Bibl. Tub.: Parents should punish the faults of their children seriously and zealously, and not, with untimely fondness, cloak them to their hurt.
Gen_49:5. Such cruelty will their children imitate, as sufficiently shows itself in the treatment that Christ received from the high priests who were descended from Levi.—Jacob curses only their wrath, not their persons, much less their descendants (not their wrath simply but its excess).—Levi had no territory but forty-eight cities.—Private revenge is punishable.—Gerlach: The punishment here threatened, was fulfilled in respect to Levi, but changed to a blessing for himself and his people.—Schröder: The comparison of the grace with which God prevents us, and of the punishment which follows guilt, is most painfully humbling (Calvin).—Mine honor, used for my soul: Because the soul, in the image of God, makes man higher than the natural creation.—Simeon and Levi. They were separated from each other and dispersed among the tribes; and so the power was broken which would have been their portion in the settlement of the tribal districts (Zeigler).—(Luther.) By such a proceeding God intends to obstruct the old nature and the evil example. It is especially worth mentioning that Moses exposes here the shame of his own tribe. Thus clearly appears the historical truthfulness (Calvin.) (The Rabbins pretend that most of the notaries and schoolmasters were of the tribe of Simeon).
Gen_49:8-12. b. Judah. Starke: In his prophetic inspiration Jacob makes the announcement gradually: He calls Judah: 1. A young lion, who, though strong, has yet more growth to expect; 2. an old strong lion; 3. a lioness who shuns no danger in defence of her young. Christ, the true Shiloh, the Prince of Peace.—Schröder: The power of the figure increases in the painting; probably an intimation of that ever-growing warlike power of the tribe, which has its perfection in. the all-triumphant one, the lion of the tribe of Judah.—Gerlach: Until the peace, or the rest, shall come. A poetical proper name of a great descendant of Judah. The outward blessing here directs the mind to the inexhaustible fountain of heavenly blessing that shall proceed from him.—Taube: (Gen_49:10-12.) Jacob’s blessing Judah.—A promise relating to Christ and his kingdom. It promises: 1. The victorious hero for the establishment of this kingdom; 2. the Prince of Peace with his gentle rule for the perfection of this kingdom.
Gen_49:13-18. c. Zebulun, Issachar, and Dan. Starke: Zebulun (Isa_9:1-2); compare Mat_4:15-16. Issachar’s land. Josephus: Pinguis omnis et pascuis plena. Gen_49:13. It is a glorious gift of God to dwell by navigable waters. (The tribe of Dan a type of Antichrist, although Samson himself was a type of the Lord the Messiah.)
Gen_49:18. The Chaldaic translation: “Our father Jacob does not say, I wait for the salvation of Gideon, nor for the salvation of Samson, but the salvation of the Messiah” (Act_4:12).—Schröder: Dan. Some interpret: For thy salvation (that of Dan) do I wait upon the Lord (Jdg_18:30; 1Ki_12:29). Many church fathers expected that Antichrist would come out of Dan. The salvation of God is the opposite of the serpent’s poison, and of the fall (Roos). The omission of Dan, Rev_7:5.—Calwer Handbuch: The tribe of Dan brought in the first idolatry (Judges 18), and is not in the Revelations among the one hundred and forty-four who were sealed.—Taube: Gen_49:18; Gen_29:33.—Jacob’s death-bed.—His confession the confession of Christian experience.—His end the end of the believer, full of confidence and hope.—Hofmann: (Gen_49:18.) Jacob’s dying ejaculation.—The tenor of his whole pilgrimage.—Waiting for the salvation of God.
3. Gen_49:19-27. The group of Joseph.
Gen_49:19-21. a. Gad, Asher, Naphtali.—Starke: Luther on Gad. Fulfilled when they assembled the Reubenites and the half tribe of Manasseh, as prepared to occupy the land of Canaan before the other Israelites came there. Their neighbors were the Ammonites, Arabians, etc. These people sometimes invaded this tribe, and plundered it; though they also avenged themselves.—[Comparison of Naphtali: 1) To a hind, 2) to a tree, according to one of two interpretations.] He giveth goodly words. Most of the apostles who preached Christ through the world were from this tribe (land of Galilee).—Schröder: (Luther:) Fulfilled in Deborah and Barak.
Gen_49:22-25. b. Joseph. Starke: Luther: The blessing of Jacob goes through the kingly history of Israel.—Schröder: All the enmities of his brethren, whom the old father (who preferred him to them) compared, even in his forgiveness, to a battle array, had only made him stronger (Herder). The strong one who wrestled with Jacob had made Joseph strong. He who was his stone (Genesis 28) was also the protector of his son (Herder).—Calwer Handbuch: Joseph has the natural fulness, Judah the spiritual.
c. Benjamin. Starke: Interpretations of the prediction as referred to Ehud, Saul, Mordecai, Esther, Paul.—Schröder: Luther, after Tertullian: This may be very appositely interpreted of the Apostle Paul, for he had devoured the holy Stephen like a wolf, and after that divided the gospel spoils throughout the world.—Calwer Handbuch: This blessing of Benjamin is fulfilled by Saul corporeally, by Paul spiritually.
4. Gen_49:28-31. The closing word. Starke: Moses says that he blessed each one of them without exception; but the blessings of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, had fear and shame belonging to them. They were not, however, without the benediction; the curse was only outward; they still had part in the Messiah. The punishment is transformed into a healthy discipline, especially in the case of Levi. We never read that Joseph wept amidst all his sufferings (?); but the death of his father breaks his heart. Burial with one’s fathers, friends, etc.; a desire for this is not wrong; yet still the earth is all the Lord’s.—Schröder: He saw death coming, and lays himself down to die, as one goes to sleep.10
Footnotes:
[1][מְכֵרֹתֵיהֵם. There is hardly any warrant for rendering this their habitations, as in our English version. A better rendering would be swords, but the one to be preferred is that of Lud. de Dieu, Critica Sacra, p. 22. He derives it from the Arabic וַَל, to deceive, practise stratagems. The whole phrase would then denote instruments of violence their treacheries, equivalent, to instruments of violence and treachery. How well this suits the context is easily seen. Late Arabic Version of Smith and Van Dyke, ׃םזוד their swords.—T. L.]
[2][For verunreinigt in Lange, read veruneinigt.—T. L.]
[3][עקְּרוּ שׁוֹר. Our English version, digged down a Wall, is clearly wrong, as, to make that sense, it should have been שׁוּר besides, עִקֵּר is never used in such a way. It is applied, Jos_11:9, to houghing, as the old English word is, or to cutting the hamstrings of cattle to disable them. The parallelism here denotes the intensity of their wrath as it raged against man and beast. There is no need of referring אישׁ to Hamor alone. It is a general term—man they slew, ox they hamstrung—everything fell before their ferocity.—T. L.]
[4][יִקְּהַת means obedience, reverence, and not gathering, as the Targums and Jewish commentators give it. This is evident from Pro_30:17, יִקְּהַת אֵם, where it denotes filial piety, as also from the Arabic root זל etymologically identical with it, and which is very common.—T. L.]
[5][The best and fullest discussion of the Shiloh prophecy, with a collection and critical examination of the authorties, ancient and modern, may be found in Dr. Samuel H. Turner’s excellent commentary, modestly entitled, “A Companion to the Book of Genesis,” pp. 371–388, especially his comparison of the Jewish Targums and the old versions.—T. L.]
[6][חַכְלִילִי עֵינַיִם. The difficulty all vanishes if we read, with the Samaritan codex, הכלילו (the slightest of variations, ה for ח). The LXX and Vulgate have evidently followed it—χαροποιοὶ οἱ ὀφθαλμοί—pulchriores sunt oculi. Compare כְּלִיל יפִי, Eze_28:12; מִכְלַל יֹפִי, Psa_50:2.—T. L.]
[7][How the merest prejudice, sometimes, affects our view of events, and destroys the power of what might otherwise be most impressive! There is hardly any miracle in the Old Testament that has more of a significant moral lesson than the rebuke of Balaam, the mad prophet, by the mouth of the beast on which he rode. See the use made of it 2Pe_2:16. As an example, too, of the supernatural, there is no more objection to be made to it (except the general one) than though an angel had spoken from the sky, which would have been thought sublime, at least. And yet for how many minds has this miserable modern prejudice, this unfounded contempt for the animal named, destroyed the effect of the miracle, and turned all allusion to it into a standing jest, as it has also irrationally belittled Homer’s really fine comparison. The ignoble view of the animal has had the same effect in making an offendiculum of our Saviour’s most significant miracle of the demons and the swine. Bible interpreters, critics, and especially “rationalists,” should be above anything of the kind.—T. L.]
[8][שְׁפִיפוֹן. Hebrew names of animals are eminently characteristic, as they are, indeed, in all languages, whenever they can be traced. It is not enough, therefore, to refer this to the Syriac root ܫܦܦ to creep, as Gesenius does. That would only give the generic name serpens. This was evidently a venomous and most malignant serpent. It is rendered adder in our version; Vulgate cerastes. As the words Double Ain and Ain Wau are closely allied, especially in their intensive conjugations, this name, as here used, may help in fixing the meaning of that difficult word, שׁוּף, as employed Gen_3:15 (see marginal note p. 235). It may have the sense of lying in wait (insidiandi), or of stinging, both of which well suit the passage in Genesis (at least in one of its applications, to which the other seems a paronomastic accommodation) and the figure intended here. It was, probably, some thought derived from this name, as denoting a very malignant animal, and a resemblance to the old serpent, Gen_3:15, that led some of the old interpreters to connect Dan with Antichrist. If Jacob could be supposed to have had a glimpse of such an idea, it would better explain the sudden ejaculation that follows, than any ether mere historical reference that has been mentioned as suggestive of it.—T. L.]
[9][It is difficult for us to agree with Dr. Lange here. The view seems to proceed from a misconception of the true nature of Jacob’s subjective state. “What did he see in his vision? Was it, as is most likely, the actual figures, such as the lion going up to the hills, the serpent by the way, the rider falling backward, an ass lying down, a flying hind, archers shooting at their object, a sceptre departing, and a people gathering, a ravening wolf, etc., as supposed representatives of historical events, so to be interpreted by himself or others; or did he see something like the historical events themselves, and invent the metaphors for their expression? In the last case, individual characteristics in the sons, as known to his experience, are no longer the suggestive grounds, but something entirely separate and arbitrary. Or was he, throughout, a mere mechanical utterer of words, having nothing in actual conception corresponding to them? If we take the former view, then the suggestive ground of this archer picture was something in Joseph’s individual history, though it may well be regarded as typical, or prefigurative, of that of his descendants,—an idea in harmony with all the Biblical representations of this most peculiar and typical people. The same remarks apply to what Dr. Lange and others have said in respect to the ejaculation, Gen_49:18, as though it were prompted by some actual view of Dan’s idolatry, or of Samson fighting with the Philistines, seen as historical events actually taking place in vision. Better regard it as entirely disconnected, a sudden crying out from some emotion having its origin in view of some salvation higher than these, and for which he had been waiting,—a term which can in no way be referred to these supposed historical deliverances. Separate from Joseph personally, there is nothing in this figure of the archers that would not about as well suit any other wars, of any other tribes, as the conflicts of Manasseh with the Arabians. Besides, what is to be done with all the rest of the figures that precede and follow this in the blessing of Joseph, and which can no more be referred to Manasseh historically than to some other of the tribes? There is clearly predicted great fruitfulness and general prosperity to Joseph, and in him to the two tribes that were to represent him, but all this is made the more striking by being suggestively grounded on the sorrows and persecutions he had individually experienced. It is the remote seen as compensation of the near. See the remarks on the subjective character of the whole vision, in the excursus, p. 652.—T. L.]
[10][To the literature of this chapter (see p. 650, 6) may be added a tract just published, by K. Kohler, Berlin, 1867, entitled Der Segen Jacob’s. It is valuable as presenting a good argument for the antiquity of the piece, in opposition to the theory of its being a later fiction (see p. 9). It is very suggestive, truly learned, especially in the Jewish Midrashin, in which, however, the writer, though a Jew, has little faith, even as he shows still less of reverence for the Scriptures. He holds it to be a very ancient song, yet does not hesitate to make Jacob a myth, Jacob’s God a great idea, and Jacob’s sons to be only the names of supposed tutelar tribal deities (Schutzgottheiten). He rejects, of course, the derivation of these names as given by the mothers, but shows himself a much more extravagant etymologist than Rachel and Leah. Reuben, ראובן, he turns into ראובעל, and interprets it as meaning sun-god (Sonnengott, or Gott des Strahls). Jacob himself is only a Schutzgottheit, die verschiedenen Stämme gemeinsam beschirmende. The tract is valuable and noteworthy as showing the extreme progress of this “more refined exegesis.” It may be regarded as a specimen of “the higher criticism” evaporated, “gone up into Tohu” (Job_6:18), or of “rationalism” run mad.—T. L.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v10 JUDAH--A high pre-eminence is destined to this tribe (Num…
JUDAH--A high pre-eminence is destined to this tribe (Num 10:14; Jdg 1:2). Besides the honor of giving name to the Promised Land, David, and a greater than David--the Messiah--sprang from it. Chief among the tribes, "it grew up from a lion's whelp"--that is, a little power--till it became "an old lion"--that is, calm and quiet, yet still formidable. (Gen 49:8-12)
until Shiloh come--Shiloh--this obscure word is variously interpreted to mean "the sent" (Joh 17:3), "the seed" (Isa 11:1), the "peaceable or prosperous one" (Eph 2:14) --that is, the Messiah (Isa 11:10; Rom 15:12); and when He should come, "the tribe of Judah should no longer boast either an independent king or a judge of their own" [CALVIN]. The Jews have been for eighteen centuries without a ruler and without a judge since Shiloh came, and "to Him the gathering of the people has been."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 JACOB’S PROPHETIC BLESSING ON HIS SONS, Gen_49:1-27.
JACOB’S PROPHETIC BLESSING ON HIS SONS, Gen_49:1-27.
Jacob was the last great patriarchal representative and possessor of the covenant blessing of Jehovah. His grandfather Abraham had been separated from his kindred and native land, and received the promise and the covenant of circumcision. Isaac was preferred, to the exclusion of Ishmael and the sons of Keturah, and he transmitted the prophetic blessing of the covenant to Jacob, thereby excluding and supplanting Esau. Jacob is now about to die, and the chosen seed are henceforth to be represented by twelve tribes rather than by one great father. It was fitting, therefore, before this last great patriarch was gathered to his people, the voice of prophecy should issue from his lips, and, magnifying itself above the blessings of the everlasting hills, (Gen_49:26,) should disclose unto his children some things that would befall them in the last days. Israel will have no successor like himself, and the Book of Genesis ends with the “generations of Jacob;” but the divine thoughts of this prophecy appear again in the blessing of Moses, (Deuteronomy 33,) and may also be traced in the song of Deborah. Judges 5. The student should also compare with this prophetic psalm that of Isaac when he felt his end approaching, (Gen_27:1; Gen_27:4; Gen_27:26-29; Gen_27:39-40,) the farewells of Joshua (Joshua 23, 24) and of Samuel, (1 Samuel 12,) the last words of David, (2 Samuel 23,) and the language of Simeon (Luk_2:25-32) and of Paul, (2Ti_4:5-8.) All these saints breathed the same prophetic spirit, and were divinely gifted to utter words of imperishable value. They caught in vision the outlines of future great events, the full significance of which they but imperfectly comprehended. 1Pe_1:10-11. It was a prevalent opinion of heathen antiquity that highly gifted souls were wont to prophesy at the moment of their departure from the world. Thus Socrates (in Plato’s Apology) says to his judges: “And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you; for I am about to die, and that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power.”
Read full note →
Modern critics, of all rationalistic schools, deny the genuineness of this prophecy, and refer it to a period long subsequent to Jacob’s time. They hold that its author, after the manner of poetical writers of all nations, conceived the happy thought of transferring certain facts of his own time and nation to the prophetic vision of a famous ancestor. Similarly Virgil, in the sixth book of the AEneid, (756-891,) represents father Anchises detailing to his son a long account of the fortunes of his posterity in Italy. These critics claim that the language of this poem is too highly wrought, and its historical and geographical allusions too minute, to be the utterance of an illiterate old man, who had been a shepherd all his life.
To these criticisms it may be replied, that the quiet of shepherd life, the deep and varied experiences through which Jacob passed, and the serene grandeur of his old age, furnished the most natural conditions of such a prophecy. So far, therefore, from being an objection, these considerations furnish a strong argument in favour of the genuineness of this poem. He who had the dream at Bethel, the vision of angels at Mahanaim, and the struggle and triumph at Peniel; who had traversed hills and plains, and been exposed to the extremes of heat and cold and storms; who, like David in later times, became, by means of pastoral life and exposure, familiar with the habits of the lioness and the lion’s whelp, the ravening wolf and the bounding hind, and the horned serpent hidden by the wayside; the father, who had studied the characters of all his sons with more than human interest; who had watched the merchant-caravan to learn the ways of other lands and peoples; who had stood in the presence of Pharaoh, and abode seventeen years in Egypt; the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the heir of the promises — he, of all men, would seem to have been the fittest person to voice these oracles. So we aver that this prophecy is traceable to a psychological basis in the life and experiences of the aged patriarch, as they are presented to us in the Book of Genesis.
As to the poetical form of the prophecy, we may suppose a number of hypotheses. The rapturous utterances of such a seer naturally take poetic form and fervour, and the critical reader of this poem will note its intensity of passion, sudden transitions, outbursts of alarm, ejaculations of prayer, and a multiplicity of similes and metaphors. Can we suppose any of the greatest poets of the world to have spoken in such exalted strains? Certainly, but not without premeditation. Milton composed his finest passages in the stillness of the night, and dictated them to his daughters the following day. Similarly Jacob may have mentally prepared this entire poem, and have repeated it with glowing inspiration when his sons stood about his bed. Nothing forbids the supposition that months and even years had been previously given to its preparation. It has been suggested that each of the sons remembered his own blessing or oracle, and wrote it down, and afterwards the eleven separate oracles were united in the order in which they now stand. Others have thought that the patriarch blessed his sons in substantially the words which we have here, and the general sentiments were treasured up in the memory of his sons, written out in rhythmic form by a later poet, and possibly revised and supplemented at a still later day. Any or all of these suppositions are permissible with one who defends the genuineness of the prophecy, so long as he holds that, whatever revision it has received by later hands, it truly preserves in substance what the dying patriarch said to his sons.
This prophecy contains nothing in itself incredible — nothing which might not, in substance if not in form, have been spoken by Jacob in his last days. It is in admirable keeping with the dream of Bethel, which was a sublime revelation of the great truth, running through the whole Old Testament, that in him and his posterity all families of the earth were to be blessed. Gen_28:14. Such a gift of prophecy has its measure of the supernatural, but nothing miraculous. The super-naturalism of genuine prophecy implies no violence done to the prophet. The prevision with which he was for the time gifted, was as truly in harmony with his natural powers as was the far-reaching prophetic dream at Bethel.
The charge that this poem abounds with minute geographical and historical allusions inconsistent with genuine prophecy, is abundantly refuted by the fact that the adverse critics cannot agree as to its date, but have referred its composition all the way from the times of the judges to the later kings of Israel. Determining data must be sadly deficient in a production which has been assigned by eminent critics to such different times as the six following:
1) The period of the Judges. (Dillmann, Baur, Ewald.)
2) The time of Saul’s reign, and probably written by Samuel. (Tuch.)
3) The reign of David. (Eichhorn, Knobel, Bohlen.)
4) Somewhere in the period covered by the reigns of David and Solomon. (Reuss.)
5) In the earlier period of the divided kingdom, when Judah and Joseph were the two great rival tribes. (Kalisch.)
6) During the times of the Syro-Israelitish wars, to which allusion is supposed in Gen_49:23-24.
It is evident from this diversity of opinion that when we remove this prophecy from the date and person to whom it is assigned by the sacred writer, we go out upon a sea of uncertainty and conjecture which involves greater difficulties than to accept it as the genuine word of Jacob.
The order in which the sons are named is: A. — The six sons of Leah: 1) Reuben. 2) Simeon. 3) Levi. 4) Judah. 5) Zebulun. 6) Issachar. B. — The four sons of the handmaids: 7) Daniel 8) Gad. 9) Asher. 10) Naphtali. C. — The two sons of Rachel: 11) Joseph. 12) Benjamin. If we compare the narrative of the several births, (chapter 30,) we see that Zebulun was born after Issachar, though named before him here, and Naphtali is placed here after Gad and Asher, though probably born before them. It is possible, however, that Naphtali was born after both Gad and Asher; for after giving birth to Dan, (Gen_30:6,) Rachel’s handmaid, Bilhah, may not have borne her second child, Naphtali, until after Leah’s handmaid, Zilpah, had borne both her sons, (Gen_30:9; Gen_30:13.) The placing of Zebulun before Issachar was, perhaps, designed in this prophetic blessing, like the placing of Ephraim before Manasseh, to denote that the younger should be in some way greater than the elder. Compare Gen_48:14; Gen_48:19; Deu_33:18. In comparing the order followed in Moses’s psalm, we find 1) Reuben, whose precedence in birth never could be denied; 2) Judah, the princely; 3) Levi, the priestly; 4) Benjamin, placed before 5) Joseph; 6) Zebulun, as here before 7) Issachar; and the sons of the handmaids are arranged as follows: 8) Gad, 9) Daniel , 10) Naphtali, 11) Asher, while Simeon is left out altogether.
As a part of the exegesis we furnish a new translation of this poem, and accordingly the notes are based upon the new translation.
1. Assemble yourselves — These words evidently belong to the poem itself, and are not the composition of the historian, who inserted a copy of Jacob’s prophecy in this place in his volume. The gathering contemplated was around the patriarch’s couch, whither Joseph had before hastened when he heard of his father’s sickness, (Gen_48:2,) and where the whole family were now summoned to hear the prophetic word. What particular meaning the writer attached to the expression the end of the days is somewhat doubtful. It is too definite a phrase to denote merely after times, or the future. It suggests the idea of a limit, the end of an age, aeon, or period. Such an age had its ראשׁיתand its אחרית, its beginning and its end, and the author of this prophecy proposed to speak of events belonging to the end, or closing period, of the age to which he belonged. The Septuagint translates it by the phrase so common in the New Testament, επ’ εσχατων των ημερων, in the last days, which suggests the same idea of the closing period of an aeon. The events contemplated as befalling the sons of Jacob in the end of the days were such as belonged to the last period of the prophet’s vision; the end as distinguished from the beginning of Israelitish history. How near or how remote that end might be is left entirely undetermined.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–12 1–27. The Blessing of Jacob
1–27. The Blessing of Jacob
1. And Jacob called] It is possible that this first clause may be from P, and is continued in the last clause of Gen_49:28. Notice that the name “Israel,” used eight times in the course of the previous 15 verses (Gen_48:8-22), here makes way for “Jacob.”
Read full note →
in the latter days] Lit. “in the after part of days,” denoting the period which is present to the vision of the Prophet. Cf. Num_24:14, “I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days”; Isa_2:2; Mic_4:1. See Deu_4:30; Deu_31:29; Jer_23:20; Hos_3:5; Dan_2:28; Dan_10:14. Cf. Heb_1:2, “at the end of these days”; 1Pe_1:20, “at the end of the times”; 2Es_2:34, “at the end of the world.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (1) That which shall befall you.—This dying song of…
XLIX.
THE BLESSING OF THE TWELVE TRIBES.
Read full note →
(1) That which shall befall you.—This dying song of Jacob has been regarded alike by Jews and Christians as a prophetic hymn spoken by the patriarch under the influence of the Holy Spirit. By many modern commentators, however, it has been placed in David’s time, and even ascribed to Nathan, partly on the ground that it is too spirited to have been the composition of one lying in the last decrepitude of old age, but chiefly because, in the description given of Judah, it is supposed to refer to the elevation of David to the royal dignity. But if it was thus written by a member of David’s court, we should reasonably expect an exact knowledge of the state of things in David’s time. For this, in fact, is the argument upon which these critics depend, that the internal evidence shows that it belongs to David’s reign. Now, so far is this from being true, that not only is the whole exceedingly general, containing scarcely more than faint and dim hopes and anticipations, but, except in the matter of Judah’s pre-eminence, there is no knowledge whatsoever of the arrangements of David’s time. Thus, for instance, there is no word about Levi’s priestly functions, and his dispersion in Israel is described as a punishment, and put upon exactly the same level as that of Simeon It is said in answer that it was David who established the priesthood, and set the Levites apart for their duties. If so, this was the very reason why Nathan, a seer of his court, should have put into Jacob’s mouth some allusion to so important an event, in order to justify so strong a proceeding as the depriving of a tribe of its lands and political importance, the seizure of towns in every other tribe for the abode of its members, and the bestowal upon them of priestly functions. If however David, by an act of despotic power, was able to effect so violent a subversion of all tribal rights, it is strange that no reference is ever made to it: and, moreover, both the Pentateuch and the Books of Joshua (Jos_3:3; Jos_8:33, &c), of Judges (Jdg_17:9-13), and of Samuel (1Sa_2:13; 1Sa_2:27-28; 1Sa_6:15, &c.) must be of a date so modern as for all remembrance of David’s act to have passed away, and for the national traditions to have created for themselves a setting modelled upon a state of things that never existed, and which was contradictory to the most glorious age of the nation’s history. But national traditions precede the historical period of a people’s annals, and from the time of David careful records of all events in Judah and Israel were kept, and the history of Judah and Israel was one of the chief subjects of instruction given to the youth of the nation in the prophetic schools. But let us take another instance. At the settlement of the tribes in Canaan, it was Asher and not Zebulun to which the sea-coast upon the north fell by lot; south of Asher was the half-tribe of Manasseh, and south of this was Dan. (Comp. Jdg_5:17.) Zebulun was an inland tribe, and did not “dwell at the haven of the sea.” It is unnecessary to continue this examination, but generally we may affirm that the sole argument for Jacob’s blessing having been written in historic times is the position given to Judah. Everything besides negatives this view; and we may reasonably ascribe the high rank of Judah to the fact that after the setting aside of Reuben, Simeon and Levi, he became the firstborn.
In the last days.—Heb., in the after part of days. The phrase is often opposed to “the beginning of days,” and is constantly used of the times of the Messiah. Here these “after days” apparently commence with the conquest of Canaan, but look onward to the advent of Christ.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Genesis 37 - 50
Genesis 37 - 50
On which we shall dwell more particularly. There is not in scripture a more perfect and beautiful type of Christ than Joseph. Whether we view Christ as the object of the Father’s love, the object of the envy of His own, - in His humiliation, sufferings, death exaltation, and glory, in all we have Him strikingly typified by Joseph.
Read full note →
In Gen. 37 we have Joseph’s dreams, the statement of which draws out the enmity of his brethren. He was the object of his father’s love, and the subject of very high destinies, and inasmuch as the hearts of his brothers were not in communion with these things, they hated him. They had no fellowship in the father’s love. They would not yield to the thought of Joseph’s exaltation. In all this they represent the Jews in Christ’s day. He came to His own and his own received him not." He had "no form nor comeliness in their eyes." They would neither own Him as the Son of God, nor king of Israel. Their eyes were not open to behold "his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of "grace and truth." They would not have Him; yea, they hated Him.
Now, in Joseph’s case, we see that he, in no wise, relaxed his testimony in consequence of his brethren’s refusal of his first dream. "And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren;" and they hated him yet the more....And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren." This was simple testimony founded upon divine revelation; but it was testimony which brought Joseph down to the pit. Had he kept back his testimony, or taken off ought of its edge and power, he might have spared himself; but no; he told them the truth, and therefore they hated him.
Thus was it with Joseph’s great Antitype. He bore witness to the truth - He witnessed a good confession He kept back nothing - He could only speak the truth because He was the truth, and His testimony to the truth was answered, on man’s part, by the cross, the vinegar, the soldier’s spear. The testimony of Christ, too, was connected with the deepest, fullest, richest grace. He not only came as "the truth," but also as the perfect expression of all the love of the Father’s heart:" grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He was the full disclosure to man of what God was. Hence man was left entirely without excuse. He came and showed God to man, and man hated God with a perfect hatred. The fullest exhibition of divine love was answered by the fullest exhibition of human hatred. This is seen in the cross; and we have it touchingly foreshadowed at the pit into which Joseph was cast by his brethren.
"And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh; come now, therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit; and we will say, some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams." These words forcibly remind us of the parable in Matthew 22. "But, last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir, come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him." God sent His Son into the world with this thought, "They will reverence my son;" but, alas! man’s heart had no reverence for the "well beloved" of the Father. They cast him out. Earth and heaven were at issue in reference to Christ; and they are at issue still. Man crucified Him; but God raised Him from the dead. Man placed Him on a cross between two thieves; God set Him at His own right hand in the heavens. Man gave Him the very lowest place on earth; God gave Him the very highest place in heaven, in brightest majesty.
ALL this is shown out in Joseph’s history. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him; but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel;) 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 lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb; the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." (Gen. 49: 22-26)
These verses beautifully exhibit to our view "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." "The archers" have done their work; but God was stronger than they. The true Joseph has been shot at and grievously wounded in the house of his friends; but "the arms of his hands have been made strong" in the power of resurrection, and faith now knows Him as the basis of all God’s purposes of blessing and glory in reference to the Church, Israel, and the whole creation. When we look at Joseph in the pit, and in the prison, and look; at him afterwards as ruler over all the land of Egypt, we see the difference between the thoughts of God and the. thoughts of men; and so when we look at the cross, and at "the throne of the majesty in the heavens," we see the same thing.
Nothing ever brought out the real state of man’s heart toward God but the coming of Christ. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin." (John 15: 22) It is not that they would not have been sinners. No; but "they had not had sin." So He says, in another place, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin." (John 9: 41) God came near to man in the Person of His Son, and man was able to say, "this is the heir;" but yet he said, "come, let us kill him." Hence, "they have no cloak for their sin." Those who say they see, have no excuse. confessed blindness is not at all the difficulty, but professed sight. This is a truly solemn principle for a professing age like the present. The permanence of sin is connected with the mere profession to see. A man who is blind, and knows it, can have his eyes opened; but what can be done for one who thinks he sees, when he really does not?
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12 And Jacob (having closed his interview with Joseph and…
And Jacob (having closed his interview with Joseph and his two sons) called (by means of messengers) unto his sons (i.e. the others who were then absent), and said, Gather yourselves together, the prophet"s last utterance must be a public onethat I may tell you literally, and I will tell youthat which shall befall you ar; q; in the sense of happening or occurring to any one, is here equivalent to hrq; (cf. Gen_42:4, Gen_42:38) in the last days literally, in the end of the days, not simply in future time (Gesenius, Rosenm Kalisch), or in the times intervening between the speaker and the end of the human race (Murphy), but in the last age, the closing period of time, the era of fulfillment (Kurtz, Hengstenberg), which era, however, must be judged from the standpoint of the speaker (Baumgarten). Hence the period must not be restricted to exclusively Messianic times (Rabbi Nachmanides), ejp ejscatwn twn hJmerwn (LXX), in diebus novissimis (Vulgate), but must commence with what to Jacob was the era of consummation, the days of the conquest (Baumgarten, Hengstenberg); while, on the other hand, it can as little be limited to these, but must be held as extending over totum tempus ab exitu Aegypti ad Christi regnum (Calvin), and even as reaching, though unconsciously to Jacob, to the very terminus of human history (Keil, Lange).
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Gen_35:18) and the sense would sufficiently accord with the allusion of ver. 4, but, as required by the parallelism, "of his vigor," wOa being here equivalent to jK (Rosenmuller, Kalisch, Keil, "Speaker"s Commentary," et alii); and
Read full note →
(3) by the natural prominence which as Jacob"s eldest son belonged to him, "the excellency of dignity" or "elevation," i.e. the dignity of the chieftainship, and the excellency of power," or authority, which the first born claimed and received as his prerogative. Yet the natural advantages enjoyed by Reuben as Jacob"s firstborn were to be taken from him, as the patriarch proceeded to announceUnstable as water, literally, boiling over like water, the import of which is not effusus es sicut aqua (Vulgate), but either ejxubrisav wJv uJdwr (LXX), or lasciviousness (sc. was to thee) as the boiling of water (Gesenius, Rosenm Keil, Kalisch, &c.), the same root in Arabic conveying the notion of pride, and in Syriac that of wantonness;thou shalt not excel; literally, thou shalt not have the try, or excellency (ver. 3), i.e. the pre-eminence belonging to the firstborn, a sense which the versions have more or less successfully expressed: mhshv (Aquila), oujk esh perissoterov (Symmachus), mhshv (LXX), non crescas (Vulgate)because thou wentest up to thy father"s bed (vide Gen_35:22; 1Ch_5:1) then defiledst thou it: the verb is used absolutely, as meaning that Reuben had desecrated what ought to have been regarded by him as sacred (cf. Deu_27:20) he went up to my couch literally, my couch he ascends; the order of the words and the change from the second to the third person helping to give expression to the horror and indignation with which, even at that distance of time, the venerable patriarch contemplated the shameful deed.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 8, 10 Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that…
Gen_49:1-2
Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days
Read full note →
Jacob as a prophet of the Lord;
In this dying speech of Jacob to his sons we have the characteristics of true prophecy.
I. THE NATURE OF ITS CONTENTS.
II. THE NATURE OF THE STYLE EMPLOYED. It is vague and mysterious; there are no accurate and minute details, but all is given in shadowy outline; and this forbids us to suppose that it was written in after-ages in order to fit into history.
III. THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ACCOUNTING FOR THESE DELIVERANCES UPON NATURAL PRINCIPLES. Jacob was now a weak and aged man; the last sickness was upon him. And yet he speaks in this sublime style, the proper vehicle of exalted thought and feeling. Inspiration is the only solution. That which reveals so much of Gods thoughts and ways must be from God.
IV. THE STAGE OF PROPHETIC DEVELOPMENT WHICH IT INDICATES, The prophecy of Messiah now becomes clearer. First, it is the seed, in general terms; then thy seed, Abrahams. Now, the very tribe out of which the Messiah is to spring is announced. We have here the full bloom of patriarchal prophecy. The language rises to that poetic form which is peculiar to the Messianic predictions. The blessing of Judah is the central point, where the discourse reaches on to the last times, when God would bring His first-begotten into the world, and set up His everlasting kingdom.
V. THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE WHICH IT SUGGESTS. The spirit of these prophecies is the testimony of Jesus. And He came that we may have life. Eternal life is the end of all prophecy. (T. H. Leale.)
Jacobs predictions:
1. The predictions are partly explicable on natural grounds. Jacobs sagacity was sufficient to distinguish the germs of character already shown in his sons, and from thence he could foretell the results. Reubens instability, for instance, was the result of a sensual character. The nomad, fierce life of the Simeonites and Levites was the natural consequence of a cruel disposition.
2. But there is a part of this remarkable chapter which we cannot so get over--the prediction of Zebulons future locality by the seaside; of the descent of the Saviour from Judah--events both of which took place after the settlement in Canaan. Here we are plainly out of the region of things cognizable by sagacity, and have got into the sphere of the prophetic faculty.
3. Observe that five of these sons have their fortunes specifically told, and in detail; the rest generally. We divide the chapter, therefore, into these two divisions:
I. THE FIVE SPECIFIC PROPHECIES.
1. The first of the specific prophecies is that respecting Reuben, and is in two divisions:
(1) An enumeration of his original circumstantial advantages contrasted
(2) with the destiny determined for himself by character. Learn, therefore--First, self-rule is the condition of influence and success. Rule thyself,thou rulest all. To subject appetites is not a very high achievement; but for him who has not attained that first, simplest step in Christian life excellence is impossible.
2. Next, learn how sin adheres to character. Years had passed since Reuben sinned. Probably he had forgotten what he had done. It was but a single act. But the act was not fixed to the spot which witnessed its performance. It went inwards, and made him irresolute, feeble, wretched, unstable. So with every sin, whether one of weakness or of violence, You are the exact result of all your past sins. There they are in your character.
3. The second and third of whom Jacob uttered his predictions were Simeon and Levi. They were charged with immoderate revenge. Observe, not revenge alone. Cursed be their anger, for it was cruel (Gen_49:7). Had they not felt anger, had they not avenged, they had not been men. That responsibility which is now shared between judge, jury, the law, and the executioner, was necessarily in early ages sustained alone by the avenger of blood. That instinct of indignation which is now regularly expressed by law was then of necessity expressed irregularly. I do not think they were to be blamed for doing the avengers justice. But they slew a whole tribe. Now, the penalty which fell on them was of a very peculiar kind: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. This has a plain meaning in Simeons case, for his tribe was weak, his territory divided. But in Levis case the prediction is not so intelligible as a penalty. For Levi, though scattered in Israel, having no territorial allotment, was a peculiarly privileged tribe; they were chosen to be the tribe of priests. We consider this, therefore, as one of the many, many cases in which a penalty is by grace transmuted into a blessing.
4. Predictions respecting Judah.
(1) His brethren should praise him. We should have expected him to be envied rather than praised by them. But there is a spirit which can disarm envy. It is that meekness which hides its own superiority, seems unconscious of it, and even shows that it feels more pain in surpassing than others can feel in being surpassed. Such persons may be superior and still praised--a rare and honourable peculiarity. The meek shall inherit the earth. Earths inheritance, its praise and its love, belong to such.
(2) Next, Judah is put forward as the type of the Hebrew hero. He is represented under the similitude of a lion. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? (Gen_49:9.) It has been remarked, perhaps not idly, that the simile is a lion couchant, not rampant. Not the strength of the oppressor, but that of one strong in right, the majesty of defence: who shall rouse him up?
(3) The third thing said respecting Judah brings us to the most difficult passage in Scripture: The sceptre shall not depart, &c. (Gen_49:10). Shiloh, the Pacificator, or Prince of Peace. Much has been written to evade the difficulty which arises from the fact that there was no king in Israel when He came. But surely it is not needed. Ten tribes disappeared. Of the remaining two, both merged themselves in Judah; and the sceptre is only a figurative and poetical name for nationality. Israels nationality, merged in Judah, lasted until Shiloh came. Lion--Shiloh: the two harmoniously declare a truth. There is a strength of force; and there is another strength, the might and majesty of gentleness which is invincible through suffering, the glory of Him who is the Lion and the slain Lamb, the Lion because the Lamb.
(4) The fourth prediction respecting Judah has reference to his temporal prosperity. His was to be a territory rich in vineyards and pastures (Gen_49:11-12).
5. We now come to Joseph, the last of those five of whom we have a special prediction. Here the whole tone of Jacobs language changes. Specially observe two things:
(1) An illustration in this blessing of the fulfilment and principle of the promise of the fifth commandment. Josephs peculiarity was filial obedience; and his lot above his brethren was distinguished by worldly success and honour. He was the best governor Egypt had ever had. The two were, however, connected. In childish obedience he learned fitness for rule. He who can obey well is the only one who can well command. Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control--these three alone fit a man to be a ruler.
(2) He had been separate from his brethren (Gen_49:26), and doubtless it was better for him, though an apparent disadvantage. Education and admixture with equals are two good things; but sometimes the deprivation of these things is better.
II. GENERAL BLESSINGS ON THE SEVEN REMAINING SONS. Observe in all these different characters the true principle of unity. They were not lost in one undistinguished similarity, but each has its own peculiar characteristic: one made up of seamen, another of shepherds; one warlike, another cultivated; and so on. And yet, together, one.
III. Finally, we have on all this chapter FOUR REFLECTIONS to make.
1. Jacobs spiritual character, as tested by his ejaculation, I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord (Gen_49:18)--a religious ejaculation from the dying patriarch breathless and exhausted with speech. Our exact character is tested by our spontaneous thoughts.
2. See what is assumed in this personification of the tribes. Judah, Simeon, Levi, are taken as the type of the future career of their several tribes. Every man impresses his character on his descendants. Let us add that to the innumerable motives for abstinence from sin.
3. Think of this fathers feelings as his family gathered round him. Over each of those children a mothers heart had bled and a fathers heart rejoiced. Their very names contained the record of such feelings: Reuben--lo! a son. Yes; and, lo! there he is; and what has he become? Happy is it for Christian fathers now, that in looking round on their assembled children they cannot read the future as Jacob did, that they are not able to fix on each of their sons and say, This for God and that for sin.
4. Lastly, let us see something here that tells of the character of future judgment. Have you ever attended the opening of a will, where the bequests were large and unknown, and seen the bitter disappointment and the suppressed auger? Well, conceive those sons listening to the unerring doom. Conceive Reuben, or Simeon, or Levi listening to their fathers words. Yet the day will come when, on principles precisely similar, our doom must be pronounced. Destiny is fixed by character, and character is determined by separate acts. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The prophet; or, Jacob blessing his sons:
I. THE VALUE OF THE TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE. It affords encouragement and warning; it reveals the conditions of success, the means to be used, and the errors to be avoided.
II. THE STIMULUS OF EXAMPLE (Gen_48:16; cf. also Gen_48:5). The memory of the efforts and struggles of others nerves to patient endurance.
III. THE SOLEMN RESPONSIBILITY OF LIFE. Each one is making his own future. Our daily conduct is proving what we are fit for.
IV. THE RECOGNITION THROUGHOUT OF OUR SPIRITUAL DEPENDENCE UPON GOD. This is the only right, sure, and safe way of facing and bearing the solemn responsibility of life.
V. THE PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH. (A. F. Joscelyne, B. A.)
The blessings of the tribes:
Jacobs blessing of his sons marks the close of the patriarchal dispensation. Henceforth the channel of Gods blessing to man does not consist of one person only, but of a people or nation. It is still one seed, as Paul reminds us, a unit that God will bless, but this unit is now no longer a single person--as Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob--but one people, composed of several parts, and yet one whole; equally representative of Christ, as the patriarchs were, and of equal effect every way in receiving Gods blessing and handing it down until Christ came. And it is at this point--where Israel distributes among his sons the blessing which heretofore had all lodged in himself--that we see the first multiplication of Christs representatives, the mediation going on no longer through individuals, but through a nation; and where individuals are still chosen by God, as commonly they are, for the conveyance of Gods communications to earth, these individuals, whether priests or prophets, are themselves but the official representatives of the nation. As the patriarchal dispensation ceases, it secures to the tribes all the blessing it has itself contained. The blessing of Israel is now distributed, and each receives what each can take; and while in some of the individual tribes there may seem to be very little of blessing at all, yet, taken together, they form a picture of the common outstanding features of human nature, and of that nature as acted upon by Gods blessing, and forming together one body or Church. In these blessings, therefore, we have the history of the Church in its most interesting form. In these sons gathered round him the patriarch sees his own nature reflected piece by piece, and he sees also the general outline of all that must be produced by such natures as these men have. The whole destiny of Israel is here in germ, and the spirit of prophecy in Jacob sees and declares it. Being nearer to eternity, he instinctively measures things by its standard, and thus comes nearer a just valuation of all things before his mind, and can better distinguish reality from appearance. One cannot but admire, too, the faith which enables Jacob to apportion to his sons the blessings of a land which had not been much of a resting-place to himself, and regarding the occupation of which his sons might have put to him some very difficult questions. And we admire this dignified faith the more on reflecting that it has often been very grievously lacking in our own case--that we have felt almost ashamed of having so little of a present tangible kind to offer, and of being obliged to speak only of invisible and future blessings; to set a spiritual consolation over against a worldly grief; to point a man whose fortunes are ruined to an eternal inheritance; or to speak to one who knows himself quite in the power of sin of a remedy which has often seemed illusory to ourselves. And often we are rebuked by finding that when we do offer things spiritual even those who are wrapped in earthly comforts appreciate and accept the better gifts. So it was in Josephs case. No doubt the highest posts in Egypt were open to his sons; they might have been naturalized, as he himself had been, and, throwing in their lot with the land of their adoption, might have turned to their advantage the rank their father held and the reputation he had earned. But Joseph turns from this attractive prospect, brings them to his father, and hands them over to the despised shepherd-life of Israel. One need scarcely point out how great a sacrifice this was on Josephs part. And his faith received its reward; the two tribes that sprang from him received about as large a portion of the promised land as fell to the lot of all the other tribes put together. You will observe that Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted as sons of Jacob. Jacob tells Joseph, They shall be mine; not my grandsons, but as Reuben and Simeon. No other sons whom Joseph might have were to be received into this honour, but these two were to take their place on a level with their uncles as heads of tribes, so that Joseph is represented through the whole history by the two populous and powerful tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim and Manasseh were not received alongside of Joseph, but each received what Joseph himself might have had, and Josephs name as a tribe was henceforth only to be found in these two. This idea was fixed in such a way, that for centuries it was stepping into the minds of men, so that they might not be astonished if God should in some other case--say the case of His own Son--adopt men into the rank He held, and let His estimate of the worth of His Son, and the honour He puts upon Him, be seen in the adopted. This being so, we need not be alarmed if men tell us that imputation is a mere legal fiction or human invention. A legal fiction it may be, but in the ease before us it was the never-disputed foundation of very substantial blessings to Ephraim and Manasseh; and we plead for nothing more than that God would act with us as here He did act with these two, that He would make us His direct heirs, make us His own sons, and give us what He who presents us to Him to receive His blessing did earn and merits at the Fathers hand. We meet with these crossed hands of blessing frequently in Scripture; the younger son blessed above the elder--as was needful, lest grace should become confounded with nature, and the belief gradually grow up in mens minds that natural effects could never be overcome by grace, and that in every respect grace waited upon nature. And these crossed hands we meet still; for how often does God quite reverse our order, and bless most that about which we had less concern, and seem to put a slight on that which has engrossed our best affection. In Reuben, the first-born, conscience must have been sadly at war with hope as he looked at the blind, but expressive, face of his father. He may have hoped that his sin had not been severely thought of by his father, or that the fathers pride in his first-born would prompt him to hide, though it could not make him forget, it. Could his father, at the last hour, and after so many thronged years, and before his brethren, recall the old sin? He is relieved and confirmed in his confidence by the first words of Jacob, words ascribing to him his natural position, a certain conspicuous dignity too, and power such as one may often see produced in men by occupying positions of authority, though in their own character there be weakness. But all the excellence that Jacob ascribes to Reuben serves only to embitter the doom pronounced upon him. Men seem often to expect that a future can be given to them irrespective of what they themselves are, that a series of blessings and events might be prepared for them, and made over to them; whereas every mans future must be made by himself, and is already in great part formed by the past. It was a vain expectation of Reuben to expect that he, the impetuous, unstable, superficial son, could have the future of a deep, and earnest, and dutiful nature, or that his children should derive no taint from their parent, but be as the children of Joseph. No mans future need be altogether a doom to him, for God may bless to him the evil fruit his life has borne; but certainly no man need look for a future which has no relation to his own character. His future will always be made up of his deeds, his feeling, and the circumstances which his desires have brought him into. The future of Reuben was of a negative, blank kind--Thou shalt not excel; his unstable character must empty it of all great success. And to many a heart since have these words struck a chill, for to many they are as a mirror suddenly held up before them. They see themselves, when they look on the tossing sea, rising and pointing to the heavens with much noise, but only to sink back again to the same everlasting level. Men of brilliant parts and great capacity are continually seen to be lost to society by instability of purpose. The sin of the next oldest sons was also remembered against them, and remembered apparently for the same reason--because the character was expressed in it. The massacre of the Shechemites was not an accidental outrage that any other of the sons of Jacob might equally have perpetrated, but the most glaring of a number of expressions of a fierce and cruel disposition in these two men. In Jacobs prediction of their future he seems to shrink with horror from his own progeny--like her who dreamt she would give birth to a firebrand. He sees the possibility of the direst results flowing from such a temper, and, under God, provides against these by scattering the tribes, and thus weakening their power for evil. They had been banded together so as the more easily and securely to accomplish their murderous purposes. Simeon and Levi are brethren--showing a close affinity, and seeking one anothers society and aid, but it is for bad purposes; and therefore they must be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel. This was accomplished by the tribe of Levi being distributed over all the other tribes as the ministers of religion. The fiery zeal, the bold independence, and the pride of being a distinct people, which had been displayed in the slaughter of the Shechemites, might be toned down and turned to good account when the sword was taken out of their hand. Qualities such as these, which produce the most disastrous results when fit instruments can be found, and when men of like disposition are suffered to band themselves together, may, when found in the individual and kept in check by circumstances and dissimilar dispositions, be highly beneficial. Very humbling must it have been for the Levite who remembered the history of his tribe to be used by God as the hand of His justice on the victims that were brought in substitution for that which was so precious in the sight of God. The blessing of Judah is at once the most important and the most difficult to interpret in the series. There is enough in the history of Judah himself, and there is enough in the subsequent history of the tribe, to justify the ascription to him of all lion-like qualities--a kingly fearlessness, confidence, power, and success; in action a rapidity of movement and might that make him irresistible, and in repose a majestic dignity of bearing. If there were to be kings in Israel, there could be little doubt from which tribe they could best be chosen. A wolf of the tribe of Benjamin, like Saul, not only hung on the rear of retreating Philistines and spoiled them, but made a prey of his own people, and it is in David we find the true king, the man who more than any other satisfies mens ideal of the prince to whom they will pay homage--falling, indeed, into grievous error and sin, like his forefather, but, like him also, right at heart, so generous and self-sacrificing that men served him with the most devoted loyalty, and were willing rather to dwell in caves with him than in palaces with any other. The kingly supremacy of Judah was here spoken of in words which have been the subject of as prolonged and violent contention as any others in the Word of God. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. These words are very generally understood to mean that Judahs supremacy would continue until it culminated or flowered into the personal reign of Shiloh; in other words, that Judahs sovereignty was to be perpetuated in the person of Jesus Christ. But it comes to be an inquiry of some interest, How much information regarding a personal Messiah did the brethren receive from this prophecy?--a question very difficult indeed to answer. The word Shiloh means peacemaking, and if they understood this as a proper name, they must have thought of a person such as Isaiah designates as the Prince of Peace--a name it was similar to that wherewith David called his son Solomon, in the expectation that the results of his own lifetime of disorder and battle would be reaped by his successor in a peaceful and prosperous reign. It can scarcely be thought likely, indeed, that this single term Shiloh, which might be applied to many things besides a person, should give to the sons of Jacob any distinct idea of a personal Deliverer; but it might be sufficient to keep before their eyes, and specially before the tribe of Judah, that the aim and consummation of all lawgiving and ruling was peace. And there was certainly contained in this blessing an assurance that the purpose of Judah would not be accomplished, and therefore that the existence of Judah as a tribe would not terminate, until peace had been through its means brought into the world. Thus was the assurance given that the productive power of Judah should not fail until out of that tribe there had sprung that which should give peace. But to us who have seer the prediction accomplished it plainly enough points to the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who in His own person combined all kingly qualities. In Him we are taught by this prediction to discover once more the single Person who stands out on the page of this worlds history as satisfying mens ideal of what their King should be, and of how the race should be represented--the One who, without any rival, stands in the minds eye as that for which the best hopes of men were waiting, still feeling that the race could do no more than it had done, and never satisfied but in Him. Zebulun, the sixth and last of Leahs sons, was so called because, said Leab, Now will my husband dwell with me (such being the meaning of the name), for I have borne him six sons. All that is predicted regarding this tribe is that his dwelling should be by the sea, and near the Phoenician city Zidon. This is not to be taken as a strict geographical definition of the tract of country occupied by Zebulun, as we see when we compare it with the lot assigned to it and marked out in the Book of Joshua; but though the border of the tribe did not reach to Zidon, and though it can only have been a mere tongue of land belonging to it that ran down to the Mediterranean shore, yet the situation ascribed to it is true to its character as a tribe that had commercial relations with the Phoenicians, and was of a decidedly mercantile turn. It is still, therefore, character rather than geographical position that is here spoken of, though it is a trait of character that is peculiarly dependent on geographical position. We, for example, because islanders, have become the maritime power and the merchants of the world; not being shut off from other nations by the encompassing sea, but finding paths by it equally in all directions ready provided for every kind of traffic. Zebulun, then, was to represent the commerce of Israel, its outgoing tendency; was to supply a means of communication and bond of connection with the world outside; so that through it might be conveyed to the nations what was saving in Israel, and that what Israel needed from other lands might also find entrance. In the Church also this is a needful quality: for our well-being there must ever exist among us those who are not afraid to launch on the wide and pathless sea of opinion; those in whose ears its waves have from their childhood sounded with a fascinating invitation, and who at last, as if possessed by some spirit of unrest, loose from the firm earth, and go in quest of lands not yet discovered, or are impelled to see for themselves what till now they have believed on the testimony of others. And as the seafaring population of a country might be expected to show less interest in the soil of their native land than others, and yet we know that in point of fact we are dependent on no class of our population so much for leal patriotism and for the defence of our country, so one has observed that the Church also must make similar use of her Zebuluns--of men who, by their very habit of restlessly considering all views of truth which are alien to our own ways of thinking, have become familiar with, and better able to defend us against, the error that mingles with these views. Issachar receives from his father a character which few would be proud of or would envy, but which many are very content to bear. As the strong ass that has its stall and its provender provided can afford to let the free beasts of the forest vaunt their liberty, so there is a very numerous class of men who have no care to assert their dignity as human beings, or to agitate regarding their rights as citizens, so long as their obscurity and servitude provide them with physical comforts and leave them free of heavy responsibilities. They prefer a life of easy and plenty to a life of hardship and glory. They, as well as the other parts of society, have amidst their error a truth--the truth that the ideal world in which ambition, and hope, and imagination live is not everything; that the material has also a reality, and that though hope does bless mankind, yet attainment is also something, even though it be a little. Yet this truth is not the whole truth, and is only useful as an ingredient, as a part, not as the whole; and when we fall from any high ideal of human life which we have formed, and begin to find comfort and rest in the mere physical good things of this world, we may well despise ourselves. There is a pleasantness still in the land that appeals to us all; a luxury in observing the risks and struggles of others while ourselves secure and at rest; a desire to make life easy, and to shirk the responsibility and toil that public spiritedness entails. Yet of what tribe has the Church more cause to complain than of those persons who seem to imagine that they have done enough when they have joined the Church and received their own inheritance to enjoy; who are alive to no emergency, nor awake to the need of others; who have no idea at all of their being a part of the community, for which, as well as for themselves, there are duties to discharge; who couch, like the ass of Issachar, in their comfort, without one generous impulse to make common cause against the common evils and foes of the Church, and are unvisited by a single compunction that while they lie there, submitting to whatever fate sends, there are kindred tribes of their own being oppressed and spoiled? Next came the eldest son of Rachels handmaid, and the eldest son of Leahs handmaid, Dan and Gad. Dans name, meaning judge, is the starting-point of the prediction--Dan shall judge his people. This word judge we are perhaps somewhat apt to misapprehend; it means rather to defend than to sit in judgment on; it refers to a judgment passed between ones own people and their foes, and an execution of such judgment in the deliverance of the people and the destruction of the foe. We are familiar with this meaning of the word by the constant reference in the Old Testament to Gods judging His people; this being always a cause of joy as their sure deliverance from their enemies. So also it is used of those men who, when Israel had no king, rose from time to time as the champions of the people, to lead them against the foe, and who are therefore familiarly called The Judges. From the tribe of Dan the most conspicuous of these arose, Samson, namely; and it is probably mainly with reference to this fact that Jacob so emphatically predicts of this tribe, Dan shall judge his people. And notice the appended clause (as reflecting shame on the sluggish Issachar), as one of the tribes of Israel, recognizing always that his strength was not for himself alone, but for his country; that he was not an isolated people who had to concern himself only with his own affairs, but one of the tribes of Israel. The manner, too, in which Dan was to do this was singularly descriptive of the facts subsequently evolved. Dan was a very small and insignificant tribe, whose lot originally lay close to the Philistines on the southern border of the land. It might seem to be no obstacle whatever to the invading Philistines as they passed to the richer portion of Judah, but this little tribe, through Samson, smote these terrors of the Israelites with so sore and alarming a destruction as to cripple them for years and make them harmless. We see, therefore, how aptly Jacob compares them to the venomous snake that lurks in the road and bites the horses heels; the dust-coloured adder that a man treads on before he is aware, and whose poisonous stroke is more deadly than the foe he is looking for in front. And especially significant did the imagery appear to the Jews, with whom this poisonous adder was indigenous, but to whom the horse was the symbol of foreign armament and invasion. The whole tribe of Dan, too, seems to have partaken of that grim humour with which Samson saw his foes walk time after time into the traps he set for them, and give themselves an easy prey to him--a humour which comes out with singular piquancy in the, narrative given in the Book of Judges of one of the forays of this tribe, in which they carried off Micahs priest and even his gods. Gad also is a tribe whose history is to be warlike, his very name signifying a marauding guerilla troop; and his history was to illustrate the victories which Gods people gain by tenacious, watchful, ever-renewed warfare. And there is something particularly inspiriting to the individual Christian in finding this pronounced as part of the blessing of Gods people--A troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last. It is this that enables us to persevere--that we have Gods assurance that present discomfiture does not doom us to final defeat. (M. Dods, D. D.)
Jacobs prophetic survey:
What a mind was Jacobs, as shown in the various blessings pronounced upon his children l How discriminating those now closing eyes l How they glitter with criticism l How keen--penetrating, even to the finest lines of distinction! Surely what we see in those eyes is a gleam of the very soul. This is no joint salutation or valediction; this is no greeting and fare well mixed up in one confused utterance. This is criticism. This is the beginning of a career of mental development which is the pride of human education and culture. How affectionate too! In nearly every line there is some accent of affection peculiar to itself. And how prophetic! The ages are all revealed to the calm vision and sacred gaze of this man who is more in heaven than upon earth. But this prophecy is no phantasy. We have accustomed ourselves now to a definition of prophecy which enables us in some degree to understand this way of allotment and benediction. Prophecy is based on character. We have already defined prophecy as moral prescience. Retaining the definition, we see in this instance one of its finest and clearest illustrations. This is no fancy painting. It is the power of the soul in its last efforts to see what crops will come out of this seed and of that; it is a man standing upon fields charged with seed, the quality of which he well knows, forecasting the harvest. Moral prophecy is vindicated by moral law. There was no property to divide. There was something better than property to give. What a will is this I It has about it all the force of a man being his own distributer--not only writing a will like a testator, which is of no force until after the testators death, but already enriching his sons with an inheritance better than measurable lands. What have you to leave to your children? to your friends? You could leave an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away--bright memories of love, recollections of sacred sympathy prayers that lifted the life into new hope, forgiveness that abolished the distinction between earth and heaven, and made pardoned souls feel as if they had seen their Father in heaven; great will: eternal substance. How Jacobs conscience burned up in that sacred hour! He remembered the evil of his sons. He reminded Reuben of what he had done; he recalled the deed of shame, never to be spoken aloud by human tongue, wrought by Simeon and Levi in the land of Hamor the Hivite; and because their anger was fierce and their wrath was cruel, he divided them in Jacob and scattered them in Israel. The evil that men do lives after them. Simeon and Levi had forgotten what they did in their sisters case. Jacob had not. In such a malediction there are great meanings, even so far as Jacob is concerned. Jacob knew the cost of sin. Jacob knew that no man can of himself shake off his sin and become a free man in the universe. The sin follows him with swift fate, opens its mouth like a wolf and shows its cruel teeth. No man can forgive sin, Who but God can wrestle with it? We fly from it, try to forget it; but up it leaps again, a foe that pursues unto the death, unless some Mighty One shall come to deal with it when there is no eye to pity and no arm to help. But presently Jacob will come to a name that will change his tone. How some faces brighten us! How the incoming of some men makes us young again! Jacob we have never seen until he comes to pronounce his blessing upon Joseph. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The destinies of Israel:
I. MORAL DISTINCTIONS. What is it which exalts a nation (Pro_14:34.)? In the development of history, the character of individuals is an important element. Gods government of the world is moral government, and sin never, eventually, goes unpunished. Sooner or later, our sin finds us out.
II. MESSIANIC HOPE. The hope of a coming king is the central point of Judahs blessing. And Judahs blessing is the central blessing of all that Jacob says concerning his sons.
III. MANIFOLD DESTINIES. Apply this to ourselves. How different the conditions, circumstances, capabilities of each one of us! how various the particular destinies in store for us! Yet, God will help, and guide, and bring us on our way, if we trust in Him. We know not exactly where God will lead us, or place us; or what our particular difficulties or temptations may be, but let us trust Him, and seek to do His will always, and everywhere. (W. S. Smith, B. D.)
Jacobs prophetical blessings of his sons:
Written it is of the swan, that before his death he singeth most sweetly, and so did this holy patriarch in this place. Never more sweet songs have passed from the godly than toward their latter ends (Moses in Deu_31:1-30. and in the two chapters following, Joshua in his last chapter, and even our Saviour Himself in Joh_14:15-17 and at His last supper). The apostle Paul,when the time of his offering was at hand (2Ti_4:7-8, &c.). The apostle Peter, when he told them he thought it meet, while he was in this tabernacle, to stir them up, knowing that the time was at hand that he must lay down his tabernacle, &c.
The right way to regard prophecy
I am profoundly affected by the grandeur of prophecy. God unveils the frescoed wall of the future, not so much that we may count the figures, and measure the robes, and analyze the pigments; but that, gazing upon it, our imaginations may be enkindled, and hope be inspired, to bear us through the dismal barrenness of the present. Prophecy was not addressed to the reason, nor to the statistical faculty, but to the imagination; and I should as soon think of measuring love by the scales of commerce, or of admiring flowers by the rule of feet and inches, or of applying arithmetic to taste and enthusiasm, as calculations and figures to these grand evanishing signals which God waves in the future only to tell the world which way it is to march. (H. W.Beecher.)
Belief in death-bed prophecies
A belief prevailed among nearly all ancient nations, that the human mind, at the approaching hour of death, is capable of penetrating into the mysteries of the future, and of distinctly revealing them in prophetic speech. We are on this point not restricted to obscure inferences. We find the idea clearly and explicitly stated by more than one classical author. Cicero observes: When death is near, the mind assumes a much more Divine character; and at such times easily predicts the future. Socrates, when defending himself in the capital charge preferred against him, and foreseeing a condemnatory verdict, is recorded to have reminded the judges that, with death before his eyes, he was in that state which enables men to utter prophecies. Xenophon relates, in his Institution of Cyrus, that this prince, when feeling his impending dissolution, summoned his sons and friends to his death-bed; and, in order to impress upon them the doctrine of immortality, used the following argument: Nothing resembles death more closely than sleep; but it is in sleep that the soul of man appears most Divine, and it is then that it foresees something of the future; for then, as it seems, it is most free. In a perfectly analogous manner, Pythagoras and other philosophers, according to Diodorus Siculus, considered it a natural consequence of the belief in immortality, that the soul, in the moment of death, becomes conscious of future events. In harmony with these views, Greek and Roman writers not unfrequently introduce persons in the last stage of their existence predicting the destinies of those survivors who at that time particularly absorb their attention. Patroclus, mortally wounded, foretells, in Homers Iliad, the immediate death of Hector, from the hand of Achilles; and when this prophecy was literally verified, Hector, in his last moments, augurs that Apollo and Paris would, at the Scaean gate, soon destroy Achilles, who, convinced of the truth and reality of such forebodings, exclaims: I shall accept my fate whenever Jupiter and the other immortal gods choose to inflict it. In the AEneid of Virgil, the expiring Dido prophesies not only the chief incidents in the future life of AEneas, his laborious and exhausting wars with Turnus, the Rutulians, and the Latins; his separation from his beloved son, Iulus, when imploring assistance in Etruria; and his early death, unhonoured by the sacred rites of sepulture: but she alludes to the inextioguishable hatred and the sanguinary enmity that would rage between the Romans and the Carthaginians, and to Hannibal himself, who would avenge her sufferings, and as a fearful scourge of war desolate the beautiful plains of Italy. In the same epic poem, Orodes, before closing his eyes in death, threatens his victorious antagonist, Mezentius, that he would not long enjoy his triumph, but would soon also be hurled into the lower regions; which menace, indeed, Mezentius haughtily scorns but recognizing the possibility of its fulfilment, he laughs with mixed wrath. Posidonius makes mention of a man of Rhodes, who, not long before his demise, stated the exact order in which six of his friends would successively die. When Alexander the Great, at the termination of his days, was asked whom he appointed his successor, he replied the best; for I foresee that great funeral games will be celebrated for me by my friends; and this remark is adduced by Diodorus as an example of the astonishing realization of prophecies pronounced shortly before death. And Cicero, extending the same power of presentiment to perfectly uncivilized tribes, mentions the uneducated Indian Calanus, who, when about to burn himself, predicted the almost immediate death of the Macedonian monarch. (M. M.Kalisch, Ph. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 8 Gen_49:1. In the last days.] This phrase is often…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Gen_49:1. In the last days.] This phrase is often used to denote the Messianic times (Isa_2:2; Eze_38:8; Eze_38:16; Jer_30:24, etc). “This passage reaches to that period in the Shiloh, and it embraces the intervening history.” (Jacobus.) The expression is chiefly found in prophetic passages.—
Read full note →
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_49:1-2
JACOB AS A PROPHET OF THE LORD
In this dying speech of Jacob to his sons, we have the characteristics of true prophecy. Consider the following things:—
I. The nature of its contents.
1. Prediction. It is true that the office of a prophet was not simply to predict future events. But this was part of the burden of the Lord laid upon him. In revealing the Divine will he had sometimes to lift the veil of the future. We have here, without doubt, the element of prediction. If we grant any of the circumstances which invest Jacob with a sacred character; if we believe that he was called of God, and that he was in covenant with Him, then the fact that this discourse was really prophetic presents no difficulty. All is clear enough, and worthy of belief, except upon the a priori assumption of the rationalists that prophecy is, in the nature of things, impossible. This speech also contains—
2. Insight into spiritual truths. The prophet was most of all a seer, one who had insight into spiritual truths, a proclaimer of eternal principles. This is a higher thing than the mere prediction of facts which take place but once. In this discourse we discern eternal principles,—of man’s moral and spiritual nature, of the powers which shape history, of God’s government of the world, of Redemption, and of the eternal kingdom which shall reign over and beyond all. Consider:—
II. The nature of the style employed. It has all the marks of reality, it is suited to the age, and such as the patriarchs used. It is vague and mysterious, there are no accurate and minute details, but all is given in shadowy outline; and this forbids us to suppose that it was written in after ages in order to fit into history. The very obscurity, and the difficulties in this speech, are themselves a vindication of its claim to be prophecy. Consider:—
III. The impossibility of accounting for these deliverances upon natural principles. Jacob was now a weak and aged man; the last sickness was upon him. And yet he speaks in this sublime style, the proper vehicle of exalted thought and feeling. He utters this wonderful poem. Surely he was Divinely taught and aided. Inspiration is the only solution. That which reveals so much of God’s thoughts and ways must be from God. Consider:
IV. The stage of prophetic development which it indicates. The prophecy of Messiah now becomes clearer. First, it is the seed, in general terms; then thy seed, Abraham’s. Now, the very tribe out of which the Messiah is to spring is announced. We have here the full bloom of patriarchal prophecy. The language rises to that poetic form which is peculiar to the Messianic predictions. The blessing of Judah is the central point, where the discourse reaches on to the last times, when God would bring His first begotten into the world, and set up his everlasting kingdom. Consider:—
V. The promise of eternal life which it suggests. The spirit of these prophecies is the testimony of Jesus. And He came that we may have life. Eternal life is the end of all prophecy. In regard to this doctrine we may ask in Jacob’s individual case, can we suppose that God would give this light to a man—these reverences and feelings, and then quench his soul in darkness for ever? Could Jacob have been permitted to know of and disclose such a magnificent future, and yet not live on to see it?
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_49:1-2. The spirit of devoted men of God, in anticipation of death, soars to an elevated consciousness, and either in priestly admonitions, or prophetic fore-seeings, attests its divine nature, its elevation above the common life, and its anticipation of a new and glorious existence. The testimony of antiquity is harmonious in respect to such facts—even heathen antiquity. So declared the dying Socrates, that he regarded himself as in that stage of being when men had most of the foreseeing power.—(Lange.)
He that hears the word of God, must hear as if he did, for so he doth hear for life and death; he must, as Jacob bids his sons, “hear and hearken.”—(Trapp.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. The first thing which strikes us in the…
Gen 49:4
I. The first thing which strikes us in the instability of water is that it has no cohesive shape of its own. It takes the form of the vessel into which you pour it; it changes one form for another without resistance; and water spilt on the ground falls asunder and vanishes. This suggests the first defect of instability,—that it prevents a man gaining an independent position in life. There is a true position in the world which we should all aim at, a place where we may stand on our own feet, fill our own sphere, and meet all the just claims which come upon us in the family, in friendship, and in society. This cannot be gained without some measure of stability. If, indeed, there is entire instability in the ground of the character, it is very difficult to deal with, and if men were under fixed laws of nature the case might be incurable. But nature has its emblems of hope even for this indecision; there is a possibility of crystallising water.
Read full note →
II. Another thing in the instability of water is the changefulness of its reflexion. Look at the water in an outspread lake. It takes moon and stars and changing seasons into the depths of its confidence, and its seeming depths are only a surface. This is beautiful in nature, but very unhappy in men; and we may see in it an illustration of how instability unfits us for gaining either true culture or character.
III. A third thing we may mention in the instability of water is that it inspires distrust. Its very calm is danger: there are hidden rocks under the smoothness, and treacherous currents which wind like serpents round those who trust them. This reminds us that instability destroys influence. The world is governed not so much by men of talent as by men of will.
IV. Water is ready to move any way but upward. It descends, but cannot rise to its source; and it illustrates this most serious defect of instability, that it unfits a man for a successful endeavour after the higher life.
In seeking to conquer instability there must (1) be a sincere desire to escape from this defect where it is felt. (2) In arriving at decision, a man should seek to ascertain what he is capable of. (3) There are helps in this struggle against indecision: (a) Method or system; (b) associations; (c) the taking an early and manly stand.
J. Ker, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 49.
The Holy Spirit is here describing the character of Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob. He is acknowledged, indeed, as the firstborn, but at the same time he is given to understand that he has forfeited his right; he is now to have no pre-eminence on authority over his brethren; he is not to excel. This passage may well lead us to serious reflection on the great and peculiar danger of unsteadiness.
I. This verse was written especially for the learning of those among Christians who have good feelings, who feel something of the beauty of holiness, who admire it, and are shocked at crime in others. All of us are by nature more or less partakers in these feelings; but we may, if we will, neglect to cherish them, and then they will die away and do us no good.
II. The true and faithful Christian is marked by nothing more certainly than by his firmness and decision of purpose. He makes good resolutions and keeps them. He sets his face like a flint, and is not ashamed. A Christian without stability is a miserable wonder in the sight of God and His angels.
III. Perseverance—a kind of bold and generous obstinacy—is a necessary part of Christian goodness. There is no excelling without it: nay, so many are the snares and dangers which surround us, that there is no chance, but by it, of keeping even the lowest place in God’s kingdom.
IV. To all our other good purposes this one must be added,—we must resolve, by the grace of God, not to measure things by the judgment of men, but to go strictly by the rule of God’s commandments. We must guard against that tendency, so natural to many, to exhaust their repentance and good meaning in feelings and professions and strong words, instead of going on without delay to the calm and sober keeping of the commandments. We must pray that He who holds our hearts in His hand may not suffer our repentance to be as unstable as water, pouring itself out in vain and useless lamentation.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to the "Tracts for the Times" vol. iv., p. 105.
References: Gen 49:4.—J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 252; Old Testament Outlines, p. 19; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 158.
Gen 49:5-7
From the history of Simeon and Levi we learn in many ways the evil consequences of giving reins to our angry passions and wild desires. It is needful to consider this, for these passions and desires have great power over us—so great that we cannot depend on anything else to restrain them but the principles of true practical religion made to sink into our hearts by the grace of God.
I. Consider the misery of those who set aside the love of God and the hope of His rewards, that they may gratify any desire of their own. (1) Of this number was Esau, who sold his birthright for a morsel of meat, and became a type of those who lose their heavenly birthright for the sake of worldly gain. (2) The same lesson is to be learned from the history of Shechem and Dinah, who lost the blessing and incurred God’s displeasure by giving way to their evil passions. (3) Simeon and Levi formed a plan for executing a terrible vengeance on Shechem and all belonging to him for the disgrace they had sustained. Blinded by their passion, they did not see they were disgracing themselves more by their treachery and cruelty than they had been disgraced already by their sister’s dishonour.
II. From this we learn: (1) the necessity of keeping a constant check and restraint upon ourselves; (2) the need of humbling ourselves for the sins of our past lives, and looking carefully into our present practice to see whether they do not still cleave to us in some form or other; (3) the need of God’s Spirit to make clean what is within, to put off from us impurity and wrath, that our hearts may be fit for His indwelling.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to the "Tracts for the Times" vol. vii. p. 36.
References: Gen 49:5-7.—F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes, p. 67. Gen 49:8-12.—Ibid., p. 97; J. Monro Gibson, The Ages before Moses, p. 219.
Gen 49:10
I. Using the word prophecy in its predictive sense, this is the language of unquestionable prophecy.
II. This prophecy contains a revelation of Christ.
III. This revelation of Christ was connected with the announcement of the particular time when He was to appear.
IV. This announcement is connected with a statement showing in what way His people will come to Him. It is at once predictive and descriptive.
V. This statement suggests an inquiry into the design of Christ in gathering the people to Himself. In harmony with His title as "the Peaceful One," his grand design is to give them rest. (1) Rest, by reconciling them to God. (2) Rest, by effecting the spiritual union of man with man. (3) Rest, by leading us to perfect rest in another world.
C. Stanford, Symbols of Christ, p. 35.
In the prediction now before us, we have three new points: a name for the seed of the woman; an approximate date of His coming; and an important effect of it.
I. The word Shiloh is the name either of a person or a place. In all other passages of Scripture it denotes the place where the tabernacle was set up after the conquest of the promised land; and in this sense it appears for the first time in Jos 18:1. It was situated in Ephraim, about twenty miles north of Jerusalem. The obvious reference would be that it denotes the same place here. But (1) the person often gives name to the place; (2) the place is not mentioned till two hundred and forty years after the benediction was pronounced; (3) the sentence, if referred to the place, is neither important in itself, nor accordant with history. Shiloh means the safe—the safe-maker—the Saviour.
II. The date. The existence of Judah as a tribe continued only till the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Shiloh must have come in the period from the death of Herod the Great, 3 B.C., to that of Herod Agrippa, a.d. 44.
III. The gathering of the people unto Shiloh. The word here rendered gathering is in the Septuagint expectation. It means the gathering in faith and hope of all people to the Shiloh. He is to be the seed of Abraham and the source of all blessing. He is to come while Judah continues to have a corporate form and a native prince, and unto Him are the nations to gather once more into one.
J. G. Murphy, Book of Daniel, p. 15.
References: Gen 49:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1157; J. Burns, Sketches of Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 232. Gen 49:13-15.—F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes, p. 117. Gen 49:15.—A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 104. Gen 49:16-18.—F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes, p. 137.
Gen 49:18
These words are a parenthesis in Jacob’s long blessing of his sons. The old man seemed to have been exhausted with the thoughts and visions which passed over his mind in such quick succession. He paused to take a spiritual inspiration: "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord."
I. Such chapters of life, such seasons of suspense, such exercises of the quiet confidences of the soul, are to be found in every Christian’s experience. They may come in different ways to different men, but they are in some form or other a necessity to every man—an essential part of the discipline of the school of salvation.
II. These intervals of waiting must be filled up with four things: prayer, praise, fellowship, and work.
III. It will be a helpful thought to you as you wait, that if you wait, Christ waits. Whatever your longing is that the time be over, His longing is greater. There are many things that you have had that have turned to a curse, which would have been blessings if only there had been more "waiting."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 101.
I. From these few words we may learn what was the nature of that inheritance which the patriarchs regarded as bequeathed to them by the Divine promises. The patriarchs looked for salvation.
II. We learn from the text what had been the great characteristic of Jacob’s life from the time that he was first brought under the power of Divine grace. His affections had been set on things above. His chief interest had lain in eternity.
III. The language of Jacob in the text proves most fully the truth elsewhere stated, that "the righteous hath hope in his death."
Practical questions: (1) Do you know what is meant by the salvation of the Lord? (2) Do you know what is meant by waiting for salvation—i.e., ardently but patiently looking forward to it? (3) Do you know what is meant by preparing while you wait for the salvation of the Lord?
A. D. Davidson, Lectures and Sermons, p. 147.
References: Gen 49:18.—J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. i., p. 8; R. S. Candlish, The Book of Genesis, vol. ii., p. 285.
Gen 49:19
Consider:—
I. Faith triumphant in doubt. The Gospel is a revelation. It is the telling of a secret. There is not one mystery either about man or about God which has been either caused or aggravated by the Gospel. Doubtless there are matters not yet revealed. There are unexplained, perhaps inexplicable difficulties, as regards God’s will and man’s future, which the Gospel leaves where it found them. Faith triumphs in and over doubting; and when Christ asks, "Will ye also go away?" is content to answer, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."
II. Faith triumphs in disappointment. Faith triumphs amidst and over baffled hopes and wasted toils. To be willing to wait, even for encouragement, much more for victory, is an essential part of his character who has seen the promise afar off, and been persuaded of it, and embraced it, and who now lives day by day in the calm, humble looking-for of a light that shall arise and a rest that is reserved in heaven for God’s people.
III. Faith conquers sin. That is our most urgent want, and that is Faith’s most solemn office. Faith conquering is, above all things, Faith conquering sin, Faith looking upwards to a loving Saviour, and drawing down from Him the desire and the effort and the grace to be holy.
IV. Faith conquers Death. If Death is not dreadful to the Christian, he owes the difference simply to the fact that in that other world, as we vaguely term it, there is already for him a Father and a Saviour and a Comforter—One whom it has been the joy of his soul to commune with here, and the strength of his life to find real, to find near, and to find all love and strength and grace.
C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p. 114 (also Good Words, 1866, p. 826).
References: Gen 49:19-20, Gen 49:21.—F. Whitfield, The Blessing of the Tribes, pp. 149, 173, 185. Gen 49:19-32.—R. S. Candlish, The Book of Genesis, vol. ii., p. 300. Gen 49:22-26.—F. Whitfield, The Blessing of the Tribes, p. 195.
Gen 49:23-24
These picturesque words are part of one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible—the dying Jacob’s prophetic blessing of his sons. Of these sons, there are two over whom his heart seems especially to pour itself—Judah, the ancestor of the royal tribe, and Joseph. The text contains in vivid metaphor the earliest utterance of a very familiar truth.
I. Strength for conflict by contact with the strength of God is the lesson it conveys. The word here rendered "made strong" might be translated "made pliable" or "flexible," conveying the notion of deftness and dexterity rather than of simple strength. It is practised strength that He will give, the educated hand and arm, master of all the manipulation of the weapon.
II. The text not only gives the fact of Divine strength being bestowed, but also the manner of the gift. What boldness of reverent familiarity there is in that symbol of the hands of God laid on the hand of the man. A true touch, as of hand to hand, conveys the grace. Nothing but contact will give us strength for conflict and for conquest. And the plain lesson, therefore, is—See to it that the contact is not broken by you. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 72.
References: Gen 49:23, Gen 49:24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., No. 17; I.Williams, Characters of the Old Testament, p. 67.
Gen 49:24
These three names which we find here are striking and beautiful in themselves; in their juxtaposition; in their use on Jacob’s lips. Look at them as they stand.
I. The Mighty God of Jacob. The meaning of such a name is clear enough. It is He who has shown Himself mighty and mine by His deeds for me all through my life. The very vital centre of a man’s religion is his conviction that God is his. The dying patriarch left to his descendants the legacy of this great Name.
II. The Shepherd. That name sums up the lessons that Jacob had learned from the work of himself and of his sons. His own sleepless vigilance and patient endurance were but shadows of the loving care, the watchful protection, the strong defence, which "the God who has been my Shepherd all my life long" had extended to him and his.
III. The Stone of Israel. Here, again, we have a name that after-ages have caught up and cherished, used for the first time. The Stone of Israel means much the same thing as the Rock. The general idea of this symbol is firmness, solidity. God is a rock (1) for a foundation; (2) for a fortress; (3) for shade and refreshment. None that ever built on that Rock have been confounded. We clasp hands with all that have gone before us. At one end of the long chain this dim figure of the dying Jacob stretches out his withered hands to God, the Stone of Israel; at the other end we lift up ours to Jesus and cry:—
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee."
A. Maclaren: Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 81.
References: Gen 49:24.—S. Cox, The Sunday Magazine, 1873, p. 640; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning p. 53. Gen 49:28.—M. Dods, Israel’s Iron Age, p. 172; W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister, p. 190; F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes, p. 13. Gen 49:29.—J. M. McCulloch, Sermons on Unusual Subjects, p. 134. Gen 49:29-33.—Bruce, Modern Scottish Pulpit, p. 223. Gen 49:33.—R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. ii., p. 306; G. Woolnough, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 410; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., p. 783. Gen 50:1-13.—R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. ii., pp. 306, 317. Gen 50:12, Gen 50:13.—F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 187. Gen 50:14.—W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister, p. 190. Gen 50:15-21.—F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 4th series, p. 176. Gen 50:15-26.—W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister, p. 206. Gen 50:19, Gen 50:20.—M. Dods, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, p. 231.
Gen 50:20
In this study of the Divine mode of conduct, we shall find (1) a light for the interpretation of the ways of Providence; (2) an example to be followed.
I. God permits evil, but from the evil He unceasingly causes good to proceed. If good were not destined to conquer evil, God would be conquered, or rather God would cease to be. This law appears full of light when we read the history of such men as Joseph, Moses, and David; and it is nowhere more evident than in the life of Jesus Christ. Here evil stands out in its most appalling intensity, and from that very excess comes forth the salvation of mankind.
II. Since the Scriptures call us to be imitators of God, like Him we must endeavour to draw good out of evil. For believing souls there is a Divine alchemy. Its aim is to transform evil into good. Evil, considered as a trial, comes from three different sources: it comes either from God, through the afflictions of life; from men, through their animosity; from ourselves, through our faults. We may learn Divine lessons from sorrow, lessons of wisdom from our enemies; we may even gather instruction from our faults.
E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 380.
References: Gen 50:20.—J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 382; W. M. Taylor, Limitations of Life, p. 249. Gen 50:22-26—R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. ii., p. 335. Gen 50:24-26.—F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 1st series, p. 304; F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 191; W. Bull, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 371.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Jacob Blesses his Twelve Sons
Jacob Blesses his Twelve Sons
It is generally considered that in its present form, this chapter gives us indeed the last utterances of the dying patriarch respecting the future of his sons, but with additions and developments of a later date. As it stands we have not the broken utterances of a dying man, but an elaborate piece of work full of word-plays and metaphors (see on Gen_49:8, Gen_49:13, Gen_49:16), and of those parallelisms in the vv. which are the chief feature of Hebrew poetry (cp. Gen_49:11, Gen_49:15, Gen_49:22, Gen_49:25). It is in fact a poem, in which the fortunes of the tribes, which are impersonated by their ancestors, are delineated as they were at one special period, viz. after the Conquest of Canaan, when their territories had been finally settled, and their political importance or weakness had become recognised. Judah and, perhaps, Joseph are alluded to as ruling tribes (Gen_49:10, Gen_49:26). No reference is made to the times of the exodus or the captivity, but only to the beginnings of the monarchy; and it was probably during this period that the original Blessing was developed in its present poetical form. This conclusion is strengthened when we find the word 'Israel' used of the nation, not of the person, and also that facts happening after the Conquest of Canaan are alluded to as past events: cp. Gen_49:14, Gen_49:15. It is also significant that many definite political and geographical details are given, in a way which is inconsistent with the general character of the predictions of the Hebrew prophets on such matters. With the Blessing of Jacob should be compared that of Moses in Deuteronomy 33 and notes there.
Read full note →
1. Which shall befall you] what will be the fortunes of the tribes descended from you.
In the last days] RV 'in the latter days,' i.e. in the future.
3, 4. The prediction concerning Reuben. Reuben was Jacob's eldest son, but the tribe never attained to any distinguished position. It was situated on the E. side of Jordan, and exposed to many attacks from the peoples surrounding them. 'Even so early as under the Judges the tribe showed itself indifferent to the national struggles (Jdg_5:15.), and it continued to isolate itself more and more until in the period of the early monarchy it had practically disappeared as part of Israel' (D.). See Deu_33:6.
3. Excellency] rather, 'preeminence.'
4. Unstable] rather, 'unrestrained,' descriptive of ungoverned passion. Reuben's sin is mentioned in Gen_35:22. Excel] rather, 'have the preëminence.'
5-7. The prediction respecting Simeon and Levi. Simeon and Levi were both sons of Leah; but they also were brethren in the cruelty of their attack on the Shechemites (Gen_34:25), The scattered state of both these tribes in their after history is well known. When the territories were assigned in the days of Joshua, Simeon only had some cities within the possessions of Judah: see Jos_19:1-9. The Levites as priests had fortyeight towns given them throughout the country, but had no inheritance of land, Jos_21:1-40 : cp. also the picture in Judges 17-19 of the wandering Levites.
5. Instruments of cruelty, etc.] better, 'their swords are weapons of violence.'
6. Secret] RV 'council,' referring to the treachery of Genesis 34. They slew a man] see Gen_34:25-26; They digged down a wall] RV 'they houghed an ox,' by cutting the sinew of the thigh: perhaps a reference to the Shechemites' cattle which they raided (Gen_34:28), maiming in their destructiveness those which they could not carry off.
8-12. Judah now receives the chief blessing which his elder brothers Reuben, Simeon, and Levi had forfeited. He is assured of the headship of the tribes and a fruitful territory.
8. The name Judah ('praise') suggests the honour in which the tribe would be held. Thy hand, etc.] The tribe of Judah took a leading part in the conquest of Canaan and was first to secure their territory: cp. on Num_2:1. In the time of David they held the headship of Israel.
9. The tribe is compared for its bravery to a lion. The figure of a lion on a pole became the standard of Judah, and our Lord Himself is called 'the Lion of the tribe of Judah' (Rev_5:5) owing to His descent from David.
10. A lawgiver] RV 'the ruler's staff.' From between his feet] This most probably refers to the custom of planting the sceptre or staff of a prince or chieftain in the ground between his feet as he sat.
This verse has always been regarded by both Jews and Christians as a remarkable prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. The Versions generally read Sheloh instead of Shiloh, and the words until Shiloh come (AY), should then be, 'till he come whose it is' (RM). The Jewish Targums paraphrase thus: 'until the time when the King Messiah comes to whom it belongeth.' On the rendering given above, the whole verse foretells that Judah would retain authority until the advent of the rightful ruler, the Messiah, to whom all peoples would gather. And, broadly speaking, it may be said that the last traces of Jewish legislative power (as vested in the Sanhedrim) did not disappear until the coming of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, from which time His kingdom was set up among men. Gathering of the people] RV 'obedience of the peoples.' Note the worldwide rule implied.
11, 12. These verses dwell on the fertility of the land of Judah. There were famous vineyards at Hebron and Engedi, as well as pasture lands about Tekoa and Carmel.
13. Zebulun shall dwell] The blessing is connected with the word Zebulun, 'dwelling.' The land of this tribe was between Asher and Naphtali. It may have touched the coastland of Phoenicia represented here by Sidon. So in Deu_33:19 it is said that Zebulun should 'suck of the abundance of the sea,' profiting by maritime traffic: cp. Ezekiel 27.
14, 15. Issachar occupied part of Galilee and the fertile plain of Jezreel. Between two burdens] RV 'between the sheepfolds': as at Jdg_5:16, which see. 'The bright side of the saying is that Issachar will become a robust and hardy race (a strong ass) and receive a pleasant country inviting to repose. The dark side is that through his tendency to gain and comfort he will rather submit to the yoke of foreign sway than risk his people and possessions by warlike efforts (a servant unto tribute)' (Delitzsch). A number of Canaanite towns maintained themselves independent and powerful in this tribe.
16. Again a play on the name of the tribe, for Dan means 'judge.' Though small in territory it should retain its tribal independence and self-government: cp. Deu_33:22.
17. Dan shall be a serpent] or, 'May Dan be,' etc., a wish for the tribe's success in war: cp. the conquest of Laish, Jdg_18:27. The territory of Dan lay between Ephraim and Simeon. The Danites were hard pressed by the Philistines, and part of the tribe emigrated to Laish in the N. of the Holy Land, and called it Dan. An adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels] 'What the poet portrays is not as in the case of Judah an open contest decided by superior strength, but the insidious efforts of the weaker against the stronger' (D.).
18. The connexion of this verse with the preceding is uncertain. Kalisch says, 'the poet, identifying himself with the oppressed and embarrassed tribe, utters in its name, with mingled reliance and resignation, the fervent prayer “In hope of Thy help, O Lord.”'
19. The name Gad is here connected with a Hebrew word meaning a troop or marauding band. The Gadites were settled E. of Jordan, in the land of Gilead. They were much oppressed by the Ammonites whom Jephthah conquered: see Judges 10, 11 : cp. Deu_33:20.
20. The tribe of Asher settled along the productive land on the coast between Mt. Carmel and Lebanon. Shall be fat] Asher was famous for its produce of olive oil: see on Deu_33:24.
21. A more probable rendering of this v., supported by LXX, is 'Naphtali is a spreading terebinth producing beautiful branches.' The tribe was settled in a fertile district between Lebanon and the Sea of Galilee: cp. Deu_33:23.
22-26. The blessing of Joseph. The branches are Ephraim and Manasseh.
23. The archers] perhaps Canaanite and Arab peoples bordering on these tribes.
24. From thence, etc.] or, 'By the name of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.' The name 'Rock' is often given to God in OT.: cp. Moses' Song, Deu_32:4, Deu_32:13, Deu_32:31,; and Psalms 89, 94, 95.
25. Blessings of heaven] Earthly prosperity of all kinds, rain and sunshine from heaven, springs from the earth, fruitfulness both of man and beast.
26. The blessing of Moses on the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Deu_33:13, may be studied in connexion with this difficult v. Render with RM, 'The blessings of thy father have prevailed above (exceed) the blessings of the ancient mountains, the desirable things of the everlasting hills.' 'The meaning is that the blessings comprised things higher than merely the admirable products of the lovely mountain country (Ephraim, Gilead, Bashan), i.e. doubtless power, respect, honour, and political consequence, and, above all, the promises. In bestowing these on Joseph, Jacob makes him his father's successor, and names him Nazir among his brethren, one separated and consecrated, a prince' (D.).
27. Benjamin was a very warlike tribe. Saul, the first king of Israel, was a Benjamite; and so was that other Saul who 'fought a good fight' under his great Captain, 2Ti_4:7.
33. He.. was gathered unto his people] his shade joined those of his forefathers in the other world. The expression may be held to embody a rudimentary hope of immortality: see on Gen_25:8.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 49 Jacob’s Prophecy
CHAPTER 49 Jacob’s Prophecy
1. The call of Jacob: “Gather yourselves together” (Gen 49:1-2)
Read full note →
2. The prophecy concerning his sons (Gen 49:3-27)
Reuben (Gen 49:3-4)
Simeon and Levi (Gen 49:5-7)
Judah (Gen 49:8-12)
Zebulun (Gen 49:13)
Issachar (Gen 49:14-15)
Dan (Gen 49:16-18)
Gad (Gen 49:19)
Asher (Gen 49:20)
Naphtali (Gen 49:21)
Joseph and Benjamin (Gen 49:22-27)
The last words of Jacob to his sons are often called “the blessings.” What he said is rather a prophecy. Concerning Judah he saith the most because from Judah there was to come the Shiloh, that is, the Messiah. Jacob’s prophecy covers in a remarkable way the entire history of Israel, past, present and future. We give a few brief hints, which will be helpful in a closer study of this important chapter. Seven periods of Israel’s history are given here.
1. Reuben, Simeon and Levi show the character of the nation up to the time of Christ. 2. Judah points clearly to the period of this nation when our Lord was on the earth. 3. Zebulun and Issachar, where the sea and commerce, indolence and service are prominent, describes Israel scattered among the nations during this age. 4. Dan shows Israel apostate during antichrist (Dan is left out in Revelation 7). 5. Gad, Asher and Naphtali describe the godly remnant during the great tribulation. 6. Joseph speaks of the second coming of Christ; and 7. Benjamin, the son of the right hand, of the righteous rule of the King.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 8 The Blessing upon Reuben
The Blessing upon Reuben
v. 1. And Jacob called unto his sons, he summoned them to his death-bed, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. In prophetic exaltation and in poetic form he sets before them what the future has in store for them, especially as to the Messianic blessings, until the end of time.
Read full note →
v. 2. Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel, your father. The solemn and impressive admonition was made in order to get their full attention. The things which would befall them according to their dispositions and natures, but above all according to the providence and will of God, are now set forth.
v. 3. Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Jacob speaks with deep feeling: Reuben, my first-born thou, my might and the head of my strength. He was the first-fruits of Jacob’s vigor, both spiritual and bodily. In him the dignity of the priesthood should have been united with the power of the ruler. But all this Reuben had forfeited.
v. 4. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; he was like the bubbling of boiling water, rashly impulsive, and therefore he would lose the dignity and the preference of his birthright. Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed, in lying with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, Gen 35:22; then defiledst thou it, he desecrated what should have been sacred to him. It was a crime from which the father even now, after the lapse of so many years, turned with horror, saying, with a tinge of repulsion and bitterness; he went up to my couch.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 General Information:
General Information:
This begins Jacob's final blessings to his sons. This continues through Genesis 49:27. Jacob's blessings are written in poetic form. (See: Poetry)
Read full note →
Assemble yourselves and listen, you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father
Both sentences say the same thing for emphasis. AT: "Come and listen carefully to your father" (See: Parallelism)
you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father
Jacob is referring to himself in the third person. It can be stated in the first person. AT: "my sons. Listen to me, your father" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
translationWords
Jacob
assembly
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11 49:1-28 Jacob, by faith and as God’s spokesman, looked…
49:1-28 Jacob, by faith and as God’s spokesman, looked forward to Israel’s settlement in the land, and beyond that to the glorious future. Here at the end of the patriarchal age, he foretold what would happen to each tribe as he evaluated his sons one by one, just as Noah had done at the end of the primeval era (cp. 9:25-27). The character and acts of each ancestor affected the lives of his descendants (Exod 20:5-6; 34:6-7; Num 14:18; Jer 32:18).
49:1-2 Jacob’s words were deliberately chosen prophetic oracles. The days to come refer to the conquest and settlement of the Promised Land, and beyond that to the messianic age. They would all share in the blessing; all the tribes would enter the land with Joshua, but they would not all participate equally.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.