His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.
Parallel Translations
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His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.
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His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
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His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
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Explain this verse (8 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 49:12 His eyes [shall be] red with wine,…
Gen 49:12 His eyes [shall be] red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
Ver. 12. His eyes shall be red, &c.] Wine and milk are used to signify plenty of spiritual blessings in heavenly things. {Isa 55:1; Isa 25:6}
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 Which shows not only the plenty of wine, but…
Which shows not only the plenty of wine, but also the excellency and strength of it, which, though not drunk in great quantity, or to excess, will make the eyes red. See Pro 23:29.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain His eyes shall be red with wine,.... Signifying, not…
His eyes shall be red with wine,.... Signifying, not the intemperance of this tribe, and their immoderate use of wine, and the effect of it on them; but the goodness and generosity of their wine, that if drank plentifully of, and especially to excess, would have such an effect, see Pro 23:29 and, as applied to the Messiah, the antitype of Judah, and who was of this tribe, it may denote not so much the beauty of his eyes, as the Targums paraphrase it; as the joy and pleasure that sparkled in his eyes when he shed his blood on the cross, enduring that, and despising the shame of it, for the joy of the salvation of his people; or the clearness of his sight in beholding the actions of his enemies, and especially of the fierceness and fury of his wrath against them, whose eyes are said to be an flames of fire, Rev 1:14.
and his teeth white with milk; denoting the fruitfulness of his land, producing fine pastures, on which flocks and herds fed, and gave abundance of milk; and so Onkelos paraphrases the whole verse,"his mountains shall be red with his vineyards, and his hills shall drop wine, and his valleys shall be white with corn and flocks of sheep;''and much the same are the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem: the mystical sense may respect Christ and his people, and be expressive of the purity of his nature, life, and doctrine, and of the holiness of his members, their faith and conversation; or the clauses may be rendered, redder than wine, whiter than milk; but though whiteness recommends teeth, yet not redness the eyes; wherefore some (a) by transposing the first letters of the word for "red", make it to signify black, as it does with the Arabs, and that colour of the eye is reckoned beautiful.
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(a) Danzius apud Stockium, p. 334.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Beautiful. The eyes and teeth contribute much to the…
Beautiful. The eyes and teeth contribute much to the beauty of a face. Our Saviour, rising form the dead, filled the hearts fo the beholders with joy, as wine exhilarates the heart of man. (Menochius) --- The spouse in the Canticle of Canticles, (ver. 12,) compares the eyes of the bridegroom to the shining reddish, or fiery ones of pigeons: chaclili, beautiful, means shining red, &c. Jesus Christ seems to allude to this prophecy of Jacob, (Matthew xxi. 43. and John x. 16,) telling the Jews, that the kingdom of God should be taken from them, and one fold should be established for all. God would then cease to distinguish the Jews by any other marks than those of his wrath. He would no longer be their king and shepherd. His sceptre, or pastoral crook, should be taken off the tribe of Juda, and it should be confounded with the rest, as it is at this day. (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).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Lustrous the eyes from wine — The Septuagint,…
12. Lustrous the eyes from wine — The Septuagint, Vulgate, and some expositors construe the preposition מן, from, as denoting a comparison; more lustrous, or more joyful than wine, and whiter than milk. This is allowable; but inasmuch as the previous verse speaks of the great abundance of wine, and fertility of the land of Judah, the more suitable thought in this verse is, that from the superabundance of wine and milk, (as the originating cause,) the eyes and teeth are affected.
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 12. His eyes] It may be doubted whether our…
12. His eyes] It may be doubted whether our rendering “red” gives the right meaning. The passage is usually illustrated from Pro_23:29, “who hath redness of eyes?” But, surely, the poet would hardly eulogize Judah by attributing to his eyes the redness of continuous drinking! It will be better to assume that the writer meant “sparkling.” The versions, LXX and Vulg., give another rendering, which is probably to be preferred, “his eyes are more sparkling than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.” In this case, the verse will symbolically describe the beauty of his personal appearance, rather than the productiveness of his territory.
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 (12) His eyes shall be red with wine.—The word…
(12) His eyes shall be red with wine.—The word rendered red occurs only here, and is rendered in the Versions, bright, sparkling, and in the Vulg., beautiful. They also give the word rendered in our Version with a comparative force, which seems to be right: “His eyes shall be brighter than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.” The words do not refer to Judah’s person, but describe the prosperity of his descendants, whose temporal welfare will show itself in their bright and healthy countenances.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The patriarchal blessing, or the last words of Jacob,
Vers. 1-33.
The patriarchal blessing, or the last words of Jacob,
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I THE SONS OF LEAH.
1. The blessing on Reuben.
(1) A declaration of Reuben s natural precedence, as the first-born in Jacob s family, the beginning of Jacob"s strength, and therefore the legitimate heir of Jacob"s house.
(2) A proclamation of Reuben"s deposition from this honorable position: "Boiling as water, thou shalt not have the precedence," i.e. the birthright is taken from thee, and assigned to another.
(3) A statement of Reuben"s sin, as the reason of this forfeiture of the firstborn"s place: "because thou wentest up to thy father"s bed: then defiledst thou it; he went up to my couch.
2. The blessings on Simeon and Levi. It is only by a species of irony that the words pronounced on the authors of the Shechem massacre can be styled a blessing.
(1) The patriarch expresses his abhorrence of their atrocious wickedness, describing them with a refined sarcasm as brethren, confederates in sin as welt as the offspring of common parents, characterizing their swords, or their compacts, or their rage, or their machinations, according to the translation adopted, as instruments of violence, and shudderingly recoiling from the least association with two such reckless murderers, who in their wrathful fury spared neither man nor beast: "Man they slew, and ox they houghed.
(2) He pronounces a solemn curse upon their sin. Not upon themselves, it is noticeable, but upon their deed, meaning that while God might mercifully pardon transgressors such as they had been, he could not do otherwise than reveal his wrath against appalling wickedness like theirs.
(3) He allots to them a punishment appropriate to their offence: "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
3. The blessing upon Judah. Recalling probably the part which his fourth son had played with reference to Benjamin, Jacob fervently declares that Judah should be
(1) The admiration of his brethren: "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise;" and "thy father"s children shall bow down unto thee.
(2) The terror of his foes: "thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;" "Judah is a lion"s whelp," &c. ;
(3) The ancestor of the Messiah, whose character he defines by the term Shiloh, whose advent he marks by the time: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver (or ruler s staff) from between his feet, until Shiloh come;" and the result of his appearance: "unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
(4) The possessor of a prosperous domain, whose vine-trees should be abundant, and whose pasture grounds should be fertile.
1. The blessing on Zebulun. With allusion to the import or ms name, Jacob prophesies that Leah s sixth son should be the ancestor of a flourishing community devoted to commercial pursuits, with a territory reaching towards the sea-coast, where ships should come to load and unload their cargoes of merchandise.
2. The blessing on Issachar. The last mentioned son of Leah, though the fifth in the order of birth, the patriarch predicts should develop into a powerful and sagacious tribe, capable of great exertion and warlike achievements, but addicted to pastoral pursuits, and so fond of luxuriant repose, that for the sake of resting among his sheepfolds and in his fat meadows he should be willing to fulfill the mute anticipation of his name, and render tribute to his more heroic brethren.
II THE SONS OF THE CONCUBINES.
1. The blessing on Dan. Dan was the firstborn of Bilhah, the maid of Rachel; and concerning him the patriarch announces though the child of a secondary wife, his descendants should attain to the position of an independent and self-governing tribe shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel
(2) That if not as a tribe, yet as individuals, and if not permanently, yet occasionally, they should manifest the qualities of sudden, unexpected, and even treacherous attack that were so remarkably characteristic of the horned serpent;
(3) That he should enjoy, in all the perils to which he might in future be exposed, the gracious succor of Jehovah a thought which appears to elevate the speaker"s soul to the contemplation of another and higher keeper, who was yet to come to heal the fatal bite of that great serpent the Devil, who had injected his mortal virus into the race.
2. The blessing on Gad. The firstborn of Zilpah, Leah"s handmaid, obtains the next place in the order of the sons, and concerning him it is declared with a threefold play upon his name, which signifies a troop, that
(1) He will be sore pressed on every side by troops of marauding foes; but that
(2) He will in the end prove himself to be victorious over the fiercest and the boldest.
1. The blessing on Aslant. The happy one should he the occupier of a territory exceeding fertile, and capable of yielding rich and dainty fruits for royal tables.
2. The blessing on Naphtali. Naphtali was Bilhah"s child, which Rachel named in honor of her triumphant wrestling or contending with her sister; and for him were reserved the gifts of a graceful exterior, agile movements, and attractive speech both in eloquence and song.
III THE SONS OF RACHEL.
1. The blessing on Joseph. With a fullness and tenderness of paternal emotion like that with which already he had spoken of Judah, the expiring patriarch declares the fortunes of Joseph, setting forth
(1) The general prosperity that awaited him, representing him as the son (or offshoot) of a fruit-tree planted by a well, and rushing up into such luxuriance of growth that its branches (or daughters) overhung the walls that gave it support;
(2) The severe adversity to which in early years he had been exposed, and of which in future his descendants should have experience, comparing him to one whom the archers shot at and hated, and fiercely persecuted;
(3) The heavenly succor which had enabled him to overcome his bitter trials, and which would yet advance his children to safety, viz., the assistance of the mighty God of Jacob, the Shepherd and Stone of Israel, the God of his fathers Abraham and Isaac;
(4) The wealth of Benediction that should descend upon the head of him who had been separated from his brethren, viz., blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb, blessings that should surpass those bestowed on any of his progenitors, or, according to the more correct rendering, that should outlast the everlasting hills.
2. The blessing on Benjamin. Though latest born of Jacob"s family, he should not be the least important, but should show himself possessed of a warlike and adventurous disposition, causing him with eagerness and animation to take the field against the foe, and to desist not from battle till he could lead back his legions as rejoicing conquerors, enriched with the spoils of glorious victory.
Learn
1. That God is the great arbiter of human destiny.
2. That each man"s sphere in life, as well as each nation"s place on earth, is adapted to his or its peculiar character.
3. That though fore-appointed and fore-known, the destinies of men and nations are freely wrought out by themselves. And
4. That in Providence as well as Grace, it often happens that the first becomes last, and the last first.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.