Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 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.
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.”
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.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
– Jacob Blesses His Sons
5. mekerah, weapon; related: karar or karah dig. Device, design? related: makar sell, in Arabic take counsel. Habitation.
10. mechoqeq, 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. shyloh, Shiloh, a softened form of shylon, a derivative of shol, the ultimate root of shalah, shalam, and possibly shalat, 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 mans 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 tribes 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 fathers 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 lions whelp is Judah. – In physical strength Judah is compared to the lion, the king of beasts. At first he is the lions 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 mechoqeq 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 Judahs 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 serpents 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 Judahs 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 Judahs 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 Judahs 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. 1316. 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 Jabins 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 patriarchs 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 fathers 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 fathers 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. 2021, 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gen 49:1-2
Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XLIX
Jacob, about to die, calls his sons together that he may bless them,
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Jacob called unto his sonsItis not to the sayings of the dying saint, so much as of the inspiredprophet, that attention is called in this chapter. Under theimmediate influence of the Holy Spirit he pronounced his propheticbenediction and described the condition of their respectivedescendants in the last days, or future times.
Gen 49:3;Gen 49:4. REUBENforfeited by his crime the rights and honors of primogeniture. Hisposterity never made any figure; no judge, prophet, nor ruler, sprangfrom this tribe.
Ge49:5-7. SIMEON ANDLEVI were associate inwickedness, and the same prediction would be equally applicable toboth their tribes. Levi had cities allotted to them (Jos21:1-45) in every tribe. On account of their zeal againstidolatry, they were honorably “divided in Jacob”; whereasthe tribe of Simeon, which was guilty of the grossest idolatry andthe vices inseparable from it, were ignominiously “scattered.”
Ge49:8-12. JUDAHAhigh pre-eminence is destined to this tribe (Num 10:14;Jdg 1:2). Besides the honor ofgiving name to the Promised Land, David, and a greater than DavidtheMessiahsprang from it. Chief among the tribes, “it grew upfrom a lion’s whelp”that is, a little powertill it became”an old lion”that is, calm and quiet, yet stillformidable.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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:
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Blessing. – Gen 49:1, Gen 49:2. When Jacob had adopted and blessed the two sons of Joseph, he called his twelve sons, to make known to them his spiritual bequest. In an elevated and solemn tone he said, “ Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you ( for , as in Gen 42:4, Gen 42:38) at the end of the days! Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father! ” The last address of Jacob-Israel to his twelve sons, which these words introduce, is designated by the historian (Gen 49:28) “the blessing,” with which “their father blessed them, every one according to his blessing.” This blessing is at the same time a prophecy. “Every superior and significant life becomes prophetic at its close” ( Ziegler). But this was especially the case with the lives of the patriarchs, which were filled and sustained by the promises and revelations of God. As Isaac in his blessing (Gen 27) pointed out prophetically to his two sons, by virtue of divine illumination, the future history of their families; “so Jacob, while blessing the twelve, pictured in grand outlines the lineamenta of the future history of the future nation” ( Ziegler). The groundwork of his prophecy was supplied partly by the natural character of his twelve sons, and partly by the divine promise which had been given by the Lord to him and to his fathers Abraham and Isaac, and that not merely in these two points, the numerous increase of their seed and the possession of Canaan, but in its entire scope, by which Israel had been appointed to be the recipient and medium of salvation for all nations. On this foundation the Spirit of God revealed to the dying patriarch Israel the future history of his seed, so that he discerned in the characters of his sons the future development of the tribes proceeding from them, and with prophetic clearness assigned to each of them its position and importance in the nation into which they were to expand in the promised inheritance. Thus he predicted to the sons what would happen to them “in the last days,” lit., “at the end of the days” ( , lxx), and not merely at some future time. , the opposite of , signifies the end in contrast with the beginning (Deu 11:12; Isa 46:10); hence in prophetic language denoted, not the future generally, but the last future (see Hengstenberg’s History of Balaam, pp. 465-467, transl.), the Messianic age of consummation (Isa 2:2; Eze 38:8, Eze 38:16; Jer 30:24; Jer 48:47; Jer 49:39, etc.: so also Num 24:14; Deu 4:30), like (2Pe 3:3; Heb 1:2), or (Act 2:17; 2Ti 3:1). But we must not restrict “the end of the days” to the extreme point of the time of completion of the Messianic kingdom; it embraces “the whole history of the completion which underlies the present period of growth,” or “the future as bringing the work of God to its ultimate completion, though modified according to the particular stage to which the work of God had advanced in any particular age, the range of vision opened to that age, and the consequent horizon of the prophet, which, though not absolutely dependent upon it, was to a certain extent regulated by it” ( Delitzsch).
For the patriarch, who, with his pilgrim-life, had been obliged in the very evening of his days to leave the soil of the promised land and seek a refuge for himself and his house in Egypt, the final future, with its realization of the promises of God, commenced as soon as the promised land was in the possession of the twelve tribes descended from his sons. He had already before his eyes, in his twelve sons with their children and children’s children, the first beginnings of the multiplication of his seed into a great nation. Moreover, on his departure from Canaan he had received the promise, that the God of his fathers would make him into a great nation, and lead him up again to Canaan (Gen 46:3-4). The fulfilment of this promise his thoughts and hopes, his longings and wishes, were all directed. This constituted the firm foundation, though by no means the sole and exclusive purport, of his words of blessing. The fact was not, as Baumgarten and Kurtz suppose, that Jacob regarded the time of Joshua as that of the completion; that for him the end was nothing more than the possession of the promised land by his seed as the promised nation, so that all the promises pointed to this, and nothing beyond it was either affirmed or hinted at. Not a single utterance announces the capture of the promised land; not a single one points specially to the time of Joshua. On the contrary, Jacob presupposes not only the increase of his sons into powerful tribes, but also the conquest of Canaan, as already fulfilled; foretells to his sons, whom he sees in spirit as populous tribes, growth and prosperity on the soil in their possession; and dilates upon their relation to one another in Canaan and to the nations round about, even to the time of their final subjection to the peaceful sway of Him, from whom the sceptre of Judah shall never depart. The ultimate future of the patriarchal blessing, therefore, extends to the ultimate fulfilment of the divine promises-that is to say, to the completion of the kingdom of God. The enlightened seer’s-eye of the patriarch surveyed, “as though upon a canvas painted without perspective,” the entire development of Israel from its first foundation as the nation and kingdom of God till its completion under the rule of the Prince of Peace, whom the nations would serve in willing obedience; and beheld the twelve tribes spreading themselves out, each in his inheritance, successfully resisting their enemies, and finding rest and full satisfaction in the enjoyment of the blessings of Canaan.
It is in this vision of the future condition of his sons as grown into tribes that the prophetic character of the blessing consists; not in the prediction of particular historical events, all of which, on the contrary, with the exception of the prophecy of Shiloh, fall into the background behind the purely ideal portraiture of the peculiarities of the different tribes. The blessing gives, in short sayings full of bold and thoroughly original pictures, only general outlines of a prophetic character, which are to receive their definite concrete form from the historical development of the tribes in the future; and throughout it possesses both in form and substance a certain antique stamp, in which its genuineness is unmistakeably apparent. Every attack upon its genuineness has really proceeded from an a priori denial of all supernatural prophecies, and has been sustained by such misinterpretations as the introduction of special historical allusions, for the purpose of stamping it as a vaticinia ex eventu , and by other untenable assertions and assumptions; such, for example, as that people do not make poetry at so advanced an age or in the immediate prospect of death, or that the transmission of such an oration word for word down to the time of Moses is utterly inconceivable-objections the emptiness of which has been demonstrated in Hengstenberg’s Christology i. p. 76 (transl.) by copious citations from the history of the early Arabic poetry.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Jacob’s Prophecy Concerning His Sons. | B. C. 1689. |
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befal you in the last days. 2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. 3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: 4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
Here is, I. The preface to the prophecy, in which, 1. The congregation is called together (v. 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 (v. 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 (v. 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, Prov. iv. 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 (v. 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 (v. 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, ch. xlii. 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 wentest 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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
GENESIS – CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Verses 1-4:
This is the closing scene in Jacob’s long and eventful life. He calls his sons before him as the lies on his dying couch. His last words are to be both blessing and prophetic. As the head and the priest of the clan, he unfolds the prophetic vision of the tribes of which his sons are the progenitors. These are not descriptive of any one era or event in their history. Rather these prophetic blessings are sketches of the general characteristics of the tribes.
In each of the blessings, the character traits of the ancestor describe the general character and history of the tribe. This demonstrates the prophetic nature of the utterance.
The first in order was Reuben, son of Leah, and Jacob’s firstborn. His is a threefold designation: (1) his position, as the firstborn; (2) his relationship to his father, as his “might” and the beginning of his virility; and (3) his natural prominence as the eldest son, the “excellency of dignity” or elevation.
In spite of his natural advantages, Reuben was disqualified from enjoying his position as firstborn. The reason: a character defect. He was “unstable,” literally “unboiling as water.” He was unwilling to renounce pride, and to control his passions. Moral impurity disqualified him from a leadership role. Jacob did not disown him as his son; he took from him the privileges and responsibilities of the firstborn.
Moral impurity and pride disqualify people in every age from responsible leadership roles. This does not mean they lose their salvation: they lose the privileges and rewards of service and fellowship because of sin (Isa 59:1, 2; 1Co 9:26, 27).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And Jacob called. In the former chapter, the blessing on Ephraim and Manasseh was related Gen 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, (194) 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 (195) 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.
(194) Sed oblatrant quidam protervi canes.
(195) The reader will observe, that the entire structure of these predictions is poetical. The prophecies of the Old Testament are generally delivered in this form; and God has thus chosen the most natural method of conveying prophetic intelligence, through the medium of that elevated strain of diction, which suggests itself to imaginative minds, which is peculiarly fitted to deal with sublime and invisible realities, and which best serves to stir up animated feelings, and to fix important truths in the memory of the reader. They who wish to examine more minutely the poetical character of the chapter, are referred to Dr. Adam Clarke’s Commentary, and to Caunter’s Poetry of the Pentateuch. A few observations, in passing, will be made in the notes to such passages as derive elucidation from their poetical structure. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
JOSEPH. GODS FAVORITE
Gen 36:1 to Gen 50:26
IF we began our study with the 36th chapter of Genesis we should have to do with the generations of Esau, who is Edom. It is a chapter filled with hard names of men, many of whom wore the title Duke, but like many of the lords and dukes of the present day, did nothing worthy the pen of inspiration. The men whose history God passes over with the mere statement of birth, name, title and death, we may be excused for skipping in our search for the more important characters and the more impressive lessons of the sacred Word.
The 37th chapter introduces us to such a character in Joseph, and launches us upon a study which has engaged the most serious thought of Scripture students for thousands of years. According to the reckoning of John Lord, in his essay on Joseph, this great-grandson of Abraham was born at Haran about 3701 years ago. The most distinguishing feature of his early life was his peculiar and prophetic dreams or visions. He comes before us in the blush of seventeen summers, nicknamed by those who knew him best, this Dreamer. Already in the visions of the night, God had vouchsafed to him the earnest of his coming supremacy and power. The eleven sheaves of his brethren had made obeisance, while Josephs sheaf had stood upright and received their homage. The sun and moon and eleven stars had gathered at his feet. And, when the dreams were known, his father gently reproved, but his brothers resolved and agreed to watch for a chance to act. The favorite of the household was to be put out of the way. The beauty of face that had made him a subject of parental partiality was to be despoiled. The jealousy-breeding coat was to become all crimson; the tattling tongue was to be silenced, and this business of first dreaming and then interpreting to his own profit was to be brought to a deserved end!
Such were the resolutions; and their chance came. Joseph is at last within their grasp, and with a shout of triumph they cry, as they lift their eyes to his sweet though envied face,
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 dreamt (Gen 37:19-20).
The remainder of the story is familiar to every one of you, and I do not propose to give time to a rehearsal of its incidents, but rather to a consideration of its fundamental lessons.
DIVINE FAVORS DO NOT INSURE AGAINST HUMAN HATRED.
Joseph had, indeed, almost a monopoly of the favors to be coveted in this life. Through his veins there pulsed no common or unclean blood. Four of his brethren were of the meaner extraction of slave mothers, while six others were born to the tender-eyed Leah. It was Josephs good fortune, and doubtless his pride, to be the elder son of the beautiful Rachel, the only lawful wife of Jacob, because the woman of his selection, and the only one to whom he was bound by love. It may be a sin in the child to love his father and mother less because they are those in whom he can take no special pride, but I am sure that his joy is as commendable as natural who loves and delights in them the more, because they are virtuous, honorable and superior in every way. Such a pride was Josephs possession. Who of us are as grateful as we should be for godly and noble parentage?
Again, providence had favored this child in his own person. Joseph was a goodly person and well favored (Gen 29:6). Doubtless that fact accounts for some of Jacobs inexcusable partiality. He saw in the beautiful boy those princely features which called for a royal tunic as a natural complement. Beauty of person is one of Gods better gifts, and it has played its part in the role of human history. It was that charm and that alone that saved the child, Moses, and opened to him the princess nursery and put him in the splendid Egyptian school from which he graduated unto the great work of saving his people and serving his God. It was beauty of face and grace of form that brought Esther to the throne at the very time when the interests of Israel were trembling in the balance, and Gods people were waiting for just such a friend. The prominent role that Cleopatra played in the world is assigned almost entirely to the solitary circumstance of her personal charms. I have often wondered why the great artists have not made more of Joseph as a subject fit for the choicest marble, and worthy the best skilled brush.
In his spirit also, Joseph was divinely favored. So far as the record of his life goes, it would be dangerous to affirm that the splendid child, or the saintly man, Samuel, was ever possessed of sweeter temper than that which Joseph discovered in all the changing and trying experiences of his life. Not a single indictment against his conduct can be successfully sustained. If it be said that his brothers hated him on account of his intolerable pride, let it be remembered Eliab hurled at David this sentence, I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart. In each instance the bigger brother was voicing the naughtiness of his own heart instead. If he be charged with tattling because he brought unto his father the evil report of his brethren, let us answer with a question, Is silence at the sight of sin a virtue? If a report is to be made, to whom other than the father, the rightful authority? His behavior toward the woman whose unholy love his beauty had excited discovers at once a righteousness of personal character, a keen sense of others interests, and a splendid sensitiveness to sin against God that all right thinking people must admire. His dealing with the butler whose freedom he secured, to be rewarded by base neglect for two long years, proved his patience with forgetfulness and ingratitude. Toward his fratricidal brothers, whose lives eventually fell to his disposal, he discovered only the bosom of love, treating with all tenderness those who had attempted his destruction. Blood may be a good thing, and beauty a joy forever, but that magnanimity of soul which can forget a wrong, be patient with a weakness, and treat with affection those who have subjected you to contemptthat is divine! To do that is to prove ones kinship with the Son of God.
Finally Joseph was favored with dreams of a wider and nobler life. The most promising youth is the one who enjoys such visions of the night. Guizot once wrote to his son who was contesting for a university prize, You are ambitious, my boy; you have a right to be. A man at forty may be too ambitious, but at 20, never.
Now and then the world is astonished by the sudden awakening of some sleeping Samson who discovers unsuspected powers at the attack of the Philistines of opposition; but the rule is that Longfellows, while still beardless, dream of being laureates and write to their mothers asking, Do you not think I may one day write books that will be read all over the land? I think that Dr. Hillis has called attention to an important truth when, in his book A Mans Value To Society, he emphasizes the imagination as the architect of manhood.
But let no man conclude that such Divine favors will insure against human hatred. Jealousy is the blindest of passions, and envy never sees anything save through the green glasses which convert all virtue into vice, and all merit into excuses for murder. We have already seen that Josephs conduct toward his brethren was commendable and in every instance meant for their good. But as the belligerent Israelites resented Moses plea for peace between brethren, so these sons of Leah and the concubines interpreted Josephs just report of their behavior as bad tattling. How many a noble Christian man has been insulted and cruelly criticised because, forsooth, he tried to get people to live right and when they would not, reported their sins to the church!
The modern martyr is that noble Joseph who keeps out of fights himself and says to his brethren, You must behave or I shall be compelled to report you to our spiritual mother. Yes, it is one of the most significant suggestions of the sham of modern profession that it will brook no correction from the brother of tenderest love, yea, even from the officials of the church of God elected for the very purpose of counsel and, when needful, of correction.
Again, how many, Joseph-like, are hated because they have had some dream of position, influence and real worth? You have heard it said, There is one black sheep in every flock. Yes, and the converse is equally true, In a black flock one white sheep appears. In most families there is one child that early comes into possession of that broader view of character, conduct and life. How often his first utterance of the hope for the future, that has grown big within his breast, is met with some expression of contempt for such pretensions, or scorn for such pride of heart! Josephs experience and Davids has been known to the bleeding heart of many a precocious boy. An education has been resolved upon, and he begins the long climb of attainments ladder alone. It would seem enough that he should struggle single-handed, and without assistance or sympathy, but how often he must make his way upward, carrying in memory the bitter reproaches and keen sarcasm of his brothers who see nothing in his dream save concentrated egotism and vain conceit!
If any reader has suffered at one or more of these points, I come to say, Be not discouraged! Retrace your steps in nothing! Be slow to conclude you are wrong, or that it is of no use to labor against such opposition. Christ experienced it all boiled down to its last bitterness and yet, when it did its final work of lifting Him to the cross, it only hastened His crown. Josephs brethren can sell him, but if he is always right the Lord will be with him, and the sale into slavery is only an additional push toward the waiting throne.
Now for our second suggestion,
And Josephs master took him and put him into prison. But the Lord was with Joseph (Gen 39:20-21).
INNOCENCE CANNOT BE EFFECTUALLY DISHONORED.
People sometimes make the mistake of affirming that an innocent man cannot be injured. On the contrary, history is rife with illustrations of the fact that no character is so easily sullied as that of the purest and best of men and women. The principle is easy of explanation. The whiter the sheet of paper the easier it is for dirty fingers to leave their track. Some people have the impression that after all preachers and other religious people are about as capable of immoralities as are the members of any other circle. Alas! for the poisoning power of a sensational and truthless press! Many a Joseph has been silenced, and even banished for a while by such confessed lovers of the profession. They know the ease with which that lord, Public Opinion is excited to jealousy and cruel judgment. They know, too, the inability of the best man to defend himself when accused of the meanest crimes, and so they clap their hands and seek on the spotted hounds of slander. Let us ever be slow in believing charges that are calculated to humble the best reputations to the dust, and wrong the most innocent by robbing them of their good name, and opening for them the door into some dungeon of shame!
Joseph may submit to the inevitable, and under the ban of the law, languish in silence, but God has a reckoning to make, and then the Hamans will swing on the gallows, and the Mordecais ride in the royal chariot and dictate to the throne.
Innocent men, however, can best afford to be lied about and wronged, since truth has wonderful powers of coming abroad. So far as the record of Scripture goes, Joseph complains in never a word. Who doubts that by faith he saw his final triumph; and said in his heart of that prison what the three Hebrew children, of a later time, said of the fiery furnace, Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and He will deliver us. The innocent and righteous man, and he alone, can employ such words and give to them their weight. I come more and more to think that no enemy can effectually injure him who walks uprightly, loves the truth and obeys God.
Dr. Talmage tells how, some years ago, two professed temperance lecturers speaking in Ohio, and taking the unusual course for that class of men, maligned Christians and preachers. Among other things they claimed to be well acquainted with Dr. Talmage and declared that their former drunkenness began with drinking wine from that clergymans table. Talmage, indignant over such a charge, went to Patrick Campbell, then chief of the Brooklyn police, and requested his company to Ohio to effect the arrest of the libelous orators. Campbell only smiled and said, Do not waste your time by chasing these men. Go home and do your work, and they can do you no harm. The advice was taken, and the falsehood died of weakness, if indeed it was not stillborn. There is not a scandal in the power of the tongue strong enough to blight the life that loves innocence and clings to God. Joseph may be imprisoned and never entertain the thought of breaking jail, and yet there are not doors enough in all the dungeons of Egypt to keep him in the narrow cell. Butlers will need his help, the king will require his wisdom and God will bring him forth. This brings us to a third lesson.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Thou shalt he over my house and according unto thy mind shall all my people be ruled, Only in the throne shall I he greater than thou (Gen 41:39-40).
PRISONS WILL NOT HOLD THE MAN FIT TO BE PREMIER.
I know of few things that will so certainly effect recognition as merit. You cant sell into slavery the man who has it. You may set a price on him and be paid it, but you cant enslave him. There was an old colored man who trotted me on his knees the year the Civil War began. He never was a slave. He was always free! He would have been free on the southern plantations where masters rode with revolver in pocket and whip in hand. You cant enslave the man who makes himself needful to you at every turn. You can put him in prison but an hour later you will need him and bring him out again. Darius once had Daniel put into a lions den. But Daniel was still freer than the king. He curled himself up in a corner of that cage and slept, while Gods angel watched with his hand at the hungry mouths. But the king went to his palace and passed the night in fasting, and his sleep went from him, and very early in the morning he made haste to see if the Hebrew was yet alive, without whom the kingdom could not run; and so Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of
Cyrus the Persian. The city authorities at Philippi tried imprisoning Paul and Silas, but next day they came and let them forth and gave them full permission to depart in freedom. You may bind the body of Zedekiah with fetters of brass, and carrying him away to Babylon, imprison him for life; but he, in whom the spirit of Joseph is, must yet rule in the throne.
Moreover he called for a famine upon the land; he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant; whose feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in iron. Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance; to bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom (Psa 105:16-22).
Men are slow at times to discern merit, but even jailbirds will feel its power and witness to its presence. The incidental remarks in Acts, which say of the midnight song of Silas and Paul and the prisoners heard them, is not more significant than the sentence which informs us of Joseph that he was in favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Let no man flatter himself that he has great virtues but the world is ignorant of them. Goodness is power and will be felt, and the worlds wise men will be discovered, though a very prison seek to both hide and silence them. God knows the nooks of the universe and when there is need of a man he will find the fittest one in some corner and bring him forth.
When Saul has uncrowned himself, there is a shepherd youth known to God upon whom the mantle will fall. When Eli is old and his family are an offense to heaven, there is a boy in the temple trained, though the great outside world has never heard his name. When famine threatens Egypt and the king is unequal to the task of averting it, Joseph is lying in wait, ready to take the place by Divine appointment.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
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.
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 mans moral and spiritual nature, of the powers which shape history, of Gods 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 Gods 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, 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. 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 Jacobs individual case, can we suppose that God would give this light to a manthese 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 factseven 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.)
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PART FORTY-SEVEN
THE LAST DAYS OF JACOB AND JOSEPH
(Gen. 48:1 to Gen. 50:26)
The Biblical Account
48 And it came to pass after these things, that one said to Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. 3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 4 and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a company of peoples, and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. 5 And now thy two sons, who were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, shall be mine. 6 And thy issue, that thou begettest after them, shall be thine; they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. 7 And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem).
8 And Israel beheld Josephs sons, and said, Who are these? 9 And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, who God hath given me here. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. 10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. 11 And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath let me see thy seed also. 12 And Joseph brought them out from between his knees; and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israels left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israels right hand, and brought them near unto him. 14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraims head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manassehs head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the first-born. 15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who hath fed me all my life long unto this day, 16 the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a. multitude in the midst of the earth. 17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his fathers hand, to remove it from Ephraims head unto Manassehs head. 18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father; for this is the first-born; put thy right hand upon his head. 19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: howbeit his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. 20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee will Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. 21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God will be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your father. 22 Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
49 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.
2
Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father.
3
Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength;
The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
4
Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence
Because thou wentest up to thy fathers bed;
Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5
Simeon and Levi are brethren;
Weapons of violence are their swords.
6
On my soul, come not thou into their council;
Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united;
For in their anger they slew a man,
And in their self-will they hocked an ox.
7
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.
8
Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise:
Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies;
Thy fathers sons shall bow down before thee.
9
Judah is a lions whelp:
From the prey, my son, thou art gone up:
He stooped down, he couched as a lion,
And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
10
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the rulers staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh come;
And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
11
Binding his foal unto the vine,
And his asss colt unto the choice vine;
He hath washed, his garments in wine,
And his vesture in the blood of grapes;
12
His eyes shall be red with wine,
And his teeth white with milk.
13
Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea;
And he shall be for a haven of ships;
And his border shall be upon Sidon.
14
Issachar is a strong ass,
Couching down between the sheepfolds:
15
And he saw a resting-place that it was good,
And the land that it was pleasant;
And he bowed his shoulder to bear,
And became a servant under task-work.
16
Dan shall judge his people,
As one of the tribes of Israel.
17
Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
An adder in the path,
That biteth the horses heels,
So that his rider falleth backward.
18
I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah
19
Gad, a troop shall press upon him;
But he shall press upon their heel.
20
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,
And he shall yield royal dainties.
21
Naphtali is a hind let loose:
He giveth goodly words.
22
Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a fountain;
His branches run over the wall.
23
The archers have sorely grieved him,
And shot at him, and persecuted him:
24
But his bow abode in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong,
By the hands of the Mighty One 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 coucheth, beneath,
Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
26
The 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 from his brethren.
27
Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth:
In the morning he shall devour the prey,
And at even he shall divide the spoil.
28 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. 29 and 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, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah32 the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
50 And Joseph fell upon his fathers face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming: and the Egyptians wept for him threescore and ten days.
4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now l have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh saying, 5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. 6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. 7 And Joseph wept to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his fathers house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. 10 And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: 13 for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. 14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
15 And when Josephs brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully requite us all the evil which we did unto him. 16 And they sent a message unto Joseph saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, 17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for that they did unto thee evil. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. 18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we are thy servants. 19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20 And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. 21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his fathers house: and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 23 And Joseph saw Ephraims children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were born upon Josephs knees. 24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from hence. 26 So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
(1) Jacobs Last Days
1. The Last Days of Jacob, Gen. 47:27 to Gen. 50:14
(1) Jacobs Request Concerning His Burial (Gen. 47:27-31. Although the years of Jacobs sojourn in Egypt were characterized by rather tragic economic problems for the Egyptians, for Jacob and his household in Goshen they were days of relative abundance and tranquility. Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years and lived to see his progeny multiply exceedingly, Gen. 47:27. Then as his end drew nearer, he sent for Joseph and made him swearby putting his hand under his fathers thigh (cf. Gen. 24:2; Gen. 24:9)that he would not bury him in Egypt, but take him out of Egypt and bury him in the sepulchre of his fathers (cf. Gen. 50:13). Egypt had served as a refuge in a time of famine, but the patriarchIsraelinsisted that his bones be interred in the land of promise alongside the bones of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and his own first wife, Leah. This Joseph was, of course, most willing to do. Thankful that Joseph had assured him of a burial in Canaan, Jacob, or Israel as he is here named, bowed down upon the beds head (Gen. 47:31). Apparently he turned over on his bed, and bent his head toward the head of the bed, as if to prostrate himself before God in worship. The Septuagint, followed by the words of Heb. 11:21, suggests a different pointing of the Hebrew words, reading bowed himself upon the top of his staff. According to this reading, which is followed by the Syriac, Jacob used his staff to raise himself in bed and thus to worship, remembering Gods blessings throughout his life. The first reading is said to be the most natural one, and is followed by the Masoretic Text. Leupold suggests that the author of the Epistle quoted from the Septuagintas he usually didwithout suggesting a change because no vital point was involved. An act of worship certainly is intended, no doubt a thanksgiving to God for the peaceful close of his troubled life, and for the assurance he now had of being gathered to his fathers.
(2) Jacob blesses the Sons of Joseph (Gen. 48:1-22). These developments came later (as will be noted). In the subsequent history of the nation of Israel, Joseph does not appear as one of the tribes. The reason for this is here indicated. Joseph became two tribes, for his sons Ephraim and Manasseh are hereby adopted by their grandfather and given an inheritance among his own sons. This was done when Joseph, hearing that his father was ill, went to visit him taking his two sons with him. The dying patriarch blessed Joseph and his sons in the name of the God of Abraham and Isaac, the God who had fed him all his life long, the Angel who had redeemed him from all evil. Joseph had enjoyed a position of special favor with Jacob, as we know, and for this reason he now determines to adopt Josephs two sons. The reference to Rachel, Gen. 48:7, shows how keenly he had felt her loss to the day of his death. His adoption of Josephs sons seems to have been a special tribute to her. He claimed Ephraim and Manasseh for his own, placing them even before Reuben and Simeon, whose lust and violence had forfeited their birthright; and henceforth they were numbered among the heads of the tribes of Israel. Thus Rachel became the mother of three tribes: Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin.
Throughout this whole sceneit will be notedIsrael gave Ephraim the precedence over Manasseh. Though unable to see, he crossed his hands, disregarding Josephs opposition, so that in blessing them his right hand was on Ephraims head and his left hand on Manassehs. Thus was added one more lesson of Gods sovereign choice, to the examples of Abel, Shem, Abram, Isaac, and himself, all of whom were younger sons. He foretold for them a prosperity which would make them the envy of the other tribes; and he concluded by giving Joseph an extra portion above his brothers, thus marking him as his heir in respect of property; for the royal power was given to Judah, and the priesthood was assigned to Levi. The division of these great functions of the patriarchal government is already a mark of the transition from the family to the nation (ITH, 125).
It should be noted that Jacob mentions here a specific plot of ground which he allotted to Joseph. Whatever the location of this plot, and whatever the circumstances under which it was acquired, its identity continued to be a matter of tradition as late as New Testament times. Sychar is described as near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph (Joh. 4:5). (This could hardly have been the city of Shechem, having reference to the tragedy visited on that city (Genesis 34), by Jacobs sons, an act which he indignantly repudiated. (The Nuzi tablets indicate that adoption was a common procedure in patriarchal times, They also show, we are told, that an oral blessing such as that pronounced by Jacob, was considered binding when contested in court. The blessing is a kind of last will and testament. In Scriptural usage, such a blessing also conveys a prophecy concerning the future. Ephraim became the strongest of the twelve tribes, In the time of the divided kingdom the name of Ephraim was frequently used for Israel (the Northern Kingdom).
(3) Jacob Blesses His Own Sons (Gen. 49:1-27). In poetic form a predictive blessing is pronounced by Jacob on his own sons. Although in some cases severe censure is given, in no case is a tribe disinherited. Some of the tribes had positions of greater honor and usefulness than did others, but the Israelites remained conscious of their descent from the twelve sons of Jacob. Jacob called his sons together to hear the last words of Israel their father (ch. 49). He plainly declared that his words were of prophetic import, and that their fulfilment would reach even to the latter days (Gen. 48:1). Could we expound these prophetic statements fully we should probably find that, in most, if not all the several blessings, there is a referencefirst, to the personal characters and fortunes of the twelve patriarchs; secondly, to the history and circumstances of the tribes descended from them; and, lastly, a typical allusion to the twelve tribes of the spiritual Israel (Revelation 7). We can trace the first two elements in all cases, and the last is conspicuous in the blessings on Judah and Joseph, the two heads of the whole family. But the details of the interpretation are confessedly most difficult (OTH, 125). The whole prophecy should be compared with the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death (Deuteronomy 33). Like the latter, Jacobs prophecy contains a blessing on each tribe, though in some cases it is almost disguised under the censure which his sons had incurred. (For a follow-up of the historical aspects of this last Testament of Jacob, we refer the student to the textbook, Old Testament History, by Smith and Fields, published by the College Press, Joplin, Missouri.)
(4) Fulfilment of Jacobs Prophecies. The history of all the tribes would furnish striking instances of the fulfilment of these prophecies, more particularly the history of the descendants of Judah and Joseph. From Judah the country was called Judea, and the people Jews. This tribe was famous: 1. For its conquests; 2. For the kingdom of David and Solomon; 3. For the birth of the Messiah; 4. For being a distinct people, having governors of their own down to the time of Messiah or Shiloh. Moreover, while the ten tribes of Israel were carried captive into Assyria and entirely lost (by enforced intermingling with their conquering neighbors), those of Judah and Benjamin were held in captivity in Babylon for seventy years only, after which they returned to the land of their fathers. They did not actually pass from the earthly scene as tribes until the fall of Jerusalem, A.D. 70. In Joseph, the blessing of Jacob was fulfilled in his being the progenitor of the two large tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, from whom sprang the great leader Joshua. The curse of Levi was afterward taken off on account of the zeal of the Levites in destroying the worshipers of the golden calf and consecrating themselves to God.
(5) Death and Burial of Jacob (Gen. 49:28 to Gen. 50:14). Having concluded his prophetic benedictions, Jacob charged his sons to bury him in the Cave of Machpelah, and yielded up the ghost at the age of one hundred and forty-seven years. His body was embalmed by Josephs physicians, a process which lasted, we are told, forty days (Gen. 48:3) and the mourning lasted in all seventy days (Gen. 48:3); after which, Joseph obtained permission of the Pharaoh to atend to the funeral of his father. Accordingly, all the house of Jacob and Joseph, together, together with all the servants of Pharaoh and elders of Egypt, left Goshen and made their sad journey back to Canaan, where they buried Jacob in the Cave of Machpelah, having mourned at the threshing-floor of Atad beyond Jordan for seven days; which place was called Abel-mizraim, or the mourning of the Egyptians (Gen. 50:1-13). Thus they came to Goren Atad beyond the Jordan, as the procession did not take the shortest route by Gaza through the country of the Philistines, probably because so large a procession with a military escort was likely to meet with difficulties there, but went round by the Dead Sea (K-D, 410). This funeral cortege was certainly a magnificent tribute to Joseph and to the high regard in which he was held by the Egyptian powers and people. After having performed his filial duties, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brethren and all their attendants.
2. The Last Days of Joseph
(6) Joseph Again Forgives His Brethren (Gen. 48:15-21). After Josephs return to Egypt, Josephs brothers feared that he might now seek revenge for their former cruelty, but, having sent a message praying for his forgiveness, he reassured them by many kind words and good offices.
(7) The Death of Joseph (Gen. 48:22-22). At last, fifty-four years after the death of his father, Joseph having seen the grandsons of his two sons, felt that his dying hour was approaching. He assured his brothers that God would certainly lead them to the land of promise, and enjoined them to carry his bones with them. (Josephs faith surely proves that he was never a prey to the paganism of the Egyptians, but to the end of his life cherished faith in the God of his fathers). He died, at the age of one hundred and ten years; his body was embalmed and placed in a coffin in which it was preserved until the Exodus of the Children of Israel with them. The story ends as in a glorious sunset, as realized by comparing Heb. 11:22 and Jos. 24:32.
ADDENDA
PREDICTIONS CONCERNING THE DESTINIES OF THE TWELVE
1. Reuben, the first-born, who had committed incest with Bilhah. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.
2. Simeon, 3. Levi, who had treacherously slain the Shechemites for their insult to Dinah: 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.
4. Judah: Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy fathers children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lions 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? The 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. . . . His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
5. Zebulun: Shall be an haven for ships.
6. Issachar: Is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: . . . and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
7. Dan: Shall judge his people, . . . shall be a serpent by the way, and an adder in the path.
8. Gad: A troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
9. Asher: His bread shall be fat.
10. Naphtali: A hind let loose; he giveth goodly words.
11. Joseph: A fruitful bough by a well. . . . The God of thy father, who shall help thee; and the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and blessings of the womb: . . . the 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.
12. Benjamin: Shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. Genesis 48, 49.From Analysis and Summary of Old Testament History, by J. T. Wheeler, published 1879, by Work and Company, Philadelphia.
THE DYING BLESSING OF JACOB
In its present form the Blessing of Jacob in Genesis forty-nine is a poem of the early days of the kingdom. In Davids day the more ancient tradition regarding the patriarchs blessing was cast into this poetical form. The poem makes a striking series of characterizations of the different tribes,the morally unstable Reuben, the socially disorganized Simeon and Levi, the warlike Judah, the ignobly lazy Issachar, the brave Gad and fortunate Asher, the prosperous Joseph and alert little Benjamin. These are the conditions of the days of the developing kingdom. The tribes had varied fortunes. Some prospered, some had great reverses; some became pre-eminent, a few barely existed. The poem is very valuable as an expression of the collective consciousness of Israel on their conduct and destiny,From History of the Hebrews, by Frank Sanders, Ph.D., Scribners, 1914.
ON JOSEPH AS A TYPE
One very noticeable feature of this history (toledoth) of Jacob is the predominance of Joseph practically throughout the entire section. Yet for all that, though he is the mainspring of the movement of the history, Jacob is still the dominant character. We remind of this, for though Joseph is prominent, he is not to be esteemed too highly. God never appeared to him as He did to his father Jacob, or to Isaac and to Abraham. Joseph dare not be ranked higher on the level of faith than his forefathers. It is a case of misplaced emphasis to say that the hero himself is idealized as no other patriarchal personality is . . . (Joseph) is the ideal son, the ideal brother, the ideal servant, the ideal administrator. In contact with non-Israelites Joseph surely achieved remarkable prominence, but for the inner, spiritual history of the kingdom of God he does not come up to the level of his fathers.
There is another feature of his life which is rather striking and demands closer attention. In a more distinct way than in the lives of the fathers Joseph stands out as a type of Christ. Abraham exemplified the Fathers love who gave up His only-begotten Son. Isaac passively typifies the Son who suffers Himself to be offered up. But in Josephs case a wealth of suggestive parallels come to the surface upon closer study. Though these parallels are not stamped as typical by the New Testament, there can hardly be any doubt as to their validity. For as Joseph is a righteous man and in this capacity is strongly antagonized and made to suffer for righteousness sake, but finally triumphs over all iniquity, so the truly Righteous One, the Savior of men, experiences the same things in an intensified degree.
Lange lists the details of this type in a very excellent summary. He mentions as prefiguring what transpired in the life of the great Antitype, Jesus Christ, the following: the envy and hatred of the brethren against Joseph and the fact that he is sold; the realization of Josephs prophetic dreams by the very fact that his brethren seek to prevent his exaltation by destroying him; the fact that the malicious plot of the brethren results in the salvation of many, however, in a very particular sense for the brethren and for Jacobs house; the judgment of the Spirit upon the treachery of the brethren and the victory of forgiving love; Judahs surety for Benjamin and his rivalry with Joseph in the spirit of self-sacrifice; the revival of Jacob in his joy over the fact that the son long deemed dead was alive and eminently successful (Leupold, EG, 950951).
Pascal (Pensees) beautifully supplements this typology as follows: Jesus Christ typified by Joseph, the beloved of his father, sent by his father to see his brethren, etc., innocent, sold by his brethren for twenty pieces of silver, and thereby becoming their lord, their savior, the savior of strangers, and the savior of the world; which had not been but for their plot to destroy him, their sale and their rejection of him. In prison Joseph innocent between two criminals; Jesus Christ on the cross between two thieves. Joseph foretells freedom to the one, and death to the other, from the same omens. Jesus Christ saves the elect, and condemns the outcast for the same sins. Joseph foretells only; Jesus Christ acts. Joseph asks him who will be saved to remember him, when he comes into his glory; and he whom Jesus Christ saves asks that He will remember him, when He comes into His kingdom (Everymans Library Edition, p. 229, trans. by Trotter). The ways of divine providence could hardly be stranger, and Gods guiding hand in history is marvelously displayed to the eyes of faith (EG, 9512).
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE STORY OF JOSEPH
The substantial accuracy of the Joseph narratives has often been noted. What has been discovered in relation to Egypt in late years is in general accord with the allusions of these narratives to Egyptian usages and institutions. This supports the conclusion that they were put into form at an early date, since the Egypt of Josephs day differs in many respects from the Egypt of later times. It also emphasizes our sense of reality as read the stories.
Dr. Speiser states the basic truths concerning the narrative about Joseph and the Egyptian background against which the events are painted. No appreciable progress has been made in the effort to establish the historical setting of the episode, and with it the identity of the Pharaoh who knew Joseph. A faint hint, but no more than that, may be contained in vs. 39, which has Pharaoh refer to God with obvious reverence. An Egyptian ruler of good native stock would not be likely to do so, since he was himself regarded as a god. When the Pharaoh of the Oppression speaks of Yahweh in Exodus, he does so in defiance, or in extreme straits, but never in sincere submission. The attitude of the present Pharaoh, therefore (barring an oversight on the part of the author), might conceivably suggest that he was not a traditional Egyptian ruler; and such a description would fit best some member of the foreign Hyksos Dynasty (ca. 17301570). It has long been assumed on other grounds that the Hyksos age offered the best opportunity for the emergence of someone like Joseph. Nevertheless, the narrative before us furnishes too slender a basis for historical deductions. On the other hand, the incidental detail is authentically Egyptian. Pharaoh elevates Joseph to the typically Egyptian post of Vizier (43). This is corroborated by the transfer to Joseph of the royal seal (42), inasmuch as the Vizier was known as the Seal-bearer of the King of Lower Egypt, as far back as the third millenium. . . . The gift of the gold chain is another authentic touch. The three names in Gen vs. 45 are Egyptian in type and components; so, too, in all probability, is the escorts cry, Abrek. While the story is the main thing, the setting is thus demonstrably factual. And although the theme and the setting together cannot as yet be fitted with an established historical niche, the details are not out of keeping with that phase of Egyptian history which can be independently synchronized with the patriarchal period. (ABG, 316).
Other Egyptianisms which may be cited are the following: Josephs position as Potiphars major domo was common in Egypt (Gen. 39:5-6); Egyptian situations similar to that of Potiphars wife appear from the later Egyptian Tale of the Two Brothers (Gen. 39:7-20); from the Rosetta Stone is indicated the pharaohs custom of releasing prisoners on his birthday and on other great days (Gen. 40:20); shaving was an Egyptian custom, not Semitic (Gen. 41:14); the investiture of an official with signet, linen, and neck chain, is commonly recorded (Gen. 41:42); inscriptions indicate failure of the Nile to flood for as long as 7 years, and the distribution of grain by government officials in times of famine (Gen. 41:54); nobility and priests are kept apart, even from commoners, much more, foreigners (Gen. 43:32); Egyptians ostracized shepherds as beyond standards of cleanliness (Gen. 46:34); crown and priests got all land titles some time before the New Empire (Gen. 47:20); and embalming took time and substance (Gen. 50:2-3).
That Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt under Josephs viziership has been denied by some of the more radical critics. . . . But this historical tradition is so inextricably woven into the fabric of Jewish history that it cannot be eliminated without leaving an inexplicable gap (Albright, FSAC, 183ff.). Numerous evidences of Israels sojourn in Egypt appear in the Genesis-Exodus part of the Pentateuch (UBD, 607). (1) Among such are the following: the surprising number of Egyptian personal names that show up in the Levitical genealogies. Such names as Moses, Hophni, Phineas, Merari, Putiel, and Asir, are unquestionably Egyptian: this fact is corroborated by 1Sa. 2:27. (2) Local coloring which appears in numerous instances in the Pentateuch. Many of these bits of Egyptian coloring exist which are beautifully illustrated by Egyptological discoveries (Albright, in Youngs Analytical Concordance, 20th Ed., 1936, p. 27. See his somewhat lengthy presentation (at the back of this book), Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands. This article is 43 pages in length and is invaluable for archaeological corroboration of the Pentateuchal record). Among these bits of local coloring we mention the following: (1) the title of Egyptian officials such as the chief of the butlers and chief of the bakers (Gen. 40:2) which are the titles of bona fide palace officials mentioned in Egyptian documents (cf. also Gen. 39:4; Gen. 41:40; Gen. 41:42-43). (2) Famines of Egypt are illustrated by at least two Egyptian officials who give a resume of their charities on the walls of their tombs, listing dispensation of food to the needy in each year of want. One inscription from c. 1000 B.C., actually mentions the famine of seven years duration in the days of Pharaoh Zoser of Dynasty III, about 2700 B.C. (3) Such matters as dreams, the presence of magicians (cf. Gen. 41:8), mummification (Gen. 50:2; Gen. 50:26), and Josephs life span of 110 years (Gen. 50:22), the traditional length of a happy and prosperous life in Egypt, are abundantly illustrated by the monuments. (4) The family of Jacobs settlement in Goshen, some seventy persons (Gen. 46:26-34). This area has been clearly identified with the eastern part of the Delta around the Wadi Tumilat. This region was one of the most fertile parts of Egypt, the best of the land (Gen. 47:11). (4) A clear archaeological parallel is the representation of West Semitic immigrants going down into Middle Egypt around the year 1900 B.C. The scene is sculptured on the tomb of one of Senwosret IIs officials named Khnumhotep at Beni Hasan, A party bringing products from Southwest Asia appear under the leadership of Sheik of the highlands, Ibshe. The name and the faces are clearly Semitic. Their thick black hair falls to the neck, and their beards are pointed. They are dressed in long cloaks and are armed with spears, bows and throw sticks. The accompanying inscription reads, the arrival, bringing eye paint, which thirty-seven Asiatics bring to him (Finegan. LAP, 1946, p. 83). (5) Canaanite place names in the Delta: Succoth (Exo. 12:37), Baal-zephon (Exo. 14:2), Migdol (Exo. 14:2), Zilu (Tel Abu Zeifah), and very likely Goshen itself (Albright, FSAC, 1940, p. 84).
The sudden appointment of a foreign-born slave to unlimited authority over a rich, cultured, proud and powerful people could take place nowhere else than in an autocratically governed Oriental state. Probably it could not have occurred in Egypt except at one of two periods, the century when the Hyksos kings were rulers of Egypt (c. 16801580 B.C.) or the later portion of the eighteenth dynasty (c. 15801350 B.C.) when Egypt under the leadership of a series of conquering kings became a world power, ready to utilize brave, resourceful leadership from any source. The background of the Joseph-story is surely Egyptian. The data available do not enable us to determine with assurance under which group of rulers Joseph rose to dignity and accomplished his reforms. The very general conclusion that Rameses the Great of the nineteenth dynasty was the Pharaoh of the Oppression makes it rather necessary to choose between the two periods preceding. That Josephs Pharaoh was a later king of the eighteenth dynasty is in excellent accord with the facts as we know them today, but no one can be positive in the matter. Kings Amen-hotep III and IV (14111358 B.C.) held close relations with Asia and her peoples. Their inscriptions mention foreigners who rose in Egypt to great authority. The three hundred clay tablets discovered in 1888 at Tel-el-Amarna in Egypt are letters exchanged between foreign kings and vassals and the reigning Pharaoh. In addition to throwing a frank and vivid light upon the life of Palestine and Egypt in that day, these letters exhibit the tolerant and friendly disposition of the rulers of Egypt. A Joseph would have found a welcome at their court (HH, 4445). (The Amarna letters, excavated from the mound of Amarna, about 200 miles south of Cairo These were in the form of hundreds of clay tablets in Accadian cuneiform, sent to the Pharaohs by kings in western Asia and by petty princes in Palestine (Canaan) who were ruling there under the supervision of Egyptian inspectors in the 14th century B.C. (See BWDBA, or any up-to-date general work on Biblical archaeology.)
HERODOTUS: ON EMBALMING IN EGYPT
There are a set of men in Egypt who practise the art of embalming, and make it their proper business. These persons, when a body is brought to them, show the bearers various models of corpses, made in wood, and painted so as to resemble nature. The most perfect is said to be after the manner of him whom I do not think it religious to name in connexion with such a matter; the second sort is inferior to the first, and less costly; the third is the cheapest of all. All this the embalmers explain, and then ask in which way it is wished that the corpse should be prepared. The bearers tell them, and having concluded their bargain, take their departure, while the embalmers, left to themselves, proceed to their task. The mode of embalming, according to the most perfect process is the following: They take first a crooked piece of iron, and with it draw out the brain through the nostrils, thus getting rid of a portion, while the skull is cleared of the rest by rinsing with drugs; next they make a cut along the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and take out the whole contents of the abdomen, which they then cleanse, washing it thoroughly with palm-wine, and again frequently with an infusion of pounded aromatics. After this they fill the cavity with the purest bruised myrrh, with cassia, and every other sort of spicery except frankincense, and sew up the opening. Then the body is placed in natrum for seventy days, and covered entirely over. (This included the whole period of mourning. The embalming in natrum (saltpetre or soda) occupied only forty days.) After the expiration of that space of time, which must not be exceeded, the body is washed, and wrapped round, from head to foot, with bandages of fine linen cloth, smeared over with gum, which is used generally by the Egyptians in the place of glue, and in this state it is given back to the relatives, who enclose it in a wooden case which they have made for the purpose, shaped into the figure of a man. Then fastening the case, they place it in a sepulchral chamber, upright against the wall. Such is the most costly way of embalming the dead.
If persons wished to avoid expense, and choose the second process, the following is the method pursued: Syringes are filled with oil made from the cedar-tree, which is then, without any incision or disemboweling, injected into the bowel. The passage is stopped, and the body laid in natrum the prescribed number of days. At the end of the time the cedar-oil is allowed to make its escape; and such is its power that it brings with it the whole stomach and intestines in a liquid state. The natrum meanwhile has dissolved the flesh, and so nothing is left of the dead body but the skin and bones. It is returned in this condition to the relatives, without any further trouble being bestowed upon it.
The third method of embalming, which is practised in the case of the poorer classes, is to clear out the intestines with a purge, and let the body lie in natrum for seventy days, after which it is at once given to those who come to fetch it away. (Herodotus, Father of History, traveled extensively, and reported what he actually witnessed himself. His account of Egyptian embalming is generally acclaimed as being on the whole very accurate. He lived in the 5th century B.C. The section quoted is from his History (The Persian Wars), Bk. II. chs. 8691. Modern Library edition, trans, by George Rawlinson.)
REVIEW QUESTIONS ON PART FORTY-SEVEN
1.
How did the Israelites fare in Egypt?
2.
How long did Jacob sojourn in Egypt?
3.
With what great hopes did Jacob and his household start for Egypt? How were they received by the Pharaoh?
4.
What promises did Jacob require Joseph to make?
5.
Who was brought to Jacob when he became ill?
6.
How did Jacob show affection for Josephs sons?
7.
What requests did Jacob make in regard to his burial?
8.
How did Jacob show his affection for Josephs sons?
9.
How did Jacob arrange his hands on Josephs sons? What did this signify?
10.
Which of Josephs sons was to become the greater? How was this fulfilled later?
11.
What did Jacob bequeath especially to Joseph? To Judah? To Levi? What happened later with respect to Levis descendants?
12.
What do we learn about adoption in Canaan from the Nuzi tablets?
13.
What was the specific ground allotted to Joseph? How is this related to what New Testament passage?
14.
For what purpose did Jacob call his own sons together?
15.
What three references were implicit or explicit in the blessings which Jacob pronounced on his sons?
16.
What striking fulfilments occurred with respect to Jacobs blessing on Judah?
17.
In what sense was this blessing Messianic? When and how was it fulfilled?
18.
How was the blessing pronounced on Joseph fulfilled?
19.
Describe the circumstances of the death and burial of Jacob. Where did it take place?
20.
What other persons were interred in this burial place?
21.
After the interment, what did Joseph do? What attitude did he take toward his brothers at this time?
22.
How old was Joseph at his death? What evidence do we have that Joseph was faithful to the faith of his fathers? What does this indicate as to his character?
23.
What was done with his corpse, and why was it done?
24.
Describe the art of embalming as Herodotus describes it in his History.
25.
Where was Joseph ultimately buried?
26.
State the analogies between the life of Joseph and the life of Christ.
27.
Name the progenitors of the twelve tribes as they appear when finally rearranged by the substitution of the two sons of Joseph.
28.
Discuss the archaeological accuracy of the Joseph Narratives. List the Egyptianisms that occur in these accounts.
29.
Where was the Land of Goshen and what were the special characteristics of this Land?
30.
Correlate Heb. 11:22 and Jos. 24:32, and show the significance of this related testimony.
31.
For what great events was the stage now set for the future unfolding of Gods Eternal Purpose?
32.
How many generations of his descendants did Joseph live to see?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XLIX.
THE BLESSING OF THE TWELVE TRIBES.
(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 Davids 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 Davids court, we should reasonably expect an exact knowledge of the state of things in Davids time. For this, in fact, is the argument upon which these critics depend, that the internal evidence shows that it belongs to Davids 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 Judahs pre-eminence, there is no knowledge whatsoever of the arrangements of Davids time. Thus, for instance, there is no word about Levis 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 Jacobs 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 Davids 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 nations history. But national traditions precede the historical period of a peoples 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 Jacobs 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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 . ”
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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 and its , 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, ’ , 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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jacob’s Deathbed Blessing on His Sons (49:1-28).
Gen 49:1
‘And Jacob called to his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together that I may tell you what will befall you in later days.”
This is, and is stated to be, not so much a blessing as a series of prophecies. But that does not diminish its effectiveness. The dying words of a man were considered to have powerful effect on the future, and Jacob knew that God was with him (Gen 48:20). Yet at the end they are called a blessing, for such words were a guide to each one as to his future, and we can always change our futures. The prophecy begins in Gen 49:2 as is witnessed by the parallel form. The form of the prophecies suggest the expansion of the family tribe since coming to Egypt, and the building up of diverse interests by some of his sons. With their brother as Vizier of Egypt there need be no limit to their ambitions and they could give free reign to their dreams, leaving the shepherding to inferiors.
“In later days.” Compare Deu 4:30; Deu 31:29. This is not ‘the latter days’ of the prophets.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jacob Prophesies Over His Twelve Sons In Gen 49:1-33 we have Jacob’s prophecy over his twelve sons. Jacob’s calling was to father twelve sons and take the seventy souls into Egypt where they will make a nation. His final calling was to set the destiny of these twelve tribes, which he did through prophecy.
Gen 49:3 Comments – Jacob calls Reuben, his firstborn, his strength. Note similar verses:
Deu 21:15, “If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn , by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength ; the right of the firstborn is his.”
Psa 78:51, “And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:”
Psa 105:36, “He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength .”
Gen 49:4 Comments – A reference to when Reuben committed this evil act is found in Gen 35:22.
Gen 35:22, “And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine : and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.”
Reuben forfeited birth right by this serious offence:
1Ch 5:1, “Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel : and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s:)”
When a king during the period of the Old Testament handed over a kingdom to an heir, the concubines were also handed over to this new king as a part of the inheritance. Perhaps Reuben was attempting to establish his position as the new leader to this clan. In his zeal, he made the decision to lay with his father’s concubine as an act of declaring his role as the new leader. Note that Ahithophel counselled Absalom to commit this same act that Reuben committed in an effort to show the nation of Israel that he was the new leader (2Sa 16:20-21).
2Sa 16:20-21, “Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give counsel among you what we shall do. And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Go in unto thy father’s concubines, which he hath left to keep the house; and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father: then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong.”
Also, note that a birthright could be sold (Gen 25:31).
Gen 25:31, “And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.”
The cutting off of Reuben from his birthright was a reflection of the customs of his day. The Code of Hammurabi, believed by some scholars to have been written by a Babylonian king around 2100 B.C., impacted its culture for centuries. It is very likely that this decision was based upon law 158 of this Code, which says, “If any one be surprised after his father with his chief wife, who has borne children, he shall be driven out of his father’s house.”
Gen 49:7 “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” Comments – Was this a foreknowledge of the name of the nation called Israel?
Gen 49:10 “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah” – Comments – Note that the qualities of Judah mentioned in Gen 49:8-9 prepare him to be the ruler of the Jewish people. In Gen 44:14 Judah seems to take the leadership role among his brethren as their spokesman, thus, foreshadowing this prophecy. Judah went ahead to meet Joseph in Gen 46:28. Thus, indicating his leadership role.
Gen 44:14, “And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph’s house; for he was yet there: and they fell before him on the ground.”
Gen 46:28, “And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.”
Gen 49:10 “nor a lawgiver from between his feet” – Comments – The phrase “nor a lawgiver from between his feet” means that the rulers over Israel will follow one another as descendants of the kings of Judah, as a royal lineage. Thus, from between his feet, that is, a man’s loins, will come the seed of this lineage.
Note that this lineage does not descend from the mother, but from the father. Otherwise, this verse would have said, “from the womb” instead of the loins of a man.
Gen 49:10 “until Shiloh come” Word Study on “Shiloh” Strong says the Hebrew name “Shiloh” ( ) (H7886) literally means “tranquil,” and comes from a root verb ( ) (H7951) which means, “to be tranquil, that is, secure or successful,” thus, “to be happy, to prosper, to be in safety.”
Comments – Note that Gen 49:10 is the first mention of the word “Shiloh” in the Bible. Shiloh as a City in Israel – This Hebrew word is not mentioned again until Jos 18:1-10, when it becomes the location of the Tabernacle of Moses. This place will remain the location where the nation of Israel worships the Lord until the time of David, when the tabernacle is eventually moved to Jerusalem (Jdg 21:19).
Jos 18:1, “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh , and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them.”
Jdg 21:19, “Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.”
Shiloh as “the Peace-Maker” – In Gen 49:10, the word Shiloh appears to be a proper name or title, which carries a messianic designation for the Lord Jesus, rather than the name of a location. Thus, Gesenius says the word “Shiloh” would means “the peaceable one, peace-maker” in this passage of Scripture. According to this definition, Gen 49:10 would say that lawgivers and princes would not depart from Judah until “the peace-maker” comes.
Shiloh as “to whom it belongs” – Another possible meaning of the word “Shiloh” is “the one to whom tribute is brought.” Scholars tell us that some Jewish authorities understand this word to be a compound of two Hebrew words: “shel” for “asher” ( ), meaning “which,” and “lo” ( ), meaning, “to him.” The LXX translates this passage as: “ ” “until the things laid up in store come into his possession.” Leupold says the basis for this translation is to interpret the word “Shiloh” to mean, “which to him.” He believes the LXX has Eze 21:27 in mind with their translation of Gen 49:10, which reads, “until he come whose right it is.” [258]
[258] H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis , 2 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, c1942, 1970), in OnLine Bible, v. 2.0 [CD-ROM] (Nederland: Online Bible Foundation, 1992-2005), comment on Genesis 49:10.
Eze 21:27, “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is ; and I will give it him.”
Gen 49:10 “and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” – Comments – When the Messiah comes, much of the Jewish nation may reject Him, but Gen 49:10 tells us that the Gentiles will receive Him as their Savior. Thus, here is a prophecy of the grafting in of the Gentile nations into the Vine, Jesus Christ. This Messiah is what the nations have been looking for in expectation for centuries.
Gen 49:10 Comments – The definition of Shiloh meaning, “to whom it belongs” is supported by Eusebius, one of the earliest Christian historians, who deals at length with this passage using the translation “until he come for whom it is reserved.” Using this translation he says the prophecy of Gen 49:10 was fulfilled when Herod, a non-Jew, became the ruler over the Jews. In other words, now that Herod had come, the Jews were for the first time in their history lacking a prince of Judah, at which time the Messiah could come ( Ecclesiastical History 1.6.1-2). [259] The nation of Israel had been ruled by judges during the early years before a king was appointed. Israel was then ruled by kings until the Babylonian captivity, after which they were ruled by the priests and members of Jewish courts largely made up of descendants of the nation of Judah. Under Herod the last vestiges of Jewish leadership vanished. [260]
[259] Eusebius writes, “When Herod, the first ruler of foreign blood, became King, the prophecy of Moses received its fulfillment, according to which there should ‘not be wanting a prince of Judah, nor a ruler from his loins, until he come for whom it is reserved.’ The latter, he also shows, was to be the expectation of the nations. This prediction remained unfulfilled so long as it was permitted them to live under rulers from their own nation, that is, from the time of Moses to the reign of Augustus. Under the latter, Herod, the first foreigner, was given the Kingdom of the Jews by the Romans. As Josephus relates, he was an Idumean on his father’s side and an Arabian on his mother’s. But Africanus, who was also no common writer, says that they who were more accurately informed about him report that he was a son of Antipater, and that the latter was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the so-called servants of the temple of Apollo.” ( Ecclesiastical History 1.6.1-2)
[260] Eusebius writes, “After their return from Babylon they continued to have without interruption an aristocratic form of government, with an oligarchy. For the priests had the direction of affairs until Pompey, the Roman general, took Jerusalem by force, and defiled the holy places by entering the very innermost sanctuary of the temple. Aristobulus, who, by the right of ancient succession, had been up to that time both king and high priest, he sent with his children in chains to Rome; and gave to Hyrcanus, brother of Aristobulus, the high priesthood, while the whole nation of the Jews was made tributary to the Romans from that time. But Hyrcanus, who was the last of the regular line of high priests, was, very soon afterward taken prisoner by the Parthians, and Herod, the first foreigner, as I have already said, was made King of the Jewish nation by the Roman senate and by Augustus.” ( Ecclesiastical History 1.6.6-7)
Regardless which translation is used for the word “Shiloh,” Gen 49:10 refers to the coming of Jesus, who became the King of the Jews according to the royal lineage of Judah. Not only so, He became the King of Kings over all nations, a position appointed by the Heavenly Father, which He will now hold forever and ever, blessed be His wonderful name.
Gen 49:11 “Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine” Comments – In his comments on Gen 49:11 Hippolytus (A.D. 170-236) believes that the word “foal” is a reference to the Gentiles being grafted into the vine, which is Israel. [261]
[261] Hippolytus, The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus, trans. S. D. F. Salmond, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Buffalo, New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1886), 164.
Gen 49:11 “he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes” Scripture References – Note a similar verse:
Isa 63:1, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment . For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.”
Gen 49:10-12 Comments – Prediction of the Messiah – Gen 49:10-12 describes the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Gen 49:12 Scripture References – Note a similar verse:
Rev 1:14, “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire.”
Gen 49:27 Comments – Tertullian interpreted Gen 49:27 as a prophetic reference to Paul the apostle, who was a Benjamite (Act 13:21, Rom 11:1, Php 3:5). He explains that he began as Saul of Tarsus devouring the church, but was glorious converted and nourished the church.
“Because even the book of Genesis so long ago promised me the Apostle Paul. For among the types and prophetic blessings which he pronounced over his sons, Jacob, when he turned his attention to Benjamin, exclaimed, ‘Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning He shall devour the prey, and at night he shall impart nourishment.’ He foresaw that Paul would arise out of the tribe of Benjamin, a voracious wolf, devouring his prey in the morning: in order words, in the early period of his life he would devastate the Lord’s sheep, as a persecutor of the churches; but in the evening he would give them nourishment, which means that in his declining years he would educate the fold of Christ, as the teacher of the Gentiles.” [262] ( Against Marcion 5.1)
[262] Tertullian, Against Marcion, trans. Peter Holmes, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Buffalo, New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1885), 430.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Ten Genealogies (Calling) – The Genealogies of Righteous Men and their Divine Callings (To Be Fruitful and Multiply) – The ten genealogies found within the book of Genesis are structured in a way that traces the seed of righteousness from Adam to Noah to Shem to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and the seventy souls that followed him down into Egypt. The book of Genesis closes with the story of the preservation of these seventy souls, leading us into the book of Exodus where we see the creation of the nation of Israel while in Egyptian bondage, which nation of righteousness God will use to be a witness to all nations on earth in His plan of redemption. Thus, we see how the book of Genesis concludes with the origin of the nation of Israel while its first eleven chapters reveal that the God of Israel is in fact that God of all nations and all creation.
The genealogies of the six righteous men in Genesis (Adam, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) are the emphasis in this first book of the Old Testament, with each of their narrative stories opening with a divine commission from God to these men, and closing with the fulfillment of prophetic words concerning the divine commissions. This structure suggests that the author of the book of Genesis wrote under the office of the prophet in that a prophecy is given and fulfilled within each of the genealogies of these six primary patriarchs. Furthermore, all the books of the Old Testament were written by men of God who moved in the office of the prophet, which includes the book of Genesis. We find a reference to the fulfillment of these divine commissions by the patriarchs in Heb 11:1-40. The underlying theme of the Holy Scriptures is God’s plan of redemption for mankind. Thus, the book of Genesis places emphasis upon these men of righteousness because of the role that they play in this divine plan as they fulfilled their divine commissions. This explains why the genealogies of Ishmael (Gen 25:12-18) and of Esau (Gen 36:1-43) are relatively brief, because God does not discuss the destinies of these two men in the book of Genesis. These two men were not men of righteousness, for they missed their destinies because of sin. Ishmael persecuted Isaac and Esau sold his birthright. However, it helps us to understand that God has blessed Ishmael and Esau because of Abraham although the seed of the Messiah and our redemption does not pass through their lineage. Prophecies were given to Ishmael and Esau by their fathers, and their genealogies testify to the fulfillment of these prophecies. There were six righteous men did fulfill their destinies in order to preserve a righteous seed so that God could create a righteous nation from the fruit of their loins. Illustration As a young schoolchild learning to read, I would check out biographies of famous men from the library, take them home and read them as a part of class assignments. The lives of these men stirred me up and placed a desire within me to accomplish something great for mankind as did these men. In like manner, the patriarchs of the genealogies in Genesis are designed to stir up our faith in God and encourage us to walk in their footsteps in obedience to God.
The first five genealogies in the book of Genesis bring redemptive history to the place of identifying seventy nations listed in the Table of Nations. The next five genealogies focus upon the origin of the nation of Israel and its patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
There is much more history and events that took place surrounding these individuals emphasized in the book of Genesis, which can be found in other ancient Jewish writings, such as The Book of Jubilees. However, the Holy Scriptures and the book of Genesis focus upon the particular events that shaped God’s plan of redemption through the procreation of men of righteousness. Thus, it was unnecessary to include many of these historical events that were irrelevant to God’s plan of redemption.
In addition, if we see that the ten genealogies contained within the book of Genesis show to us the seed of righteousness that God has preserved in order to fulfill His promise that the “seed of woman” would bruise the serpent’s head in Gen 3:15, then we must understand that each of these men of righteousness had a particular calling, destiny, and purpose for their lives. We can find within each of these genealogies the destiny of each of these men of God, for each one of them fulfilled their destiny. These individual destinies are mentioned at the beginning of each of their genealogies.
It is important for us to search these passages of Scripture and learn how each of these men fulfilled their destiny in order that we can better understand that God has a destiny and a purpose for each of His children as He continues to work out His divine plan of redemption among the children of men. This means that He has a destiny for you and me. Thus, these stories will show us how other men fulfilled their destinies and help us learn how to fulfill our destiny. The fact that there are ten callings in the book of Genesis, and since the number “10” represents the concept of countless, many, or numerous, we should understand that God calls out men in each subsequent generation until God’s plan of redemption is complete.
We can even examine the meanings of each of their names in order to determine their destiny, which was determined for them from a child. Adam’s name means “ruddy, i.e. a human being” ( Strong), for it was his destiny to begin the human race. Noah’s name means, “rest” ( Strong). His destiny was to build the ark and save a remnant of mankind so that God could restore peace and rest to the fallen human race. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning, “father of a multitude” ( Strong), because his destiny was to live in the land of Canaan and believe God for a son of promise so that his seed would become fruitful and multiply and take dominion over the earth. Isaac’s name means, “laughter” ( Strong) because he was the child of promise. His destiny was to father two nations, believing that the elder would serve the younger. Isaac overcame the obstacles that hindered the possession of the land, such as barrenness and the threat of his enemies in order to father two nations, Israel and Esau. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, which means “he will rule as God” ( Strong), because of his ability to prevail over his brother Esau and receive his father’s blessings, and because he prevailed over the angel in order to preserve his posterity, which was the procreation of twelve sons who later multiplied into the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus, his ability to prevail against all odds and father twelve righteous seeds earned him his name as one who prevailed with God’s plan of being fruitful and multiplying seeds of righteousness.
In order for God’s plan to be fulfilled in each of the lives of these patriarchs, they were commanded to be fruitful and multiply. It was God’s plan that the fruit of each man was to be a godly seed, a seed of righteousness. It was because of the Fall that unrighteous seed was produced. This ungodly offspring was not then nor is it today God’s plan for mankind.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Generation of the Heavens and the Earth Gen 2:4 to Gen 4:26
a) The Creation of Man Gen 2:4-25
b) The Fall Gen 3:1-24
c) Cain and Abel Gen 4:1-26
2. The Generation of Adam Gen 5:1 to Gen 6:8
3. The Generation of Noah Gen 6:9 to Gen 9:29
4. The Generation of the Sons of Noah Gen 10:1 to Gen 11:9
5. The Generation of Shem Gen 11:10-26
6. The Generation of Terah (& Abraham) Gen 11:27 to Gen 25:11
7. The Generation Ishmael Gen 25:12-18
8. The Generation of Isaac Gen 25:19 to Gen 35:29
9. The Generation of Esau Gen 36:1-43
10. The Generation of Jacob Gen 37:1 to Gen 50:26
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Calling of the Patriarchs of Israel We can find two major divisions within the book of Genesis that reveal God’s foreknowledge in designing a plan of redemption to establish a righteous people upon earth. Paul reveals this four-fold plan in Rom 8:29-30: predestination, calling, justification, and glorification.
Rom 8:29-30, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
The book of Genesis will reflect the first two phase of redemption, which are predestination and calling. We find in the first division in Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3 emphasizing predestination. The Creation Story gives us God’s predestined plan for mankind, which is to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth with righteous offspring. The second major division is found in Gen 2:4 to Gen 50:25, which gives us ten genealogies, in which God calls men of righteousness to play a role in His divine plan of redemption.
The foundational theme of Gen 2:4 to Gen 11:26 is the divine calling for mankind to be fruitful and multiply, which commission was given to Adam prior to the Flood (Gen 1:28-29), and to Noah after the Flood (Gen 9:1). The establishment of the seventy nations prepares us for the calling out of Abraham and his sons, which story fills the rest of the book of Genesis. Thus, God’s calling through His divine foreknowledge (Gen 11:27 to Gen 50:26) will focus the calling of Abraham and his descendants to establish the nation of Israel. God will call the patriarchs to fulfill the original purpose and intent of creation, which is to multiply into a righteous nation, for which mankind was originally predestined to fulfill.
The generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob take up a large portion of the book of Genesis. These genealogies have a common structure in that they all begin with God revealing Himself to a patriarch and giving him a divine commission, and they close with God fulfilling His promise to each of them because of their faith in His promise. God promised Abraham a son through Sarah his wife that would multiply into a nation, and Abraham demonstrated his faith in this promise on Mount Moriah. God promised Isaac two sons, with the younger receiving the first-born blessing, and this was fulfilled when Jacob deceived his father and received the blessing above his brother Esau. Jacob’s son Joseph received two dreams of ruling over his brothers, and Jacob testified to his faith in this promise by following Joseph into the land of Egypt. Thus, these three genealogies emphasize God’s call and commission to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their response of faith in seeing God fulfill His word to each of them.
1. The Generations of Terah (& Abraham) Gen 11:27 to Gen 25:11
2. The Generations Ishmael Gen 25:12-18
3. The Generations of Isaac Gen 25:19 to Gen 35:29
4. The Generations of Esau Gen 36:1-43
5. The Generations of Jacob Gen 37:1 to Gen 50:26
The Origin of the Nation of Israel After Gen 1:1 to Gen 9:29 takes us through the origin of the heavens and the earth as we know them today, and Gen 10:1 to Gen 11:26 explains the origin of the seventy nations (Gen 10:1 to Gen 11:26), we see that the rest of the book of Genesis focuses upon the origin of the nation of Israel (Gen 11:27 to Gen 50:26). Thus, each of these major divisions serves as a foundation upon which the next division is built.
Paul the apostle reveals the four phases of God the Father’s plan of redemption for mankind through His divine foreknowledge of all things in Rom 8:29-30, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Predestination – Gen 1:1 to Gen 11:26 emphasizes the theme of God the Father’s predestined purpose of the earth, which was to serve mankind, and of mankind, which was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with righteousness. Calling – Gen 11:27 to Gen 50:26 will place emphasis upon the second phase of God’s plan of redemption for mankind, which is His divine calling to fulfill His purpose of multiplying and filling the earth with righteousness. (The additional two phases of Justification and Glorification will unfold within the rest of the books of the Pentateuch.) This second section of Genesis can be divided into five genealogies. The three genealogies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob begin with a divine calling to a patriarch. The two shorter genealogies of Ishmael and Esau are given simply because they inherit a measure of divine blessings as descendants of Abraham, but they will not play a central role in God’s redemptive plan for mankind. God will implement phase two of His divine plan of redemption by calling one man named Abraham to depart unto the Promised Land (Gen 12:1-3), and this calling was fulfilled by the patriarch. Isaac’s calling can also be found at the beginning of his genealogy, where God commands him to dwell in the Promised Land (Gen 26:1-6), and this calling was fulfilled by the patriarch Isaac. Jacob’s calling was fulfilled as he bore twelve sons and took them into Egypt where they multiplied into a nation. The opening passage of Jacob’s genealogy reveals that his destiny would be fulfilled through the dream of his son Joseph (Gen 37:1-11), which took place in the land of Egypt. Perhaps Jacob did not receive such a clear calling as Abraham and Isaac because his early life was one of deceit, rather than of righteousness obedience to God; so the Lord had to reveal His plan for Jacob through his righteous son Joseph. In a similar way, God spoke to righteous kings of Israel, and was silent to those who did not serve Him. Thus, the three patriarchs of Israel received a divine calling, which they fulfilled in order for the nation of Israel to become established in the land of Egypt. Perhaps the reason the Lord sent the Jacob and the seventy souls into Egypt to multiply rather than leaving them in the Promised Land is that the Israelites would have intermarried the cultic nations around them and failed to produce a nation of righteousness. God’s ways are always perfect.
1. The Generations of Terah (& Abraham) Gen 11:27 to Gen 25:11
2. The Generations Ishmael Gen 25:12-18
3. The Generations of Isaac Gen 25:19 to Gen 35:29
4. The Generations of Esau Gen 36:1-43
5. The Generations of Jacob Gen 37:1 to Gen 50:26
Divine Miracles It is important to note that up until now the Scriptures record no miracles in the lives of men. Thus, we will observe that divine miracles begin with Abraham and the children of Israel. Testimonies reveal today that the Jews are still recipients of God’s miracles as He divinely intervenes in this nation to fulfill His purpose and plan for His people. Yes, God is working miracles through His New Testament Church, but miracles had their beginning with the nation of Israel.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Genealogy of Jacob The genealogies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have a common structure in that they open with God speaking to a patriarch and giving him a commission and a promise in which to believe. In each of these genealogies, the patriarch’s calling is to believe God’s promise, while this passage of Scripture serves as a witness to God’s faithfulness in fulfilling each promise. Only then does the genealogy come to a close.
Gen 37:1 to Gen 50:26 gives the account of the genealogy of Jacob, Isaac’s son. Heb 11:21-22 reveals the central message in this genealogy that stirs our faith in God when Jacob and Joseph gave redemptive prophecies, saying, “By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.” As Abraham’s genealogy begins with a divine commission when God told him to leave Ur and to go Canaan (Gen 12:1), and Isaac’s genealogy begin with a divine commission predicting him as the father of two nations (Gen 25:23), so does Jacob’s genealogy begin with a divine encounter in the form of his son Joseph’s two dreams. These dreams make it clear that Jacob’s divine commission was to bring his clan of seventy souls into Egypt through Joseph for four hundred years while the people multiply into the nation of Israel. This genealogy closes with the fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, which means “prince of God,” because his destiny was to father a multitude of godly seed. He fathered the twelve sons, or “princes,” who multiplied into the twelve tribes of Israel. His ability to father twelve righteous seeds earned him his name as a prince of God, as a man who ruled over a multitude of godly seed. The Scriptures testify to Jacob’s faith in God’s promise that Joseph would rule over his brethren by the fact that he followed his son into Egypt (Gen 49:22-26), and he blessed the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh (Heb 11:21-22). The fact that Jacob died in a ripe old age testifies that he fulfilled his destiny as did his fathers, Abraham and Isaac.
The Story of Joseph The last story in the origin of the nation of Israel that is recorded in the book of Genesis is the story of Joseph. Perhaps there is no other Old Testament story so moving as when he reveals himself to his brothers. There are many truths that are taught to us in this great Bible story. We learn that if we will serve the Lord amidst persecutions, God will always bring someone into our lives to bless us. Joseph had the favour and blessings of his father as a young man in the midst of his brothers’ persecutions. He then had the blessings of Potipher as a young man in Egypt. He found the favour of Pharaoh as an adult.
God gave Jeremiah some friends who stood by him and blessed him during the most difficult times in his ministry. God gave Daniel three friends in his Babylonian captivity. God gave to Paul men like Timothy and Luke to stand by him during times of persecution and even imprisonment. But for Joseph, he often stood alone, totally trusting in God.
The Chronology of the Life of Joseph – Jacob was one hundred thirty (130) years old when he went to Egypt.
Gen 47:9, “And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”
Jacob died at the age of 147.
Gen 47:28, “And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.”
Joseph became ruler in Egypt at the age of 30.
Gen 41:46, “And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.”
Joseph had two sons by the age of 37.
Gen 41:50, “And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him.”
Joseph was 39 when his family comes to Egypt.
Gen 45:11, “And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.”
Therefore, Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born.
Also, Joseph died at the age of 110 (Gen 50:22; Gen 50:26)
Gen 50:22, “And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.”
Gen 50:26, “So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.”
Joseph as a Type and Figure of Christ Jesus In many ways we can see Joseph as a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. Note some comparisons:
1. Joseph was Jacob’s beloved son, just as Jesus was the Heavenly Father’s beloved son.
Mat 3:17, “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
2. Joseph was given a coat of many colours, which was similar to the seamless robe worn by Jesus Christ, of which the Roman soldiers cast lots (Joh 19:23-24).
Joh 19:23-24, “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.”
3. Joseph took bread to his brothers, just like Jesus was sent as the bread of life to His people.
Mat 15:24-26, “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.”
4. Joseph was rejected by his brothers like Jesus was rejected by His people, the Jews.
5. Joseph was thrown in the pit in Gen 37:24. This is like Jesus’ death on the cross (Psa 16:10)
Gen 37:24, “And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.”
Psa 16:10, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
6. When Joseph was betrayed by his brethren and sold as a servant. Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot for thirty pieces of sliver.
7. Joseph became a servant in the house of Potiphar, just like Jesus Christ took form of a servant (Php 2:7) and (Psa 105:17).
Gen 37:36, “And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard.”
Gen 39:1, “And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.”
Psa 105:17, “He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:”
Php 2:7, “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:”
8. Joseph was sent to Egypt to deliver the house of Jacob (Israel) (Gen 45:7-8) like Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to deliver them.
Gen 45:7-8, “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.”
Mat 15:24, “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
9. Joseph was lifted up by Potiphar, then brought down into prison, then raised up by Pharaoh at his right hand. This is like Jesus being brought down to the grave, and then being raised to the right hand of the Father.
10. Joseph was exalted as ruler under Pharaoh, like Christians at the right hand of the Father in heaven today.
11. Some scholars suggest that Joseph’s marriage to the Egyptian is a type of Christ’s marriage to the church (especially to the Gentile church). He had two sons, which symbolizes the salvation of the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
12. Joseph’s brothers bowed down to Joseph during the famine (Gen 42:6) like Israel will bow down to Jesus one day (Rom 11:26). Israel shall be saved through the Deliverer.
Gen 42:6, “And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.”
Rom 11:26, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:”
13. Joseph revealed himself to his brothers on their third trip to Egypt. The ten brothers finally coming to Joseph and recognising him and receiving an inheritance is like Israel turning to and recognising Jesus and all being saved.
Rom 11:26, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:”
Jesus will reveal Himself to the Jews after the Church is raptured at His Second Return, thus, a third return.
14. All nations came and bowed down to Joseph, as all nations will someday come and bow down at the throne of the Lord Jesus.
15. Joseph was ruler over Egypt and the whole world, just as Jesus will reign in Zion as king of kings over the earth.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
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. v. 2. Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel, your father. 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. v. 4. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel;
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Gen 49:1
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 youliterally, and I will tell youthat which shall befall you, in the sense of happening or occurring to any one, is here equivalent to (cf. Gen 42:4, Gen 42:38)in the last daysliterally, in the end of the days, not simply in future time (Gesenius, Rosenmller, 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), (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).
Gen 49:2
Gather yourselves together,the repetition indicates at once the elevation of the speaker’s soul, and the importance, in his mind, of the impending revelationand hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. The two clauses form a synthetic or synonymous parallel, numerous illustrations of which are to be found in the succeeding verses.
Gen 49:3, Gen 49:4
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:Jacob’s patriarchal benediction takes the form of an elevated poem, or sublime religious hymn, exhibiting the well-known classes of parallelism, the synthetic the antithetic, and the synonymous, not alone in its separate clauses, but sometimes also in its stanzas or verses. As was perhaps to be expected, it begins with Reuben, who is characterized by a threefold designation, viz.,
(1) by his position in the family, as Jacob’s firstborn;
(2) by his relation to Jacob, as the patriarch’s “might,” , or robur virile, and “the beginning” of his “strength,” not “of his sorrow” (Vulgate, Aquila, Symmachus), though might be so translated (cf. Gen 35:18), and the sense would sufficiently accord with the allusion of Gen 49:4, but, as required by the parallelism, “of his vigor,” being here equivalent to (Rosenmuller, Kalisch, Keil, ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ et alii); and
(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 (LXX.), or lasciviousness (sc. was to thee) as the boiling of water (Gesenius, Rosenmller, Keil, Kalisch, &c.), the same root in Arabic conveying the notion of pride, and in Syriac that of wantonnessthou shalt not excel;literally, thou shalt not have the or excellency (Gen 49:3), i.e. the pre-eminence belonging to the firstborn, a sense which the versions have more or less successfully expressed: (Aquila), (Symmachus), (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 couchliterally, 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.
Gen 49:5-7
Simeon and Levi are brethren (not in parentage alone, but also in their deeds; e.g. their massacre of the Shechemites (Gen 34:25), to which undoubtedly the next words allude); instruments of cruelty are in their habitationsliterally, instruments of violence their , a . which has been variously rendered
(1) their dwellings, or habitations (Kimchi, A. V; Calvin, Ainsworth), in the land of their sojourning (Onkelos), for which, however, there does not seem to be much authority;
(2) their machinations or wicked counsels, deriving from , to string together, to take in a net, to ensnare (Nah 3:4), the cognate Arabic root signifying to deceive or practice stratagems (De Dieu, Schultens, Castelli, Tayler Lewis, and others);
(3) their betrothals, or compacts of marriage, connecting with the same root as the preceding in the sense of “binding together” (Dathius, Clericus, Michaelis, Knobel, Furst, et alii);
(4) their rage, as suggested by the unused root , to boil or seethe (Kalisch);
(5) their swords, from = to dig or pierce through, cf. (Vulgate, Luther, Gesenius, Rosenmller, Keil, Murphy, and others). The preponderance of authority appears to be in favor of this last. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; literally, into their council or assembly (, from , to set or sit) come not, my soul, or my soul shall not come (cf. Pro 1:15, Pro 1:16)unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united:literally, with or in their assembly or congregation ( from , to call together: cf. Gen 28:3; Gen 35:11; Gen 48:4), mine honor or glory (i.e. the soul as being the noblest part of man: Psa 16:9; Psa 57:9; Psa 108:2the term is parallel with the preceding ), do not join (Keil), or shall not join (Kalisch)for in their anger they slew a man,literally, man, a collective, singular for “men,” the plural form of Ge occurring rarely; only in Psa 141:4; Pro 8:4; and Isa 53:3and in their self will they digged down a wallliterally, they houghed ox (LXX; Gesenius, Furst, Rosenmller, Keil, Kalisch, Lange, Gerlach, T. Lewis, Murphy, &c; &e.), the singular , the plural of which is only found once, in Hos 12:12, being retained here to correspond with . The received rendering, which is not without sanction (Onkelos, Targnm of Jonathan, Syriac, Arabic, Aquila, Symmachus, Vulgate, Dathius, Calvin), reads instead of , and takes in the primary sense of destruere, evertexe. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel:the second synonym “wrath,” literally, outpourings, indicates the fullness and intensity of the tide of fury which by Simeon and Levi was let loose upon the unsuspecting ShechemitesI will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. While for the sin (the deed, not the doers) Jacob has a curse, for the sinners themselves he has a well-merited chastisement. They had been confederate in their wickedness, they should in future, when returning to occupy their God. assigned inheritance, be disjoined. That this prediction was exactly fulfilled Scripture testifies. At the second census in the wilderness, shortly before the conquest, the tribe of Simeon had become so reduced in its numbers as to be the smallest of the twelve (Num 26:14); to be passed over entirely in the last blessing of Moses (Deu 33:1-29.); to be accorded no independent allotment of territory in Canaan on the completion of the conquest, having only a few cities granted to it within the borders of Judah (Jos 19:1-9); and to be ultimately absorbed in the more powerful and distinguished tribe under whose protection and tutelage, so to speak, it had been placed (1Ch 4:27). The tribe of Levi also was deprived of a separate inheritance, receiving only a number of cities scattered here and there among the possessions of their brethren (Jos 21:1, Jos 21:40); and, though by its election to the priesthood the curse may be said to have been turned into a blessing, yet of this signal honor which was waiting Levi Jacob was completely silent, showing both that no prophecy was of any private interpretation (the seer seeing no further than the Holy Spirit helped him), and that Jacob spoke before the days of Moses. It is almost incredible that a late writer would have omitted to forecast the latter-day glory of the tribe of Levi; and this opinion is confirmed by observing the very different strain in which, after Levi’s calling had been revealed, the benediction of Moses himself proceeds (Deu 33:8-11).
Gen 49:8-12
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praiseliterally, Judah thou, will praise thee thy brethren, the word being a palpable play on (cf. Gen 29:35). Leah praised Jehovah for his birth, and his brethren should extol him for his nobility of character, which even in his acts of sin could not be entirely obscured (Gen 37:26; Gen 38:26), and certainly in his later days (Gen 43:8; Gen 44:18-34) shone out with undiminished luster. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies (i.e. putting his foes to flight, Judah should grasp them by the neck, a prediction remarkably accomplished in the victories of David and Solomon); thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Fulfilled in the elevation of the house of Judah to the throne, which owned as its subjects not simply Judah’s mother’s children, i.e. the tribes descended from Leah, but also his father’s, i.e. all the tribes of Israel Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched down as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? By a bold and striking figure Judah is compared to a young lion, ripening into its full strength and ferocity, roaming through the forests in search of prey, repairing to his mountain den ( , LXX.) when his booty has been devoured, and there in quiet majesty, full of dignified repose, lying down or crouching in his lair, and calmly resisting all attempts to disturb his leonine serenity. The effect of the picture is also heightened by the alternative image of a lioness, which is particularly fierce in defending its cubs, and which no one would venture to assail when so employed. The use of such figures to describe a strong and invincible hero is by no means infrequent in Scripture (vide Psa 7:3; Psa 57:5; Isa 5:29; Eze 19:2-9). The scepter shall not depart from Judah,literally, a scepter (i.e. an emblem of regal command, hence dominion or sovereignty; , LXX; Theodotion; , Symmachus) shall not depart from Judahnor a lawgiver from between his feetliterally, and a legislator (sc. shall not depart)from between his feet; , the poel part of , to cut, to cut into, hence to decree, to ordain, having the sense of one who decrees; hence leader, as in Jdg 5:1-31 :44, dux (Vulgate), (LXX.), or lawgiver, as m Deu 33:21 and Isa 33:22 (Calvin, Dathius, Ainsworth, Rosenmller, Murphy, Wordsworth, ‘Speaker’s Commentary’). In view, however, of what appears the requirement of the parallelism, is regarded as not the person, but the thing, that determines or rules, and hence as equivalent to the ruler’s staff, or marshal’s baton (Gesenius, Furst, Keil, Lange, Bleek, Tuch, Kalisch, and others), in support of which is claimed the phrase “from between his feet,” which is supposed to point to the Oriental custom, as depicted on the monuments, of monarchs, when sitting upon their thrones, resting their staves ,between their feet. But the words may likewise signify “from among his descendants,” “from among his children’s children” (Onkelos), (LXX.). Until Shiloh come. This difficult clause has been very variously rendered. 1. Taking Shiloh as the name of a place, viz; Shiloh in Ephraim (Jos 18:1, Jos 18:8, Jos 18:9, Jos 18:10; Jos 19:51; Jdg 18:31; 1Sa 1:3, 1Sa 1:9, 1Sa 1:24; 1Sa 2:14, &c.), the sense has been explained as meaning that the leadership of Judah over the other tribes of Israel should not cease until he came to Shiloh (Rabbi Lipmann, Teller, Eichhorn, Bleek, Furst, Tuch, Delitzsch).
But though , and they came to Shiloh, a similar phrase, is found in 1Sa 4:12, yet against this interpretation maybe urged
(1) the improbability of so obscure a locality, whose existence at the time is also problematical, being mentioned by Jacob, Zidon, the only other name occurring in the prophecy, having been, even before the days of Jacob, a city of renown (Gen 10:19); and
(2) the inaccuracy of the historical statement which would thus be made, since the supremacy of Judah was in no way affected, and certainly not diminished, by the setting up of the tabernacle in Shiloh; to obviate which objection Kalisch proposes to read as “even if,” or “even when,” and to understand the prediction as intimating that even though a new empire should be established at Shiloh, as was eventually done, Judah should not forfeit her royal name and prerogativeonly this sense of is not clearly recognized by the best grammarians (Gesenius, Furst), and is not successfully supported by the passages referred to (Gen 28:15; Psa 110:1; Psa 112:8), in every one of which the received rendering “until” is distinctly preferable.
2. Regarding Shiloh as an abstract noun, from to be safe, like from , the import of the prophecy has been expressed as asserting that the scepter should not depart from Judah, either until he (Judah) should attain to rest (Hofmann, Kurtz), or until tranquility should come, i.e. until Judah’s enemies should be subdued (Gesenius), an interpretation which Rosenmller properly characterises as “languidum et paine frigidum.” Hence
3. Believing Shiloh to be the name of a person, the majority of commentators, both Jewish and Christian, and ancient as well as modern, agree that the Messiah is the person referred to, and understand Jacob as fore-announcing that the time of his appearance would not be till the staff of regal power had dropped from the hands of Judah; only, the widest possible diversity exists among those who discover a Messianic reference in the prediction as to the exact significance of the term Shiloh. Some render it his son, or progeny, or (great) descendant, from an imaginary root, , which, after Chaldee and Arabic analogies, is supposed to mean “offspring” (Targum of Jonathan, Kimchi, Calvin, Ainsworth, and others); others, deriving it from , to send, compare it with Siloam (Joh 9:7) and Shiloah (Isa 8:6), and interpret it as qui mittendus eat (Vulgate, Pererius, A Lapide, Grotius); a third class of expositors, connecting it with , to be safe or at rest, view it us a nomen appellatum, signifying the Pacificator, the Rest-giver, the Tranquillizer, the Peace (Luther, Venema, Rosenmller, Hengstenberg, Keil, Gerlach, Murphy, &c.); while a fourth resolve it into , and conjecture it to signify, he to whom it (sc. the scepter or the kingdom) belongs, or he whose right it is, as in Eze 21:27 (LXX; ; Aquila and Symmachus, ; Onkelos, Syriac, Saadias, Targum of Jerusalem, et alii). It seems indisputable that the preponderance of authority is in favor of the last two interpretations, and if be the correct reading, instead of (= = ), as the majority of MSS. attest, it will be difficult to withhold from the former, “the Tranquillizer,” the palm of superiority. The translations of Dathius (quamdiu prolem habebit, ei genres obedient), who professes to follow Guleher, who understands the words as a prophecy of the perpetuity of Judah’s kingdom, fulfilled in David (2Sa 7:1-29.), and of Lange (“until he himself comes home as the Shiloh or Rest-bringer”), who also discerns in Judah a typical foreshadowing of the Messiah, may be mentioned as examples of ingenious, but scarcely convincing, exposition. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Not ” ” (LXX.), ipse erit expectatio gentium (Vulgate), with which also agrees the Syriac, or “to him nations will flock” (Samaritan), (Aquila), but to him, i.e. Shiloh, will be not aggregatio populorum (Calvin), but the submission or willing obedience (a word occurring elsewhere only in Pro 30:17) of nations or peoples (Onkelos, Targum of Jonathan, Kimchi, Aben Ezra, Dathius, Rosenmuller, Keil, Kalisch, Gerlach, Murphy, Tayler Lewis, ‘Speaker’s Commentary’). Binding his foal unto the vine, i.e. not Shiloh, but Judah. The verb has the archaic appended, as in Gen 31:39; Deu 33:16; Zec 11:17and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine. The (fem. of ) was a nobler kind of vine which grew in Syria, with small berries, roundish and of a dark color, with soft and hardly perceptible stones. is an archaic form of the construct stats which occurs only here. He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. The word is a , and is either put by aphaeresis for which occurs in the Samaritan Version, or is derived from , an uncertain root, signifying to cover (Gesenius, Kalisch). His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Otherwise rendered “redder than wine,” and “whiter than milk” (LXX; Vulgate, Targum of Jerusalem, et alii), as a description of Judah’s person, which scarcely seems so appropriate as the received translation (Calvin, Rosenmuller, Keil, Kalisch, Murphy, Lange, and others), which, completes the preceding picture of Judah’s prosperity. Not only would Judah’s soil be so fertile that its vines should be employed for trying asses and colts to their branches, but the grapes of those vines should be so plentiful and luscious as to make wine run like the water in which he washed his clothes, while the wine and milk should be so exhilarating and invigorating as to imp-art a sparkling brilliance to the eyes and a charming whiteness to the teeth. The aged prophet, it has been appropriately remarked, has here no thought of debauchery, but only paints before the mind’s eye a picture of the richest and most ornate enjoyment (Lange). Minime consentaneum esse videtur profusam intemperiem et projectionem in benedictione censeri (Calvin).
Gen 49:13
Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea;not (LXX.), in statione navium (Vulgate), but to, or at, or beside, the. shore (from the idea of being washed by the waters of the ocean) of the waters, i.e. of the Galilean and Mediterranean seasand he shall be for an haven of ships;literally, and he to, at, or on, a shore of ships, i.e. a shore where ships are unloaded (so. shall dwell), the words being a repetition of the previous thought, with only the expansion, suggested by the term ships, that Zebulun’s calling should be in the direction of commerce;and his border shall be unto Zidonliterally, and his side, or hinder part (sc. shall be, or extend), towards, rather than unto,usque ad (Vulgate), (LXX.),Zidon, since the territory subsequently allotted to Zebulun neither actually touched the Mediterranean, nor reached to Zidona circumstance that may be noted as an indirect hint that this prophecy was not spoken, or even first written, after the occupation of the land.
Gen 49:14, Gen 49:15
Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdensliterally, an ass of bonehence a strong, powerful animal, asinus fortis (Vulgate), asinus walidi corporis (Gesenius), asinus robustus (Rosenmuller)lying down between the folds, or cattle-pens, which received and protected the flocks by night, the dual being used probably because such pens were divided into two parts for different kinds of cattle (Gesenius, Keil, Kalisch, Murphy, ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ &c.), though the word mishpetaim has been also rendered (LXX.), inter terminos (Vulgate, Rosenmller), “within their own boundaries” (Onkelos, Targums of Jerusalem and Jonathan), “between two burdens” (A. V; Lange, Murphy, &c.). And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant. Issachar was to manifest a keen appreciation of the land or portion of territory that should be assigned to him, and to renounce the warlike spirit and military enterprises of his brethren for the indolent and luxurious repose of his fat pastures, crouching between his sheep-folds, or rejoicing within his tents, like a lazy ass, capable indeed of mighty efforts, but too self-satisfied to put forth much exertion, devoting himself to agriculture and pastoral pursuits, and preferring rather to pay tribute to his brethren, in order to secure their protection, than to leave his ploughshare and cast aside his shepherd’s crook to follow them into the tented field of war, as the patriarch next describes. And bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tributeor a tributary servant. The phrase , though sometimes used of servitude under a foreign sovereignty (Deu 20:11; Jos 16:10), commonly refers to tribute rendered by labor (1Ki 9:21; 2Ch 8:8), and is correctly rendered (Aquila), factusque est tributo serviens (Vulgate). The translation (LXX.) discovers in the clause an allusion to Issachar’s agricultural pursuits.
Gen 49:16-18
Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. With a play upon his name, the firstborn son of Rachel’s handmaid, Bilhah, is described as one who should occupy an important place and exercise highly beneficial functions in the future commonwealth, enjoying independence and self-government as one of the tribes of Israel (Herder, and others), and performing the office of an administrator among the People not of his own tribe merely, but also of all Israel, a prediction pointing perhaps to the transient supremacy enjoyed by Dan over the other tribes in the days of Samson (Onkelos, et alii). Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. The , from the Syriac , to glide (Gesenins), from , to sting (Kalisch), , to bite (Furst), was the horned serpent, cerastes, of the color of sand, and marked with white and black spots, which was exceedingly dangerous to passers-by, its bite being poisonous and fatal. The allusion has been almost unanimously explained as pointing to Samson (Jdg 16:28), but the tribe in general appears not to have been entirely destitute of the treacherous and formidable characteristics here depicted (Jdg 18:27). “It is certainly observable that the first introduction of idolatry in Israel is ascribed to the tribe of Dan (Jdg 18:1-31.), and that in the numbering of the tribes in Rev 7:1-17 the name of Dan is omitted. From these or other causes many of the Fathers were led to believe that Antichrist should spring from the tribe of Dan” (‘Speaker’s Commentary’). I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. To discover in this beautiful and tender ejaculation of the dying patriarch an apprehensive sigh lest his strength should be exhausted before his benediction was completed (Tuch), or a prayer that God might speedily effect his painless dissolution (Hengstenberg), or a device for dividing his benedictions, and separating the group of Judah from that of Joseph (Lange), is surely to fail in seizing its hidden spirit. It is doubtful if even the usual interpretation, that Jacob here expresses his hope and expectation that God would help and succor his descendants (Calvin, Rosenmller, Keil, Kalisch, Murphy, and others), exhausts its rich significance. That, speaking in their name, he does anticipate the deliverance of Jehovah” In thy help do I hope, O Jehovah!is apparent; but nothing surely can be more natural than to suppose that the dying patriarch, at the moment when he was formally transmitting to his children the theocratic blessing, had his thoughts lifted up towards that great salvation, of which all these material and temporal benedictions pronounced upon his sons were but the shadows and the types, and of which perhaps he had been incidentally reminded by the mention of the biting serpent, to which he had just likened Dan (‘Speaker’s Commentary’). It is noticeable that this is the first occurrence of the term salvation (( noit, from the root , unused in Kal, to be roomy or spacious, hence in the Hiphil to set free or deliver).
Gen 49:19
Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last. The threefold alliteration of the original, which is lost in the received translation, may be thus expressed: “Gada ,press presses him, but he presses the heel’ (Keil); or, “troops shall troop on him, but he shall troop on their retreat’ (‘Speaker’s Commentary’). The language refers to attacks of nomadic tribes which would harass and annoy the Gadites, but which they would successfully repel.
Gen 49:20
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal daintiesliterally, dainties of, or for, the king. The first clause may be otherwise rendered: Of Asher the bread shall be fat (Kalisch); fat shall be his bread (Murphy); Out of Asher (cometh) fat his bread (Keil). The import of the blessing is that Asher should possess a specially productive soil
Gen 49:21
Naphtaii is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. The LXX; followed by Dathe, Michaelis, Ewald, Bohlen, and others, read, Naphtali is a tall terebinth, that putteth forth beautiful boughs; but the word signifies a hind or gazelle, and is here employed, along with the qualifying epithet , let loose, running freely (Keil), or graceful (Kalisch), to depict Naphtali as a beautiful and agile warrior. In the appended clause he is represented as possessing in addition the capacity of “giving words of beauty,” in which may be detected an allusion to the development in eloquence and song which afterwards took place in that northern tribe (Jdg 4:6-9; Jdg 5:1-31).
Gen 49:22-26
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wallliterally, son of a fruit tree, Joseph; son o/a fruit tree at the well; daughters run over the wall. The structure of the clauses, the order of the words, the repetition of the thoughts, supply a glimpse into the fond emotion with which the aged prophet approached the blessing of his beloved son Joseph. Under the image of a fruit tree, probably a vine, as in Psa 80:1-19; planted by a well, whence it draws forth necessary moisture, and, sending forth its young twigs or offshoots over the supporting walls, he pictures the fruitfulness and prosperity which should afterwards attend the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, as the twofold representative of Joseph, with perhaps a backward glance at the service which Joseph had performed in Egypt by gathering up and dispensing the produce of the land for the salvation of his family and people. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated himliterally, they provoked him, and shot at, and laid snares for him, masters of arrows, though Kalisch translates , and they assembled in multitudes, which yields a sense sufficiently clear. It is sometimes alleged (Keil, Lange, ‘Speaker’s Commentary’) that the words contain no allusion to the personal history of Joseph, but solely to the later fortunes of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh; but even if they do point to the subsequent hostilities which Joseph’s descendants should incur (Jos 17:16-18; Jdg 12:4-6), it is almost morally certain that the image of the shooting archers which he selects to depict their adversaries was suggested to his mind by the early lot of his beloved son (Calvin, Rosenmller, Kalisch, Gerlach, Murphy, and others). But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. Notwithstanding the multitudinous and fierce assaults which had been made on Joseph, he had risen superior to his adversaries; his bow had continued firm and unbroken (cf. 1Sa 2:4; Job 12:19; Job 33:19), and his arms had been rendered active and flexibleneither , (LXX.), dissoluta sunt vincula brachiorum et manuum (Vulgate), as if Joseph’s enemies were the subjects referred to; nor, “Therefore gold was placed upon his arms (Onkelos, Raehi, and others), referring to the gift of Pharaoh’s ringby the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, i.e. God, who had proved himself to be Jacob’s Mighty One by the powerful protection vouchsafed to his servant The title here ascribed to God occurs afterwards in Isa 1:24. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. If the clause is parenthetical, it may signify either that from the time of Joseph’s exaltation he became the shepherd (who sustained) and the stone of (i.e. the rock which supported) Israel (Oleaster); or that from God, the Mighty One of Jacob, Joseph received strength to become the shepherd and stone of Israel (Pererius, Ainsworth, Lawson, Patrick, and others), in which capacity he served as a prefiguration of the Good Shepherd who was also to become the Rock or Foundation of his Church (Calvin, Pererius, Candiish, &c.); but if the clause is rather co-ordinate with that which precedes and that which follows, as the introductory particle appears to suggest, then the words “shepherd and stone of Israel” will apply to God, and the sentiment will be that the hands of Joseph were made strong from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, from there (i.e. from there where is, or from him who is) the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel (Keil, Kalisch, Murphy, Gerlach, Lange, et alii). Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee (literally, from the (led of thy father, and he shall help thee, i.e. who shall help thee); and by the Almighty, who shall bless theeliterally, and with (sc. the aid of) the Almighty, and he shall bless thee. It is unnecessary to change . into (LXX; Vulgate, Samaritan, Syriac, Ewald), or to insert before , as thus, (Knobel, Rosenmller, Kalisch), since may be understood here, as in Gen 4:1; Gen 5:24, in the sense of helpful communion (Keil)with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. “From the God of Jacob, and by the help of the Almighty, should the rain and dew of heaven (Gen 27:28), and fountains and brooks which spring from the great deep or the abyss of the earth, pour their fertilizing waters over Joseph’s land, so that everything that had womb and breast should become pregnant, bring forth and suckle” (Keil). The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. The meaning is, according to this rendering, which some adopt (the Targums, Vulgate, Syriac, Saadias, Rosenmller, Lange, Murphy, et alii), that the blessings which Jacob pronounced upon Joseph surpassed those which he himself had received from Abraham and Isaac, either as far as the primary mountains towered above the earth (Keil, Murphy), or, while exceeding the benedictions of his ancestors, those now delivered by himself would last while the hills endured (Rosenmller, ‘Speaker’s Commentary’). But the words may be otherwise rendered: “The blessings of thy father prevail over, are mightier than the blessings of the mountains of eternity, the delight, or glory, or loveliness of the hills of eternity (LXX; Dathe, Michaelis, Gesenius, Bohlen, Kalisch, Gerlach, and others); and in favor of this may be adduced the beautiful parallelism between the last two clauses, which the received translation overlooks. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethrenliterally, of him, the separated from his brethren (Onkelos, Rashi, Rosenmller, Keil, and others), though by some different renderings are preferred, as, e.g; the crowned among his brethren (LXX. Syriac, Targum of Jerusalem, Kimchi, Kalisch, Gerlach), taking nazir to signify he who wears the nezer, or royal diadem.
Gen 49:27
Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf (literally, a wolf, he shall tear in pieces): in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. The prediction alludes to the warlike character of the tribe of Benjamin, which was manifested in Ehud the judge (Jdg 3:15), and Saul the king of Israel (1Sa 11:6-11; 1Sa 14:13, 1Sa 14:15, 1Sa 14:47, 1Sa 14:48), who both sprang from Rachel’s younger son.
Gen 49:28
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel (the underlying thought is that in blessing his sons Jacob was really blessing the future tribes): and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them (i.e. every one received his own appropriate benediction).
Gen 49:29, Gen 49:30
And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people (vide on Gen 15:15): bury me with my fathersthus laying on them the injunction he had previously, with the super-added solemnity of an oath, laid on Joseph (Gen 47:29-31)in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mature, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place (vide Gen 23:16-20). Jacob had learnt from his father and had carefully preserved all the details relating to the purchase of their family sepulcher. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. From this it would appear that Leah had not descended into Egypt.
Gen 49:32
The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. Kalisch connects the present verse with the 30th, and reads Gen 49:31 as a parenthesis.
Gen 49:33
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed (having on the arrival of Joseph strengthened himself and sat up upon the bed, probably with his feet overhanging its edge), and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people (vide on Gen 25:8; Gen 35:29).
HOMILETICS
Gen 49:1-33
The patriarchal blessing, or the last words of Jacob,
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.
4. 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.
5. 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”That though the child of a secondary wife, his descendants should attain to the position of an independent and self-governing tribe””Dan 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 Jehovaha 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Gen 49:1-33
Last words.
Jacob’s benediction on his sons was a prophetic treasure, to be kept in store by future generations, and a foundation on which much faith could afterwards be built.. It has been called “the last full bloom of patriarchal prophecy and theocratic promise.” The central point, the blessing on the royal tribe of Judah. The corresponding eminence being given to Joseph. The Israel blessing to the one, the Jacob blessing to the other. In each case we distinguish
1. The earthly basis of the blessing in the tribe itself.
2. The nearest fulfillments of it in the temporal history.
3. The symbolical import pointing to a remoter fulfillment.
We may compare the many dying scenes of the Bible with this; as the last words of Isaac, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Simeon, Stephen, Paul, Peter, and the apocalyptic visions of John. Compare especially the song of Moses, and the prophecy of Balaam. It seems possible that the beautiful exclamation, verse 18, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord,” was intended to form a kind of middle point, separating the groups of blessings into one of seven, and another of five. The first group has a Messianic character, the second a wider, cosmopolitan. In the first, Judah, the royal tribe, represents the theocracy. In the second, Joseph, the link of connection between Israel and Egypt, represents the kingdom of Christ becoming the universal kingdom, from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. The whole is a typical representation of “Israel” in the higher sense.
1. It comes out of sinful human nature.
2. It is developed by the grace of God in human history.
3. It stands upon the Divine order of the twelve tribes, the revealed truth, and the Divinely sanctioned religions life and institutions.
4. The essential dement in the history, is the Messiah coming out o/Judah, the shepherd of Israel, the stone of help out of Joseph, the Nazarite, the tried man, the blessed one.
5. The kingdom of Christ is the universal blessedness of the world. When Jacob has handed on his blessing to his heirs, he gathers up his feet into the bed, yields up the ghost, and is gathered to his people. When the carnal Israel is done with, the spiritual Israel remains. When the promises of God shall be fulfilled, then there shall be no more concern with the earthly pilgrimage. “The blessings prevail unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.”R.
HOMILIES BY F. HASTINGS
Gen 49:8-12
Judah’s portion.
“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise,” etc. This dying vision and the utterances of the dying patriarch seem in harmony with all the surroundings in this part of the sacred record. The aged Jacob is dying. He has passed through such changes, such trials and successes, has had such seasons of depression and of exultation, but now his soul is filled with rapture at what will be the future of his children. He saw how he would live in his children, A man should not be indifferent to his name dying out. Some are, but only such as are not of intense nature. As a man nearing the close of life, great importance was attached, by his son, to his utterances. On a farewell festive occasion, Isaac partook of venison before giving his blessing to Jacob and Esau. Jacob called all his sons together, as he was dying, and seems to have had supernatural strength given to utter so many and distinct prophecies. He knew the individual character of his sons, and so could better foretell, almost apart from Divine inspiration, what would be their future. The words uttered on the borders of the other land seemed necessarily inspired. Such a man as Jacob would no more pass away, if possible, without such utterances, than would a millionaire think of dying without a will. No mere offspring of a disordered brain, or over-excited imagination, were these words. They were actual prophecies. Jacob was not only a patriarch, but a prophet. He speaks under the influence of the God of his fathers (Gen 48:15), and the future bore out what he had foretold. We wish to consider chiefly the utterances concerning one tribe, Judah.
I. A PROPHECY OF POWER. His enemies were “to flee before him,” &c. As victor he lays his hands on their necks, that they may be subject and yet live. His brethren were to acknowledge his power. He is to be as a young lion in agility, and as an old lion with the strength of years remaining, whom none will dare to anger. All this seems to be the glorification of mere physical power. Spiritual power is to be desired above the physical. And this we have in Christ.
II. A PROPHECY OF PRECEDENCY. Jacob seems to have come at last upon the one for whom he was seeking. He speaks of Judah as one whom his brethren shall praise. This is said to be “a play upon the name, Judah, as meaning one who is celebrated.” And the name of Judah was accepted afterwards by the whole nation. We should have thought that if the firstborn, Reuben, had not been placed first, Joseph would have been. Judah’s character, however, was more noble in some things even than that of Joseph. He did not delight in the wrong-doing of the brethren. Jacob may in his mind have blamed Joseph, in that he had not sought to know whether his father was alive before circumstances of death drove aim to know of his still being alive. Judah was always ever ready to sacrifice himself, to be bound for his brother. There seems to have been much that was noble in him. Hence, we can understand, in a measure, the precedency accorded to him. Precedency is not to be sought for its own sake. It is then only another form of vanity. When precedency is forced on men, it is because their worth and their usefulness to others is recognized by others, although not by themselves. How remarkable it is that God often selected the younger before the elder, e.g. Abel, Jacob, Moses, David. Judah is taken before Reuben. A lesson evidently taught in this, viz; that God is no respecter of persons, that he seeth not as man seeth, that the course of spiritual feeling does not always follow the line of birth.
III. PROPHECY OF PERMANENCY. This permanency was comparative in one sense and actual in another. Judah lasted longer than any of the tribes as a distinct power, and, since Christ came of that tribe, may be said to be permanent still. Who thinks of Naphtali, or Zebulun, or Issachar? but Judah is a name most familiar. The “scepter” is the sheik’s staff, which, like a marshal’s baton, indicates his right to lead. Judah was to lead, and to give the law until Shiloh came; and he did. Shiloh evidently points to the Messiah. It is a mystic name (comp. Gen 48:16; Psa 9:6; Psa 11:1). Some render this passage, “Until he [Judah] comes as the rest-giver;” others, “until he comes to whom it belongs.” Christ is the only rightful rest-giver, and to him alone belongs all honor and praise. We see that the aim of God with respect to the descendants of Jacob was to provide a race which should keep alive a knowledge of God in the world until the Messiah should come. When that race had fulfilled this mission, it dropped into line with the rest of the nations. It is no longer to lead. We see that as ten tribes were broken off by Jeroboam from Judah, they were carried captive by the Assyrians, and with that nation swallowed up in oblivion, never, probably, to be known of again. And so with the Jews; they no longer lead. Although still retaining much that is distinctive, they will gradually, we believe, assimilate with other nations, and, accepting Christ, be one with other Christians in that one fold of mercy he has provided. Christ unites us to God and to others, breaks clown middle walls of partition, gives to us also “life eternal,” so that when this life shall fail, we shall be received into “everlasting habitations,” and know as real a permanency as that of Judah.
IV. PROPHECY OF PROSPERITY. In the eleventh verse, Jacob indicates the sort of territory Judah will have,one rich in vineyards and olive yards. He foretells his prosperity during the period intervening between the prophecy and the advent of Shiloh. The twelfth verse means, that “his eyes should be redder than wine,” i.e. brilliant with joy. The words “white as milk” refer to purity as well as prosperity. Both are found in Christ. True joy and purity shall draw souls to Christ. “Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” His truth has “the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” How much that is foretold of Judah is only typical of Jesus. He is the true conqueror, ruler, object of praise. He is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev 5:5), the “desire of all nations” (Hag 2:7), the one who if lifted up would draw all unto him (Joh 12:32), the one in whom all the children of God are to be gathered in one (Joh 11:52).
Learn
1. We find much to confirm faith in the way in which the prophecy of Jacob was fulfilled.
2. We find much to lead us to seek to be in Christ, through whom Judah obtained such blessings antecedently.
3. We find something to lead us to ask as to whether we have grown in purity, power, and whether our souls prosper and are in health.H.
HOMILIES BY J.F. MONTGOMERY
Gen 49:10
The coming of Shiloh.
Remarkable agreement of ancient interpreters, Jewish as well as Christian, to consider this a prophecy of Messiah. The former of special value, as being before the event. The Targum of Onkelos renders the passage, “until Messiah comes, whose is the kingdom.” Many others equally distinct. Some have observed that the words, “Shiloh shall come,” make in Hebrew the same number as the name “Messiah.” Ancient Christian writers all take the same view. The name Shiloh expresses rest or peace. Observe how this answers the need of man. Sin brought the curse of labor (Genesis ill 17-19), and unrest (Isa 57:20, Isa 57:21), and want of peace. Hence the frequent mention of rest, which, however, was only typical and temporary (Heb 4:8). Hence the common salutation, “Peace be unto you.” And rest and peace are ours through the coming of Christ (Mat 11:28; Joh 10:28; Rom 8:38).
I. THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL A PREPARATION FOR THE COMING OF CHRIST, The moral law convincing of sin (Gal 3:24). The ceremonial law foreshadowing restoration (Heb 10:1).; the prophets declaring God’s purpose, arid the person and work of Christ; the dispersion by the captivity, bringing the people into contact with other nations, and thus preparing for a universal Church; their sufferings and state of subjection after their return, keeping alive the expectation of “Messiah, the prince.”
II. THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD A PREPARATION FOE CHRIST. The colonizing instinct of the Greeks making their language almost universal; the contact of Greek and Jewish learning at Alexandria and elsewhere, by which the heathen language was made capable of expressing Divine truth; the widespread power and organization of the Romans, by which in so many ways the fulfillment of prophecy was brought about (Luk 2:1; Joh 19:36, Joh 19:37).
III. FOR WHAT SHILOH SHOULD COME. To gather all nations unto himself (Isa 2:2, Isa 2:3; Joh 11:52; Joh 12:32). To redeem mankind, both Jews and Gentiles (Psa 49:15; Isa 35:4-10; Joh 10:16; Gal 4:5). To bear the sins of mankind (Isa 35:1-10 :11, 12; 2Co 5:14; 1Pe 2:24). To teach his people the way of life (Deu 18:15; Mat 11:27; Joh 4:25). To reign over his people (Dan 2:44; Rev 11:15). To give them victory (Psa 44:5; 1Jn 5:4; Rev 12:11).
IV. LESSON OF ENCOURAGEMENT. Why doubt God’s acceptance of thee? or his readiness to help? Mark his desire that all should be saved (Eze 18:1-32 :82; 1Ti 2:4). Mark how this is the ruling principle running through the whole Bible. The work of Christ was no newly devised thing, but “that which was from the beginning” (1Pe 1:20). All our imperfections, all our weakness of faith is known to God, yet such as we are, he bids us trust in Christ’s work. Judah himself was a very imperfect character. His descendants not less so. Yet of them the text was spoken. 66 Be not afraid, only believe.”M.
HOMILIES BY W. ROBERTS
Gen 49:18
God’s salvation.
I. WHAT IT IS. Deliverance from evil, succor against foes, victory over sin and death.
II. WHENCE IT COMES. The primal fountain is Jehovah, the covenant God of the believer. The salvation of the gospel is God’s in its original conception and proclamation, in its subsequent procurement and donation, in its ultimate development and consummation.
III. HOW IT IS OBTAINED. Not by merit, or by works, but by believing, and waiting, and hoping. “He that believeth shall be saved.” “The Lord loveth them that hope in his mercy.” “It is good for a man both to hope, and to quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”W.
Gen 49:18
A dying saint’s exercise.
I. ADORATION. “O Lord!” Jehovah the God of redemption, the supreme object of worship.
II. MEDITATION. “Thy salvation!” What a theme for the thoughts to dwell on God’s salvation in its origin, in its greatness, in its freeness, &c.
III. EXPECTATION. “For thy salvation do I hope.” Hope is the expectation of fixture good, and presupposes faith as its ground-work and support.W.
Gen 49:26
The separated one, or Joseph a type of Christ.
Joseph was separated from his brethren
I. IN HIS FATHER‘S AFFECTIONS. Jacob loved him more than any of his other sons. So was Christ the only-begotten and well-beloved Son of the Father.
II. IN HIS PERSONAL CHARACTER. Joseph brought unto Jacob the evil report that he heard circulating about his brethren, thus proving that he had no sympathy with their wicked ways. So Christ was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from Sinners.”
III. IN HIS HEAVENLY COMMUNICATIONS. Joseph was favored above his brethren in being made the recipient of dreams, and the depositary, as it were, of Divine secrets. And Christ received not the Spirit by measure, so that of him it could be said, No man knoweth the Father but the Son.
IV. IN HIS EVIL FORTUNES. Joseph was hated, sold, and practically given over to death by his brethren. So was Christ not only despised and rejected by his brethren, but separated from all mankind in the character of his sufferings and death.
V. IN HIS FUTURE EXALTATION. Joseph became the governor of Egypt, and the savior of his family. And Christ after his resurrection was exalted to be a Prince, and a Savior for mankind.W.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Gen 49:1. Called Jacob, sensible that his last hour drew near, and having made an end of blessing Joseph’s two sons, as is related at length in the preceding chapter, now calls all his sons together, that he may take his farewel of them.
That which shall befall you We have in Scripture many instances of fathers summoning their children, or magistrates the people under their charge, to attend to their last words, ch. Gen 27:4. 1Ki 2:1. Joshua 23; Joshua 24. where the declarations, except in the case of Isaac, are to be regarded rather as prayers for their posterity, or as directions for their conduct, than in the light of prophecies. But, in the remarkable prophecy before us, we have, as it were, an epitome of the history of the most extraordinary nation that ever existed, for near the space of fifteen hundred years. We have facts so remote, and some of them so extraordinary, foretold in it, that, as they are infinitely beyond the penetration of human sagacity, they must be allowed by every fair inquirer, when he sees how exactly they were fulfilled, to have been dictated by the unerring Spirit of GOD.
An opinion prevailed very early in the world, that the soul, when it was near departing from the body, acquired a presaging faculty. Socrates and his disciples seem to have been persuaded of the truth of it, as we are informed by Plato and Xenophon; and Tully relates many instances in proof of it, and cites Homer to that effect. Whether this was a popular notion in Jacob’s time, it is not material to inquire: it is highly probable, however, that his sons, who were well acquainted with the intercourse there had been between GOD and their fathers, were persuaded that their parent’s voice was to them at that juncture, as the oracles of God, and that they gave credit to it accordingly.
In the last days In after-times. The phrase in the end of days, is not used for time which is immediately coming on, but only for a remote future time, as will appear on consulting Num 24:14. Deu 4:30; Deu 31:29. Dan 2:28; Dan 10:14. And as none of Jacob’s children, or any of his descendants, till the fourth or fifth generation, possessed the portions assigned them, we may infer from the event, that by these words we are to understand the time which passed from the settling of the Israelites in Canaan to their general dissolution as distinct tribes.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
TENTH SECTION
Jacobs blessing of his sons. Judah and his brethren. Jacobs last arrangements. His burial in Canaan. His death.
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 fathers 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 fathers children shall bow down 9before thee. Judah is a lions 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 asss 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. Zebuluns 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 Judahs destiny. In the natural order, Naphtali would have come next; but the blessing includes both the two sons of Leahs handmaid, Gad and Asher, between the sons of Rachels 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 Israels 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 archers 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, , literally, at the end of the days, that is, in the last time, (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 Josephs 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, Jacobs testamentary provision for his burial (Gen 49:28-33).
[Excursus.Jacobs 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 truthfulnessto say nothing now of its inspiration, or its veritable prophetic charactergives 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, clairvoyantcall 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 manflitting 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 lightthe 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 (, 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 Judahs late noble conduct had done much to draw the fathers 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 kinsmanshipafford 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 (rendered secret) of Jdg 13:18, the Wonderful, 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 , the rulers 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 (Judi) 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 (Judi) 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 seers mind, without regarding it as occupied with any precise historical dates or dynasties, contemplated merely in their political aspects. Until here ( ) 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 patriarchs 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 spoilall 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 Jehovahs 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 Lords 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 individuals consciousness, yet most mysteriously representing to him the voice of God, he uncovers the strange duality of the human soul, and brings out the monarchs 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 prophets interview with the self-forgetting king is unsurpassed by anything in the worlds 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 partsuch inconsistent, unmeaning lying, tooand then palming it off as an old prophecy! Incredible! We could not believe it of the most scoffing Sadducee of Jacobs 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 worlds 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, .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, . For other interpretations see Knobel. This trait of character is immediately explained:Because thou wentest up to thy fathers 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 priesthooda 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 (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 Gods 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 Reubens 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 nations 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 as denoting malicious and crafty purpose, marriage proposals, etc., an explanation that seems not easy.1Into 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.2Unto 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 significantly chosen, as also the verb . 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 Levis 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 , 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 fathers children.All of them; not merely thy mothers sons, but all thy brethren.A lions whelp. is to be distinguished from 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 , 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 tribesa figure of the young lion.?The sceptre shall not depart from Judah.The sceptre is the mark of royal power. The rulers staff, , seems, from the parallelism, to express the same thing. The word denotes that which establishes, makes laws; hence the rulers staff. Here, however, is meant the staff or mace of the warrior chief; and so it would be the ducal, or field-marshals staff. In correspondence with this the term (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 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.4Until Shiloh come.[Lange translates, until he (Judah) comes home as the restgiver.] The expression does not denote the temporal terminus where Judahs 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 is the abstract for the concrete (see the verb ), 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, Schrder, Keil and others, as also Hofmann, according to his later view. Modifications: a. It is from filius, and , and so means his son (see, on the contrary, Keil); b. the word stands for = ; 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, , or (according to Aquila and others); the Vulgate, qui mittendus est, from the supposition of another verb (); 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. Knobels view: until they rest () comes, and to it shall the obedience of the people be; 3. typical interpretations: a. Until he comes to rest (Hofmanns 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 . 3. There is finally the interpretation , 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. 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 as in apposition with the subject Judah, may be found in Zec 9:9 : Thy king cometh unto thee, just (a righteous one), 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).5Binding 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 winethat 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 debaucheryjust 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 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 ( ) 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 tribes 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 may stand poetically for (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 fabul 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 Phnician 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 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 daughtersits twigsrun over the garden wall. The word contains an allusion to Ephraim. Other interpretations see in Knobel ( = 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. Jacobs 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., Vulgate, which the LXX had changed into , mountains. The word here does not mean desire, but limit, from . 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 relationsin his personal consecration, as well as in his historical dignity.
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. Judahs 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 (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 Levis 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 Reubens , 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. JudahShiloh. In Isaacs 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 lions lair. To the same wide extent goes the warlike leadership, whose rulers staff, then, is naturally a marshals 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, (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 warriors 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 helpthy 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. Josephs 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 Lords 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, preminently, as a prophet of God.The words of the dying are oftentimes of greatest weight.Schrder: 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 lifes 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 49:3-7a. 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.Schrder: 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.Schrder: 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.) Jacobs 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. Issachars 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).Schrder: 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 serpents 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.Jacobs 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.) Jacobs 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).Schrder: (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.Schrder: 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.Schrder: 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 ones fathers, friends, etc.; a desire for this is not wrong; yet still the earth is all the Lords.Schrder: He saw death coming, and lays himself down to die, as one goes to sleep.10
Footnotes:
[1][. 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 , 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, their swords.T. L.]
[2][For verunreinigt in Lange, read veruneinigt.T. L.]
[3][ . Our English version, digged down a Wall, is clearly wrong, as, to make that sense, it should have been besides, 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 to Hamor alone. It is a general termman they slew, ox they hamstrungeverything fell before their ferocity.T. L.]
[4][ means obedience, reverence, and not gathering, as the Targums and Jewish commentators give it. This is evident from Pro 30:17, , where it denotes filial piety, as also from the Arabic root 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. Turners excellent commentary, modestly entitled, A Companion to the Book of Genesis, pp. 371388, especially his comparison of the Jewish Targums and the old versions.T. L.]
[6][ . The difficulty all vanishes if we read, with the Samaritan codex, (the slightest of variations, for ). The LXX and Vulgate have evidently followed it pulchriores sunt oculi. Compare , Eze 28:12; , 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 Homers really fine comparison. The ignoble view of the animal has had the same effect in making an offendiculum of our Saviours 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][. 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 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, , 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 Jacobs 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 Josephs 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 Dans 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 Jacobs. 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, Jacobs God a great idea, and Jacobs 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, , he turns into , and interprets it as meaning sun-god (Sonnengott, or Gott des Strahls). Jacob himself is only a Schutzgottheit, die verschiedenen Stmme 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.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
At length we arrive to that point which forms the period of all things here below: and we are brought to the conclusion of the Patriarch Jacob’s history. This Chapter relates the memorable circumstances of his dying moments. He convenes his children all around him, and under the spirit of prophecy declares to them, as the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel, what would distinguish their families in the last days. Having finished his prophecy and blessed them, and given commandment concerning his burial, the dying Patriarch gathers up his feet into the bed, and yields up the ghost.
Gen 49:1
The Reader will not overlook, I hope, Him whom the Patriarch here typified, nor need my reminding him of that precious conference the dying JESUS held in the midst of his family. Joh 17:1Joh 17:1 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 49:4
The verse which Ruskin once, in a mood of depression, thought was most suitable for his own epitaph.
‘The public men of the times which followed the Restoration were by no means deficient in courage or ability; and some kinds of talent appear to have been developed amongst them to a remarkable degree…. Their power of reading things of high import, in signs which to others were invisible or unintelligible, resembled magic. But the curse of Reuben was upon them all: “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel”.’
Macaulay’s Essay on Sir William Temple.
Reuben
Gen 49:4
St. John of the Cross remarks on this text: ‘The Patriarch Jacob compared his son Reuben to unstable water, because in certain sins he had given rein to his appetite, and he said, ” Effusus es sicut aqua, non crescas “; unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. It is as if he had said, because in thy appetites thou art unstable as water, thou shalt not excel in virtue. As hot water, when it is not covered, easily loses its heat, and as aromatic spices when they are exposed to the air gradually lose the fragrance and strength of their smell, so the soul which is not concentrated on the love of God alone loses warmth and vigour in virtue.’
Subida del Monte Carmelo, Book I. Chapter X.
References. XLIX. 4. M. Anderson, Penny Pulpit, No. 1572, p. 209. J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 252. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 158.
Simeon and Levi: Bad Brothers
Gen 49:5
I. Simeon and Levi Constituted an Unholy Brotherhood. Evidently Jacob does not refer simply to physical brotherhood. A deeper community, a more real brotherhood is here asseverated; when Jacob says ‘Simeon and Levi are brethren,’ he means that they are brethren in disposition. What was their common disposition? We shall see somewhat of detail presently, meanwhile remember that they were passionate, headstrong, cruel, deceitful, revengeful, uncontrolled.
II. Simeon and Levi had Unhallowed Belongings.
( a ) They had sinful homes. Their habitations would not bear inspection. Many ‘instruments’ were necessary in their habitations, but what business had they with ‘instruments of cruelty’ there? I am afraid there are very questionable instruments in some habitations. Is there not a book or two which ought no longer to defile your library? Is there no picture which should be banished? There are homes which need a periodical moral cleaning.
( b ) ‘Weapons of violence are their swords’ is the R. V. reading. So Simeon and Levi are charged with having perverted instrumentalities. Their swords were legitimate weapons. The original intention of the sword was defence or at most righteous aggression. Simeon and Levi used their swords to perpetrate a wrong on others, not to save themselves from wrong. They transformed a legitimate weapon into a weapon of violence.
III. Simeon and Levi’s Evil case drew from their Father a Godly and Reasonable Prayer. ‘O my soul,’ cries Jacob, ‘come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall.’ Reviewing the sinful courses of these two sons the dying father prays. Jacob prays concerning his soul. Jacob gives up a lofty conception of the soul when he terms it ‘his honour’. It is a wonderful thing that in these early days of the world a man had such a vision of the worth of the soul.
IV. Jacob uttered a Righteous Imprecation upon Simeon and Levi’s Sin. ‘Cursed be their anger for it was fierce; and their wrath for it was cruel.’ Their father did not curse them, but their sin. Jacob does not imprecate all anger but such as is ‘fierce’ and ‘cruel’. Fierceness and cruelty are very remote from Christianity.
V. A Just Judgment was Pronounced upon Simeon and Levi. ‘I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel,’ exclaims the departing patriarch. Simeon and Levi were not to attain to political consequence, nor did their tribes or descendants. Divided and scattered! That was the righteous judgment of this evil brotherhood.
Dinsdale T. Young, Neglected People of the Bible, p. 41.
References. XLIX. 8-12. J. Monro-Gibson, The Age Before Moses, p. 219. XLIX. 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx. No. 1157. O. Stanford, The Symbols of Christ, p. 35.
Gen 49:14
‘When I look at the great middle class of this country, and see all that it has done, and see the political position in which it has been to some extent content to rest, I cannot help saying that it reminds me very much of the language which the ancient Hebrew patriarch addressed to one of his sons. He said: “Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens”.’
John Bright at Manchester, 1866.
References. XLIX. 15. A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv. XLIX. 18. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 101. M. Rainsford, The Fulness of God, p. 17.
Christian Fruitfulness
Gen 49:22
I. The Christian in his union with Christ is as a bough. The words of our Lord Jesus which we read just now are these, ‘I am the vine; ye are the branches’ ye are the boughs. ( a ) This suggests to us first of all the reality which exists between Christ and His people. You cannot tear the branch from the tree without injuring the tree as much as you injure the branch; they are part and parcel each of the other. So you cannot touch our union with Christ but you hurt both Him and us. ( b ) But this suggests not only the reality of our union with Christ, but the absoluteness of our dependence upon Christ. What can the branch do without the tree? How can it exist at all but as it is sustained by the tree? Just so is our union with Christ. ‘Without Me,’ he says, ‘ye can do nothing.’ Just as the bough cannot live without the tree so we cannot exist without Christ.
II. In the outcome of the union with Christ the Christian is as a fruitful bough. If you go into the woods now you will see trees pretty much of a muchness, and the branches on the trees are very much alike. But wait you a month or two, while the spring buds begin to appear, and you will find that, while all the rest of the tree is covered with beautiful foliage, here and there will be obtruding themselves from among the rest mere black sticks, which have no vital union with the tree, though they keep up their respectable appearance as far they can as branches, and will presently be lopped off by the woodman and taken away to be burned. There are lots of people in our churches just like that. All through the winter time they pass muster very well as members. As long as there is no revival they manage to go in and out among the rest, and look very much like them; but let the time of the singing birds come, let the time when the noise of the turtle is heard in the land come, when Zion begins to awake from the dust and shake fiercely from the bands of her neck when the sun begins to shine and revigorates the dying Church, and ye will soon find who they are who live and who they are who have died.
III. In the secret of his spiritual support the Christian is as a fruitful bough by a well. That figure suggests some very precious truths to us; I see in the well what? That by which the tree lives, certainly, and therefore I see in it all the fullness of the Deity. I see in the tree what? That through which the branch lives. I see the love of Christ, the one mediator between God and man. I see therefore that every branch in the tree, having direct intercourse with the deep well through the tree, must live as long as the tree itself lasts.
In the higher attainments of the Christian life the Christian is a fruitful bough by a well, ‘whose branches run over the wall’. What wall? There is a wall which divides the Church from the world today. Would you be like your Master? He is called the Branch. There was a time when from the highest glory He looked down upon this poor world of ours looked over the heaven’s wall and saw us in our low estate. From yonder heaven he shook the fruits of redemption down, which we have been gathering up, and the Christian has not done his duty until he has let his branches run over the wall of the Church.
W. H. Burton, The Penny Pulpit, No. xiii.
References. XLIX. 22. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxv. No. 2113. XLIX. 23,24. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Genesis, p. 286. Bishop Bickersteth, Sermons, p. 202. A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 72. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i. No. 17. XLIX. 24. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Genesis, p. 295; ibid. Morning by Morning, p. 53. A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 81. XLIX. 25. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2531. XLIX. 29. H. N. Powers, American Pulpit of Today, vol. iii. p. 104. XLIX. 33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii. No. 783. XLIX. F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 175. L. 12,13. F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 187. L. 14-26. A Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Genesis, p. 305. L. 15-21. A. Maclaren, Sermons (4th Series), p. 176. L. 19, 21. J. Bowstead, Practical Sermons, vol. i. p. 48. L. 24-26. F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 191. W. Bull, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi. p. 371.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Last Days of Jacob
Genesis 47-49
We have seen Jacob a runaway, a stranger, a hireling, and a prince having power with God. His deceptions, his dreams, his prayers, his visions, are now closing; and the sunset is not without gorgeousness and solemnity. Every sunset should make us pray or sing; it should not pass without leaving some sacred impression upon the mind. The dying sun should be a teacher of some lesson, and mystery, and grace of providence. We shall now see Jacob as we have never seen him before. Who can tell but in the splendours of the sunset we shall see some points and qualities which have been heretofore concealed? Some men do seem to live most in their dying; we see more of them in the last mysterious hour than we have seen in a lifetime; more goodness, more feeling after God, more poignant and vehement desire for things heavenly and eternal. How is this to be accounted for? Base hypocrisy is not the explanation. We may be too ready to find in hypocrisy the explanation of death-bed experiences. Is there not a more excellent way, a finer, deeper, truer answer to the enigma of that sacred and most tragical moment? Who can tell what sights are beaming on the soul, what new courage is being breathed into the heart, timid through many a weary year? Who can tell what the dying see? We have yet to die! Even Christ was revealed by the Cross. We had not known Christ without the crucifixion. The agony came into his prayer when the trouble came into his soul.
The history is a simple one, yet with wondrous perspective. Seventeen years did Israel dwell in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen, and when he was a hundred and forty and seven years old, the time drew nigh that Israel must die. Who can fight the army of the Years? Those silent soldiers never lose a war. They fire no base cannon, they use no vulgar steel, they strike with invisible but irresistible hands. Noisy force loses something by its very noise. The silent years bury the tumultuous throng. We have all to be taken down. The strongest tower amongst us, heaven-reaching in its altitude, must be taken down a stone at a time, or shaken with one rude shock to the level ground: man must die. Israel had then but one favour to ask. So it comes to us all. We who have spent a lifetime in petitioning for assistance have at the last but one request to make. “Take me,” said one of England’s brightest wits in his dying moments, “to the window that I may feel the morning air.” “Light, more light,” said another man greater still, expressing some wondrous necessity best left as a mystery. “Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt,” said dying Jacob to his son Joseph, “but bury me in the burying-place of my fathers.” What other heaven had the Old Testament man? The graveyard was a kind of comfort to him. He must be buried in a given place marked off and sacredly guarded. He had not lived up into that universal humanity which says All places are consecrated, and every point is equally near heaven with every other point, if so be God dig the grave and watch it. By-and-by we shall hear another speech in the tone of Divine revelation; by-and-by we shall get rid of these localities, and limitations, and prisons, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah will open up some wider space of thought, and contemplation, and service. With Joseph’s oath dying Jacob was satisfied.
Now we come upon family scenes. Joseph will have his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim blessed, and for so sweet an office Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed. What hints of life’s mystery are there! The courteous old gentleman strengthened himself when he heard that princely Joseph was coming with his sons. How we can whip ourselves up to one other effort! How we can just blow the smouldering embers into a little flash and flame one last sparkle! the effort of desperation. Now the old man will tell his life-story over We wonder how he will begin, and where. It is a delicate matter to be autobiographical. Jacob is about to look backwards, and to relate the story of his own earthly career. Where will he begin? There are some graves we dare not rip open. What will he tell Joseph about his own early life? To the last he is a kind of inspired schemer; to the last he knows where to draw boundary lines, how to make introductions and exceptions. He will tell about the old blind Isaac? No. He will say how he ran away from Esau whom he had supplanted? No. What will he say then by way of beginning? He will begin at the second birth. That is where we, too, are called to begin. Do not celebrate the old natural fleshly birthday that was in reality death-day. Jacob will begin where he himself truly began to be, “God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me.” What a subtle narrator! What a gift in history! Not a word about the old homestead and old doings; but beginning with regeneration, when he threw off the old man and started up though with some rudeness of outline needing infinite discipline into a brighter, larger self. This is a mystery in Providence as revealing itself in the consciousness of the redeemed and sanctified soul. We should be in perpetual despair if we went back to our very earliest doings, and bound ourselves within the prison of our merely fleshly and earthly memories. Each of us has had a Luz in his way. Surely every soul calling itself in any degree right with God, or right in its desires at least towards God, has had a vision-place and a vision-hour, a place so sacred that other places were forgotten in its memory: an hour so bright that all earlier hours absorbed their paler rays in its ineffable effulgence. Now are we the sons of God. We began our true life when God began his life within the soul. So this well-skilled autobiographer will say nothing about other times. God himself has promised never to mention them to us. He says, Come, now, and we will gather up the sins as into one great stone, and plunge it into the infinite depths, and the billows shall keep it concealed for ever. We must not drag back the memory to days of murder, dissipation, blasphemy, and all wickedness. We begin our life where God began the life of the soul. Now, being free at the beginning, Jacob is eloquent. After getting over some sentences how the soul can flow away in easy copious speech! He told how Rachel died in the land of Canaan when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath, and how he buried her in the way and set a pillar upon her grave which he meant to stand evermore, thinking that all ages must weep over the woman whose soul departed as she travailed in birth with Benoni. Heedless ages! The pillars of the dead have no sanctity in their cold eyes, yet it does us good to think that many will cry about the spots which mark our own heartbreak. Surely every man must cry where we cried; surely our tears have consecrated some places; surely no fool can laugh where our soul nearly died.
Now a scene occurs which must have had the effect of a moral resurrection upon dying Jacob. Joseph set his sons in the order of their ages. He was so far a technicalist and a pedant that he would keep up the well-known law of succession by primogeniture. But Jacob guided his hands wittingly and crossed them so as to violate that sacred law. Joseph was displeased and said “Not so, my father, but otherwise”; and Jacob said “I know it, my son, I know it; but this is right,” Who can tell what passions surged through his own soul at that moment? What is this duplication of one’s life? What is this sudden enbodiment of shadows standing up and confronting us in a silence more terrible than accusatory speech, our other-selves, strange shadow-memories, actions which we could explain but may not: benedictions which express a philosophy which we dare not reveal in terms? A wonderful life is the human life yea, a life within a life, a sanctuary having impenetrable places in it. Others may see some deeds or shadows of deeds upon the window as they pass by, but only the man himself knows what is written in the innermost places of the silent soul.
Israel is now in a mood of benediction. We need but to begin some things in order to proceed quite rapidly and lavishly. So Jacob will now bless his own sons. We must read the benedictions as a whole. Months might be spent in the detailed analysis and criticism of the blessings, but even that detailed examination would leave us in almost total ignorance of the real scope and value of those benedictions as revelations of the quality of the mind and heart of the man who pronounced them. What a mind was Jacob’s, as shown in the various blessings pronounced upon his children! How discriminating those now closing eyes! How they glitter with criticism! 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 farewell 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! 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 testator’s 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 Jacob’s 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 sister’s 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.
“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 breasts, and of the womb: the 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 from his brethren” ( Gen 49:22-26 ).
We read this as a speech of words: it came from the original speaker like a sacrifice of blood. What a marvellous poem! How judgment blazes in it in certain directions! “The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him. They have hamstrung this noblest of the offspring of Israel. Did the “old man eloquent” look round upon the brethren as he said this: “and blessings shall be upon the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren”? What sharp darts fell upon the consciences of the listeners! There are benedictions that are judgments. We encourage some men at the expense of the destruction of others. Words have atmosphere, perspective, relations that do not instantly appear upon the surface of the speech. The singing of a hymn may be a judgment to some who hear it; a kind word may awaken burning memories in many consciences. We cannot tell what we say. We cannot follow the whole vibration which follows the utterance of our speech.
Now let Israel die. Bury the old man where he would like to be buried. Wherever such a man is buried, now that God has wrought the evil out of him, sweet flowers must grow; Eden must begin.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
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.
That I may tell you that which shall befall you.
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.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 49:1-2
1Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come.
2Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob;
And listen to Israel your father.”
Gen 49:1-2 There is a series of commands in these opening verses.
1. assemble, Gen 49:1, BDB 62, KB 74, Niphal IMPERATIVE
2. hear, Gen 49:1, BDB 616, KB 665, Hiphil COHORTATIVE
3. gather together, Gen 49:2, BDB 867, KB 1062, Niphal IMPERATIVE
4. hear. . .listen, Gen 49:2, both BDB 1033, KB 1570, Qal IMPERATIVES
Gen 49:1 “Then Jacob summoned his sons and said” This is the final blessing which is so characteristic of the patriarchal leaders. Culturally it carried great weight. Isaac did the same thing in Genesis 27; Moses in Deuteronomy 33; Joshua in Joshua 24; and Samuel in 1 Samuel 12. This list is going to mention the sons of Leah first and the sons of Rachel last.
There is much ambiguity in this blessing. It is in a poetic form and is based on word plays (cf. Gen 29:30 to Gen 30:24). This patriarchal blessing is for each of his twelve sons.
The implication of this entire chapter is that God is not only in control of the destinies of nations but also of individuals (lit. “what will befall you in the days to come”)!
NASB “in the days to come”
TEV “in the future”
In the MT the phrase (BDB 31 CONSTRUCT 398) is used of the end-time (cf. Num 24:14; Isa 2:2; Eze 38:16), but that time frame does not fit this context. This text addresses the thirteen tribes (Joseph becomes Ephraim and Manasseh) out of Jacob. Therefore, it must relate to the conquest (Joshua) and settlement (Judges, cf. Deu 31:29) of Canaan. If Gen 49:10 does address a Davidic ruler from Judea, then a period as far as an early monarchial period (1 Samuel) is possible.
Gen 49:2 “Jacob. . .Israel” They are obviously parallel. It says more about modern commentators and their presuppositions that they suppose these names to represent two separate authors (as they also do to Elohim and YHWH). Ancient Hebrew had its own literary forms, idioms, and patterns!
Jacob. See notes on Gen 32:28; Gen 43:8; Gen 45:26, Gen 45:28. which shall befall you. This blessing (Gen 49:28) is therefore direct prophecy.
the last days. First occurance of fourteen: Gen 49:1. Num 24:14. Deu 4:30; Deu 31:29. Isa 2:2. Jer 23:20; Jer 30:24; Jer 48:47; Jer 49:39. Eze 38:16. Dan 2:28; Dan 10:14. Hos 3:5. Mic 4:1. In ten of these rendered “latter days”. A study of these will show that the prophecy (Gen 49:1) and “blessing” (Gen 49:28) extends to, and embraces the days of Messiah, and His first and second advents.
Chapter 49
And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days ( Gen 49:1 ).
This is probably the grandest hour of the old man Jacob. He had had some pretty rough hours. Life had been hard. As he said to the Pharaoh, “My days had been a hundred and thirty years and few and evil are the days of my pilgrim”. They had been tough years. But he rose to the grandest hour in the hour of his death. Gathering his sons together just before he dies in order that he might prophesy to them and of them that which should befall them in the years to come.
Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken to Israel your father. Reuben ( Gen 49:2-3 ),
The boys, now standing around the bed, probably in order of their birth. “Reuben,”
thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power ( Gen 49:3 ):
It should have been Reuben, the firstborn. And yet you’re as,
Unstable as water, you will not excel ( Gen 49:4 );
And it is true that none from the tribe of Reuben ever did excel in anything. Just wasn’t there. Later on Reuben desired to receive his portion and his inheritance really outside of the land. And he never did excel; the tribe never did excel.
because you went to your father’s bed; then you defiled it: you went up to my couch ( Gen 49:4 ).
Actually you remember that earlier in the story it tells how that Reuben went to his father’s concubine Bilhah. And so Jacob didn’t say much about it then, here at his death he brings it up and points out this characteristic of weakness, which will be a mark and a trait of Reuben, “unstable as water”, keeping him from excelling.
Simeon and Levi are brothers; they are instruments of cruelty in their house. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; into their assembly, my honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they killed a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall ( Gen 49:5-6 ).
It is also translated in the Revised; “They hamstrung an ox”.
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 ( Gen 49:7 ).
So the tribes of Simeon and Levi were not to dwell together. They were brothers; they seem to be closer than any of the other brothers. These two seem to pair off together, but the common bond between them wasn’t a good bond. It was the fact that they were both ill tempered, violent tempers. “Cursed be their anger” and their self-will. But that seemed to bind them together, but when you come into the land, you’re going to be scattered. The tribe of Simeon was really scattered through the land. And of course, Levi never did receive any inheritance within the land but dwelt in the forty-eight cities that were appointed unto Levi. And so the prophecy was fulfilled.
Now, and he gets to Judah.
Judah, thou art he whom your brothers shall praise ( Gen 49:8 ):
The word “Judah” does mean praise.
thy hand shall be at the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee ( Gen 49:8 ).
So he’s now prophesying really that from the tribe of Judah shall come the kingly reign. “Your father’s brothers will bow down before you.” Evidently with Judah there was a real change of character.
Now when Joseph’s brothers were thinking about killing him and just leaving him in the pit to die, when they saw the caravan coming towards Egypt, it was Judah that suggested that they sell him to the people in the caravan. Probably not knowing Reuben’s plan to come back and get him out of the pit and knowing the brothers’ full intention to just kill him, figured to save his life by selling him and at least he’ll be alive. He can be sold as a slave to Egypt but at least he’ll be alive, and the suggestion of Jacob was probably to spare the life of Joseph. But even over this he no doubt had remorse and later on, when Jacob said, “I won’t let Benjamin go down”, Judah said, “Dad, I’ll be the surety for him. I’ll hold me responsible”. And he was probably the most responsible of the sons.
Now when they came to Egypt and Joseph put his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack and when they came and they unloaded the sacks and they saw the cup and they said, “We don’t want you all, we’ll just take this kid back and let him be the slave. Judah came back and he said, “Look”, he said, “I’ll give myself for my brother. I’ll become your slave, let him go back to his dad.” And Judah became the spokesman and he stepped up and showed really a lot of courage, a lot of real metal at this point.
So that this is beginning to develop in Judah and now Jacob carries it on in the prophecy and begins to prophecy the fact that Judah shall actually become a ruling tribe. The father’s children will bow down before thee.
Judah is a lion’s whelp: and 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 ( Gen 49:9 )?
And so Judah became really-the symbol of Judah was the lion and there began then to be the prophecy of the Lion of the tribe of Judah that would come. Of course, it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The 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 ( Gen 49:10 ).
Now this prophecy was fulfilled. Shiloh indicating or bespeaking of the Messiah that was to come, the Savior. The word Shiloh came from the root of peace, shalom. “And until peace comes”, and the peace, the Prince of Peace, of course, Jesus Christ. Now the sceptre did not depart from Judah until the coming of the Lord but thirty years after Jesus was crucified or forty years after, the sceptre departed from Judah. So that means that the Messiah would have to have come sometime before 70 A.D. in order that this prophecy of Jacob be truly fulfilled, otherwise, the whole prophetic thing is off.
So we know that Shiloh did come, the peace of Israel did come, even Jesus Christ. And when He came, He said, “If you only knew the things that belong to your peace in this thy day but they are hid from your eyes”. The day of His coming as the Messiah, the official day of His coming as the Messiah. His proclamation as the disciples were crying, “Hosanna, Hosanna”, as He came to the city of Jerusalem. Looking over the city that day, weeping over the city, He cried, “If you only knew the things that belong to your peace, shalom, until the Shiloh, shalom, come. And so unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” Actually He will be the ruler. Binding his foal unto him, that is Shiloh, Christ, the gathering of the people.
Binding his foal into the vine, and his ass’s colt in the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Zebulun [the next] shall dwell at the haven of the sea [or towards the sea]; and shall be a haven of ships; and his borders shall be unto Zidon ( Gen 49:11-13 ).
So Zebulun was given that area in the northern part of Israel, portion of which is now Lebanon. However, he never did take the full portion that was promised.
Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: And he saw that rest was good, and the land it was pleasant; and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute ( Gen 49:14-15 ).
In other words, he’s strong as an ox but he’s lazy. And thus, a characteristic of the tribe of Issachar was though they were strong, yet they were lazy. And thus became a servant to tribute.
Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel ( Gen 49:16 ).
The word Dan means judge.
Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall backwards ( Gen 49:17 ).
Now Dan, of course, inherited the northernmost part of the land in the area just at the base of Mount Hermon in the area which is today the Hula Valley, which lies between the mountains of Lebanon and the Golan Heights. This valley of the upper Jordan upwards from the Sea of Galilee in this area of Upper Jordan was the area where the tribe of Dan settled clear on up. Let’s see, the ruins of the city of Dan is just about four or five miles from the base of Mount Hermon. So you’re clear up on the upper end of the valley, and Dan was a tough tribe and did protect the nation Israel from the attacks of nations coming down from the north.
Now here in the midst of the whole thing, verse eighteen, not related to any of the prophecies to his sons, Jacob cried.
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD ( Gen 49:18 ).
The word “salvation, O LORD”, or translated “salvation, O LORD”, is actually Yashua or the name Jesus. I have waited for “Jesus, Yashua”, or the “Lord’s salvation” or “Jehovah’s salvation”. And so it’s very interesting this is the first mention of the word salvation in the Bible. And its mention is just in the prophecy of Jacob as he cries out now in the midst of his prophesying over his sons; “I have waited for Yashua.” “I’ve waited for Jesus” or later, “Joshua” but “Yashua” is the Hebrew word here. And it’s translated “Thy salvation, O LORD.”
The tribe of Gad, [Gad means a troop but] a troop shall overcome him: and he shall overcome at the last ( Gen 49:19 ).
Gad again with the Reubenites took up inheritance outside of the land of Israel and they were overcome early but yet the prophecy is in the end they will overcome.
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties ( Gen 49:20 ).
And so the baker tribe, those that would go into the baking industry yielding royal dainties, great pastries. And some of the tribe of Asher are no doubt over there today because man, some of the greatest bread and pastries you’ve ever eaten in your life.
Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. 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, 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 breasts, and of the womb: The blessing of thy father hath 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 from his brothers ( Gen 49:21-26 ).
Joseph separate from his brothers, a beautiful individual; so the great blessing that was pronounced upon him. He’s a fruitful bough. He would be a fruitful person. Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh became great and fruitful tribes. “A bough whose branches run over the wall.” So not only being blessed but becoming a blessing to others. And though he was to go through great trials and did endure great trials. “The archers have sorely grieved him, shot at him, hated him”.
All of those arrows of hatred and bitterness and jealousy and envy and temptation and false imprisonment and lies shot at him and yet his bough abode in strength. No retaliation. No striking back. Willing to commit judgment to God to whom judgment belongs. Turning the other cheek. His bough abode in strength and the secret of his strength was that his hand, the hand of his arms was strengthened by the mighty hand of Jehovah. God was holding his hand. God was giving him the capacity to restrain. His capacity was not a natural capacity. It was a supernatural capacity. He was being held by God in restraint.
And God can hold us in restraint. I think that we as Christians too often are willing to excuse the demonstrations of our old nature saying, “That’s just me”. Yes, that’s just you, curse you! God wants to make a new you. God wants to help you. God wants to strengthen you. And we’re not to just live in a peaceful co-existence with our old nature and with our old man. We by the Spirit are to mortify the deeds of the flesh. And we just can’t pass things off as, “Well, that’s just the way I was born”.
That’s the way you were born in corruption from your parents, but you’ve been born now by incorruptible seed. You’re supposed to be different. And if you’re not different, something’s wrong with you or wrong with your experience with God. Because anyone who is truly born of God is going to manifest a changed life and a changed nature.
The purpose of being born again is that you might have a new nature-a nature now after the Spirit, no longer after the flesh. “That which was born of the flesh is flesh,” ( Joh 3:6 ). Crucify it. Renounce it. Learn to hate it, in order that we might live and walk now after the new nature, the nature of Christ. Born of His incorruptible seed, I now have a new nature. “For if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; everything is become new” ( 2Co 5:17 ). And if you’re still going around manifesting the old nature all the time, and giving way to the old nature and giving place to the old nature, something is definitely wrong with your relationship with God and you need to repent and reckon that old man to be dead.
Don’t cuddle it. So many people are proud of their nasty temperaments, proud of their ability to tell people off. And they’ve given away so many pieces of their mind, there’s very little left. Nothing to be proud of. It’s something to be ashamed of. “God forgive me”. I reckon that old man, that old nature to be dead. I don’t want him. I don’t want any part of him. I desire that new nature after Christ. That nature of love and tenderness and forgiving and kindness and compassion. I desire that Christ be formed in me and His likeness within me, and thus give no place to the flesh. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its desires.
And as Christians, unfortunately, too many are making provision for the flesh to fulfill its desires. And you’re not really walking after the newness of life in Christ Jesus, walking after the Spirit; and thus, you are a monstrosity. You’re still a spiritual infant. Though maybe you trace your born-again experience back some fifteen, twenty, twenty-five years, you have never developed spiritually. You still don’t know how to talk. You still can’t walk. You’re still there rattling your crib and demanding that people bow and acquiesce to your wishes and your demands. Feed you when you’re hungry. Rock you when you’re upset and just to take care of you as a little infant. And you’ve never grown. You’ve never developed. And that’s all right for a stage of your Christian experience when you’re first coming into Christ and all. That’s fine that you be cuddled and taken care of and be fed and all. But it’s time that you grow up. But spiritual immaturity is a great tragedy.
And as the scriptures said, At the time when you should be actually able to eat meat, you still have need of milk because you’ve not been able to take meat up till now and even now, he said, you’re not able to bear it. So I still have to feed you with the milk of the Word. But at the beginning you are to “desire the sincere milk of the word, that you might grow” ( 1Pe 2:2 ). But there comes a time when we grow beyond the bottle itself and we need nourishment other than just the bottle. You need to grow up. You need to renounce the old nature and the old man. We need to begin to seek that nature of Christ to be perfected in us that we might be what God wants us to be.
And so Joseph, the secret of his strength was God was holding him. God will hold you. God will help you. God will give you control. You don’t have to be Simeon and Reuben or Simeon and Levi. You can have the control of God. And Joseph blessed, special blessings. “The blessings of your father have prevailed. Blessings of the progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they’ll be on the head of Joseph.”
Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he will divide the spoil ( Gen 49:27 ).
Benjamin was tough. It was one of the most toughest tribes in Israel. They were the greatest fighter. Their career was marked by disaster. They were almost eliminated at one time as a tribe in Israel because of wickedness. All of the tribes of Israel gathered against Benjamin and were scarcely able to defeat them. They were so tough. From Benjamin came the first king of Israel, even Saul. From Benjamin came the great apostle Paul. Tough characters indeed, able to endure just far beyond the normal enduring capacity of a person. Tribe of Benjamin.
And these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spoke unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. And 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, in 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 buryingplace. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into his bed, and he yielded up his spirit, and was gathered to his people ( Gen 49:28-33 ).
So this is his dying act: this pronouncement of the future of his sons. And then even as he had told Joseph, “Swear to me you’ll bury me not in Egypt but back in my own land”, and Joseph sworn. Now he’s demanding the same thing from his sons. “Now, look, bury me back there in the cave that Abraham bought, where I buried Leah. I want to be buried by her. Put me back there.” It is interesting that the love that he had for Rachel, that he didn’t desire to be buried in the tomb of Rachel that still existed near Bethlehem. “But bury me next to Leah actually there in the cave of Machpelah.”
Having said this, the old man pulled his legs back up into bed and that was it. He was gone.
. “
l, 2. And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last day. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
It must have been a great comfort to the old man to have all his twelve sons with him. What a quiet answer this was to his former unbelief! They were all there, yet he could remember the time when he had said, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. Ah! we also shall have in our later days to chide ourselves for our foolish unbelief. Jacob called unto his sons, so he was not bereaved after all. They are all here, Jacob. It falls to the lot of few fathers to have twelve sons, and to fewer still to have all twelve of them gathered about his dying bed. Gather yourselves together. They were to keep together as a family; and shall not the people of God keep together? Come away from the world, beloved, but come close to one another; be one household, be it your delight to assemble around your elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. We are not told nowadays everything about the future, but much of the future is unfolded to us in the great principles of the law and the gospel, and we may learn very much of holy foresight by coming to the oracles of God.
Gen 49:3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
The patriarch fixes his eyes on his firstborn; he must say something sharp that would dishonour him, but he does not deny him the rights of birthright. He clothes him with the robes and the jewels of primogeniture, and then he strips him:
Gen 49:4. Unstable as water, thou shall not excel; because thou wentest up to thy fathers bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
So a man may have great opportunities, and yet lose them. Uncontrolled passions may make him very little who otherwise might have been great. Reuben was the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power, yet his father had to say to him, Thou shalt not excel.
Gen 49:5. Simeon and Levi
They stood next according to the order of birth: Simeon and Levi
Gen 49:6. Are brethren;
They are very much like each other.
Gen 49:6-7. 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 their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill 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 Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
Hence we do not read of the tribe of Simeon in the blessing of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy; but the Levites had this curse turned into a blessing, for, though they were scattered, yet they were scattered as priests and instructors to the other tribes. Happy is that man who, though he begins with a dark shadow resting upon him, so lives as to turn even that shadow into bright sunlight. Levi gained a blessing at the hands of Moses, one of the richest blessings of any of the tribes. This holy man, Jacob, in dying, did not express himself according to the rules of natural affection but he yielded himself up to the Spirit of God; hence he had to say very much that must have been very bitter for a father to say, and he said it in all faithfulness being taught of the Spirit concerning things to come.
Gen 49:8. Judah,
Now the patriarch changes his tone, for he has come to that tribe which would take the birthright, out of which the Christ would come: Judah
Gen 49:8. Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise:
They praised God for him, they praised God by him, they praised God in him; he is the type of Jesus, of whom we can say all this with great emphasis.
Gen 49:8. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy fathers children shall bow down before thee.
In the person of David, in the long line of kings of the tribe of Judah, all this came true; and in the person of the great Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, all this has come true to a very high degree.
Gen 49:9. Judah is a lions 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?
The coat of arms of Judah was a lion couchant, in the fullness of his strength, keeping still, waiting to spring upon his adversary. Our Lord Christ is such a lion today; the Lion of the tribe of Judah couchant, lying down: who shall rouse him up ? Ah ! if he be once fully aroused what power will he put forth when he shall spring upon his adversaries ?
Gen 49:10. The scepter 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.
Jacobs eyes were dim, but he could see a very long way; he could see to the coming of Christ, the Shiloh, the Pacificator, the Peace-maker; he could see that day when the Jews would cry, We have no king but Caesar, for the Shiloh would have come, and the scepter would have departed from Judahs tribe. Unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Oh, that it might be so today! May many be gathered to Christ! He is the true center, and we gather unto him. May the divisions of the Church be soon healed by a general gathering unto Christ, who alone is the center of the Church. Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Gen 49:11-12. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his asss colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
They were to have a land in which would be milk for babes and wine for strong men; surely this land is thy land, O Emmanuel! What nourishing milk there is in the gospel, and what exhilarating wine for those who know the love of Christ!
Gen 49:13. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his brother shall be unto Zidon.
When the land was divided by lot, the lot was disposed by God to the complete fulfillment of Jacobs prophecy. Many things may seem to be left to chance, but they are not, the hand of God still guides and controls. This blessing is very suggestive Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for a haven of ships. If God puts you by the mind that you are a haven for ships, the Lord, in his providence, fixes your position. See that you turn it to account for the good of others.
Gen 49:14-15. Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: and 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.
Issachars was a poor case; he was so idle, so fond of rest, that he was willing to become a servant unto tribute. This seems hardly a blessing yet it was true of Issachar. He was strong, but then he was an ass as well as strong, so he liked couching down between two burdens much better than bearing either one of them, yet he had to bow his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
Gen 49:16-17. Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
This tribe would show more cunning than courage; it would excel rather in the strategy of war than in the force of arms. Here the old man paused, and refreshed himself by saying,
Gen 49:18. I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
What a happy breathing-space is this! When you and I also are near our journeys end, may we be able to say, as Jacob did, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. He could not have said that once. This is the very Jacob who had, in his earlier days, been full of crafty policy, and tricks and schemes; but he has done with all that now, and he is able truthfully to say, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.
Gen 49:19. God, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
This has been the blessing of many a child of God, to fight, and apparently to lose the battle, yet to win it at the end. O thou who art striving against sin, or seeking to win souls for Christ, after many disappointments may you be able to clutch this sweet assurance, He shall overcome at the last.
Gen 49:20. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
Asher was a tribe that was placed in a very fertile region where everything was crowned with delight. Oh, to have our inheritance where we feed upon the bread of heaven, and where the deep truths of God become to us royal dainties!
Gen 49:21. Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
Naphtali was a tribe notable for those that could speak freely, helped of God with a holy freedom in bearing testimony to his truth.
Gen 49:22. Joseph
Ah, now the patriarch comes to his beloved Joseph, and here the old man lingers long, longer than upon any other of his sons: Joseph
Gen 49:22. Is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
The Hebrew puts it, Joseph is a son of fruits, even a son of fruits by a well; whose daughters run over the wall.
Gen 49:23-24. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hand were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
Joseph is a type of him who is both the Shepherd and the Stone to us, the Shepherd who defends us, provides for us, and dies for us, and the foundation on which we build for time and eternity.
Gen 49:25-28. 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: the 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 from his brethren. Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, 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.
Before his passing, Jacob, in forecasting the future of his sons, based what he had to say on what he had already seen in them. In some cases the allusions are difficult to follow, and the connection is not easy to see. In others both are unmistakable.
Speaking of Reuben, Jacob declared that pre-eminence of privilege does lot necessarily issue in pre-eminence of position. Of Simeon and Levi he declared that cruelty of character ever issues in division and scattering. In Judah he saw the shining of the central hope of himself and Israel. In Zebulun he saw all commercial supremacy and in Issachar the method of the diplomat bending to service in order to secure quietness. Dan, cunning and keen, was to exercise judgeship. Gad, the warlike, Asher, the luxurious, and Naphtali are all referred to.
Most tender and beautiful were Jacob’s references to Joseph. He was a fruitful bough, which indicated his realization of possibility. Moreover, his branches were to run over the wall, thus exceeding the bounds of expectation. He was to know persecution but to abide in strength, and the most abundant blessings were pronounced on him. Benjamin was dismissed briefly as characterized by cunning and fierceness.
Then follows the story of Jacob’s death, his last charge to his sons being that he should be buried among his own people.
Jacob Foretells the Future of His Sons
Gen 49:1-13
Once more Joseph visited his fathers dying-bed. This was the third time and the last. He stood as one of twelve strong bearded men, gathered around the aged form, whose face was shadowed by death, but aglow with the light of prophecy. How intense their silent awe as they heard their names called one by one, by the old mans trembling voice, speaking with difficulty! The character of each was delineated with unerring insight: the outstanding incidents of their past history enumerated and their future forecasted. The scene was an anticipation of the final judgment, where men shall hear their lives reviewed and the sentence passed. Shiloh means Peace-Giver. What a fragrant name for our Lord! What wonder that He shall gather the nations to His cross and throne!
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.
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.
CHAPTER 49 Jacobs Prophecy
1. The call of Jacob: Gather yourselves together (Gen 49:1-2)
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. Jacobs 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 Israels 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.
Gather: Deu 31:12, Deu 31:28, Deu 31:29, Deu 33:1-29, Psa 25:14, Psa 105:15, Isa 22:14, Isa 53:1, Dan 2:47, Dan 10:1, Amo 3:7, Luk 2:26, Rom 1:17, Rom 1:18, Heb 10:24, Heb 10:25, Heb 13:1, Rev 4:1
last days: Num 24:14, Deu 4:30, Deu 31:29, Isa 2:2, Isa 39:6, Jer 23:20, Dan 2:28, Dan 2:29, Dan 10:14, Mic 4:1, Act 2:17, 1Ti 4:1, 2Ti 3:1, Heb 1:2
Reciprocal: Gen 42:23 – he spake unto them by an interpreter Gen 46:8 – the names Gen 49:33 – had made Num 1:2 – the children Num 1:5 – Elizur 2Sa 23:1 – the last Isa 44:8 – have declared Jer 30:24 – in Eze 38:8 – many days Act 3:25 – the children Jam 5:3 – the last
Jacob’s Final Days
The writer gives a brief record of the rest of Jacob’s life before he gives details of the events surrounding the time of his death. Jacob lived seventeen more years in Egypt and saw his descendants multiply. Before his death, he made Joseph promise to take his body back to be buried with Abraham and Isaac.
Some time prior to Jacob’s death, Joseph took his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh to be blessed by him. Jacob adopted them as sons who might have been born to Rachel. Woods says, “The act of placing the sons beside Jacob’s knees had symbolized their adoption by him.” By placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, Jacob designated which son was to receive the greater blessing from him. To Joseph, Jacob said, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”
Jacob then called all of his sons to him and blessed each one. With God’s help, these blessings were prophetic. Reuben lost the right of the birthright because he went into his father’s bed with Bilhah (35:22). Simeon and Levi were scattered among the tribes with no real inheritance of their own because of their angry sin at Shechem (34:25-26). The Levites had cities throughout the land. Simeon’s inheritance was in the middle of Judah’s land and eventually caused his descendants to be absorbed ( Jos 19:1 ).
Of Judah Jacob said, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.” Of course, this was fulfilled in Christ. Zebulun was located in the perfect spot for commerce ( Deu 33:18-19 ; Jos 19:10-16 ). Issachar received a beautiful piece of land but ended up serving the surrounding nations. Dan was the smallest of the tribes but would, by guerilla warfare, prove a difficulty to any enemy entering Israel. Gad was troubled with raiders but defended herself very well.
Asher received a plot of land that was among the most fertile in the promised land ( Jos 19:24-31 ). Rich foods came out of this region which were fit for kings. Naphtali is described as a hind, or gazelle, which Keil and Delitzsch say “is a simile of a warrior who is skilful and swift in his movements.” The men of this tribe helped Deborah and Barak defeat the armies of Jabin, who was a king of Canaan ( Jdg 4:1-24 ; Jdg 5:1-31 ).
Joseph, as Jacob’s firstborn by Rachel, received the double portion through the adoption of his two sons by his father. A fruit tree by a spring grew especially well in Israel. Joseph’s descendants faced strong opposition but overcame with God’s help. When the blessings were complete, Jacob died ( Gen 47:27-31 ; Gen 48:1-22 ; Gen 49:1-33 ).
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.
Gen 49:2. Gather yourselves together. This phrase implies that they should come purified, and prepared for instruction.
Gen 49:3-4. Reuben. Jacob here seems to enumerate the excellencies of Reuben, the more deeply to detest his crime; and after affirming that he should not excel in posterity, he turns towards his brethren, and adds, because he went up to my couch. But Dr. Lightfoot rather softens this translation. Reuben shall have a remnant of dignity, and a remnant of strength; for he was to lead the field in the wars of Canaan, and to vanquish the Hagarians. Jos 4:12. 1Ch 5:10. Unstable as water in affecting the priesthood, Num 16:1-2; Num 32:1; but his father advises him not to suffer his instability to remain.
Gen 49:6. They slew a man. The Hebrew ish always signifies a person of rank or respectability. It here refers to the prince and people of Shechem, whom Simeon and Levi had perfidiously murdered. Blood has a voice which reaches heaven, and soon or late shall be followed by visitations on the guilty.They digged down a wall. Margin, They hough oxen. Why then curse them for killing an ox? The princes are compared to strong bulls of Bashan. Psalms 22. The reference has a figurative bearing on the fall of the father and the son, princes of Shechem. In Hebrew, schor slightly varied, it is likely, in the pronunciation, is a bull, and a wall; the LXX, it would seem, have mistaken the sense, because we have no account that Simeon and Levi dismantled the walls of Shechem.
Gen 49:7. I will divide them. The Levites and the priests were divided all over Israel; and Simeons lot was almost in the centre of Judah. The curse of Levi seems to have been in part removed because of the services and zeal of his children, when the Israelites made the calf. Reubens chastisement seems also to have been removed by Moses prayer. Deu 33:6. Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.
Gen 49:8. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. The whole of Jacobs blessings have in view principally the posterity of those patriarchs, and the events of future years. Judah, while in Egypt, was eclipsed by Josephs glory; but after David had ascended the throne, the prophets have celebrated his victories, and the church in all ages has very much delighted to worship God in his words. But these words receive their real accomplishment in Christ; all the children bow down to him, and having received the spirit of adoption they glorify his name.
Gen 49:9. Judah is a lions whelp. Alluding to his generosity. Gen 37:26. But others, and with more propriety, think it alludes to his vast growth in strength above the other tribes. David as a lion vanquished all his foes, and then couched in Solomons peaceful reign. But the words refer to the lion of the tribe of Judah, who having vanquished and ultimately destroyed all his foes, entered on his peaceful and everlasting kingdom.
Gen 49:10. The Sceptre. This word is sometimes translated rod; but it implies civil authority. Isa 14:5. The rod or sceptre of the rulers. Secondly, Judahs successors, or the reigning family should never want a son, or young lawgiver between their feet. God remarkably kept his eye upon this promise; for instance, when Athaliah had killed all the royal seed, as she thought, Joash, an infant son was preserved in the temple.Until Shiloh come. The power or government was not to depart from Judah until he came, for whom it was reserved, or to whom it did belong; that is, the kingdom. The Messiah is called Shiloh in reference to his quiet and peaceful reign; or in reference to his being the sent of God with divine power. Joh 9:7. The ancient Jews are all agreed that Shiloh here means the Messiah. The Jews gave four names to the Messiah; Shiloh, Jinnon, Chaninah, and Menahem. The last, designating consolation, Luk 2:25, was a favourite name. He had other names of hope and glory.
This text is a striking and convincing proof, that the Messiah is already come, and that all the efforts of modern Jews to evade its force, do but discover the enmity of their hearts. Who could have thought that they should call Nebuchadnezzar the Shiloh, merely because he took away their regal power! The text has a most evident reference to David, the tenth from Judah, of whose line twenty three kings reigned in Jerusalem. And even after Zedekiah, the last of those kings, was carried with a large remnant of his nation to Chaldea, the civil power did not depart from Judah. Daniel, who was so long distinguished in that empire, was of the seed royal. Dan 1:3. Zerubbabel, the builder of the second temple, was of the same line. The grand Sanhedrim, or council of seventy members, was composed chiefly of the tribe of Judah. Some of Benjamin, of Levi, and stragglers of the ten tribes, were indeed associated with them; but Judah had the majority; the ten tribes having nearly perished in exile for their sins. Their princes, or captain-generals, were also of this tribe. Hence Judah had the pre-eminence, and the power of life and death until the time of Herod, an Idumean, whom the Romans invested with regal power. But the Sanhedrim opposed his power, and did not fully relinquish their claim till the last year of his reign. This power was indeed gone when they confessed to Pilate, a Roman, that they had not the power to put any man to death. Joh 18:31. Even their civil power was not entirely taken away, till the destruction of their city. And then the gathering of the people was unto the Messiah; for great multitudes both of Jews and Gentiles were converted unto him in most parts of the empire. And this gathering of the people corresponds also very strikingly with all that the prophets have said respecting the conversion of the isles and nations of the gentiles. Hence there is no man who attentively studies this text with its accomplishment, but must own that it is one striking proof that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah.
Gen 49:11. Binding his foal to the vine. Sir John Chardin reports, that at Bahia in Persia, he found vines so large that he could scarcely grasp them with both his arms, so that it was easy to tie a horse to a vine. The same oriental traveller adds, that after gathering the grapes, they turn their cattle into the vineyards. Jacob here augurs affluence to Judah, which was literally fulfilled.
Gen 49:13. Zebuluns lot extended from Zidon, a port in the Levant, to the lake of Gennesareth; the riches of Galilee, and the abundance of the sea were his portion.
Gen 49:14. Issachars lot was hard labour in husbandry, as a strong ass bearing a burden on each side.
Gen 49:16. Dan, by Samson, judged Israel. And surely he bit the heel of the Philistine horse, and was a figure of Jesus Christ, slaying his enemies by his death. And Jacob having long waited for Gods salvation, groans here in the spirit for the salvation of his posterity, and of the church of Christ when she shall be delivered from all her enemies; and when he should see, with his fathers, his Redeemer face to face.
Gen 49:19. Gads lot was beyond the Jordan, where he was much assailed with Hagars race, and other foes; but he vanquished them by the aid of his brethren. 1 Chronicles 5. So is the church of Christ assailed, so also the believer; but they shall overcome at last through the strength of our God.
Gen 49:20. Asher is promised by Jacob, and by Moses, the riches of the earth. Deu 33:24. But let all men look for the higher portion, even for God, who satisfieth the soul.
Gen 49:21. Naphtali was to enjoy happiness and liberty as a hind in the pastures; and the goodly words refer to his acquaintance with the law, and with devotion.
Gen 49:22. Josephs two sons were to be fruitful as the vine, and blessed with peace and affluence. His daughters went unto the enemy, when he gave wives to Benjamin. Judges 21.
Gen 49:27. Benjamin was to have a warlike posterity, as appears realized from sacred history, and the character of Saul. How remarkably does Jacob express the character of his sons by beasts, by a serpent, and a vine: and happy if the fine endowments of nature had been a figure of the nobler and more excellent ornaments of the mind. Then their coat of arms would have been worthy of the heavenly court and society.
Gen 49:28. Blessed them every one. Yea, but he blessed some of them with hard rebukes for past sins.
REFLECTIONS.
We now come to the close of Jacobs chequered life, and it is a happy close. It is one of the most instructive scenes which the sacred writings afford. This patriarch, full of wisdom, full of days, and full of grace, had for the last seventeen years seen every dark cloud cleared up, and an evening sun smiling on all his toils, and promising the greatest blessings to his posterity. He had seen Abraham and Isaac close their eyes, and now he saw himself surrounded with twelve patriarchs, promising him a posterity numerous as the stars of heaven, or the sand on the seashore. His soul, viewing the Messiah, and anticipating every good, filled with ecstasy of vision, uttered itself in the rapturous effusions of discourse and song. All his sons arranged in his presence, stood with amazement, and heard futurity unveiled. God grant that we may learn of him, not to be so solicitous to lay up riches and lands for our children, as the treasures of wisdom and righteousness, that we may bless and instruct them in old age, with all the weight of wisdom and of good example. We may hence also remark the divine characters of inspiration. This is the highest gift of heaven, and therefore sparingly conferred. It was first given to these fathers, the proper guardians and best friends of their offspring; and not frequently to them. The style in which it flowed was superior to all fear of man, and even to parental partiality. Mark how he reproaches, yet with blessings, Reuben, Simeon and Levi. Mark how he blesses Judah above Joseph, whom he loved most for what was he, that he could withstand God? The whole of his address to his sons has a character all divine. Mark farther, how sacredly these writings have been preserved from any gross corruption. The priests and levites were the depositaries of the law; the men of Simeon were among the principal scribes and teachers scattered in Israel; yet both these tribes, though so severely branded in these writings, had not the power, or they did not dare to erase their curse from the sacred records! Hence we should read this volume as though God himself was speaking to us, and through the purest channels in which truth can be conveyed to man.
But the manner in which Jacob closed his pilgrimage, viewed altogether, is bright and encouraging in the highest degree. Having long waited for the salvation of God, and blessed his sons under the highest influence of the prophetic spirit, he directed his body to be interred in Machpelah, as a pledge that his seed should inherit the land, and he yielded up his spirit to God, to be associated in the divine presence, with Abraham and Isaac his fathers. Shrink not then, oh my soul, at the troubles of life, for they shall all work together for good. They shall instruct thee in the ways of providence, make thee perfect in every passive virtue, and accompanied with a thousand blessings, ripen thee for everlasting felicity, and the society of the blessed who are gone before.
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.
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?
Gen 49:1-28. The Blessing of Jacob.This poem had an independent origin, but if it was incorporated in one of the main documents it would be in J. It is not a mere collection of originally isolated utterances on the tribes, but was from the first put in the lips of Jacob, though expansions and alterations have, no doubt, taken place. It need hardly be said that it is not the utterance of Jacob himself. It would be inexplicable that his vision should fix just on the period here covered. The oppression of Egypt, the Exodus, the wandering are all passed over, though they lay nearer to Jacobs day, and were momentous in character. And beyond the time of David or Solomon the authors vision does not range. Why should Jacob, who can see the period of the Judges and early monarchy, see only this, especially as he claims to foretell what is to happen in the latter days? The period is so restricted because it is that in which the poem grew up. Along with the Song of Deborah it is our most important source for the history of the tribes after the settlement in Canaan. It is certainly older than the Blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 33). It represents different periods and stages of development. But in the main it is quite early. Some elements in it are as late as the reign of David, but nothing need be later. It presents several difficulties for which the larger commentaries must be consulted. It should be compared with the Blessing of Moses and the Song of Deborah. Plays on the names of the tribes are frequent, and the representation of the tribes under animal symbols.
Reuben, as the eldest, heads the list. In the firstborn it was thought that the fathers undiluted vigour was manifest (Num 3:12 f.*). In Reubens tumultuous nature it was in excess, and manifested itself in the transgression of his fathers marriage rights (Gen 35:22*), hence he is cursed with the loss of pre-eminence, i.e. the firstborns privileges. In Deuteronomy 33 Reuben is on the verge of extinction. Israel next denounces and curses Simeon and Levi (Gen 49:5-7) for their violence and cruelty to man and beast, dooming them to dispersion among the other tribes. It is usually thought that the reference is to Gen 34:25*. Both lost their tribal status. Simeon is not even mentioned in Deuteronomy 33, and Levi became an ecclesiastical and ceased to be a secular tribe. The transition was effected apparently in the period between Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33, where Levis priestly position is the subject of warm panegyric, from an early period Levites, as members of Moses tribe, were preferred for priestly functions, but only later probably organised into a priestly caste.
Judah (Gen 49:8-12), the fourth Leah tribe, in happy contrast to the three elder brothers, is praised with unrestrained enthusiasm; no jarring note is struck in the pan. The historical background is the time of David or Solomon, when Judah had the praise and submission of the other tribes, and his enemies were subdued (Gen 49:8). In his early days a lions whelp, he has gone up from his prey to his den in the rocks; there, now full-grown, he crouches, none would dare rouse him. The next verse is extremely difficult, and has led to interminable discussion. Here few words must suffice. Judah is to retain the sovereignty, and the wand of office held upright between his feet. The next line seems to name a period when this shall cease. Shiloh has been popularly regarded as a title of the Messiah. Neither the Jews nor the VSS so explained it, till that of Seb. Mnster in A.D. 1534, nor does the view possess any intrinsic possibility. RV may, therefore, be set aside without hesitation. Less improbable is mg., Till he come to Shiloh; still it is highly improbable, for it cannot be fitted into the history, Judah having nothing to do with Shiloh. The LXX is better (mg.), but less acceptable than the last mg., Till he come whose it is. The point would then be that Judah was to hold the sovereignty till its true possessor, i.e. the Messiah, comes, and then relinquish it into his hands. This is probably the best that can be done with the text, though it is open to philological objections. A simple emendation (msheloh) would give Until his ruler come. In either case the passage is probably Messianic, and is for this reason regarded as an interpolation by many, the idea of Messiah being much later. This is repudiated by Gunkel, who says in an important passage, Modern scholars are of the opinion that the eschatology of Israel was a creation of the literary prophets, hence they strike out the verse since it contradicts this fundamental conviction. The author of this commentary does not share this conviction; he believes, on the contrary, that the prophets can be understood only on the assumption that they found an eschatology already in existence, took it over, contested it, transformed it. This pre-prophetic eschatology is here attested. He is followed by Gressmann, Procksch, and others. It is argued in favour of striking it out that it interrupts the connexion between Gen 49:9 and Gen 49:11. But this connexion is not itself good; in fact, Gen 49:10 would link on much better to Gen 49:8. The last line predicts for the Messiah dominion over the nations. Gen 49:11 f. describes the abundance of wine and milk with which Judah is blessed: the vines are so numerous and luxuriant that the stems are used for tethering animals, and the wine for washing clothes, and the eyes are dull with heavy drinking (happy land! the writer means, where drink is so plentiful; cf. for this attitude Gen 5:29*, Jdg 9:13, Psa 104:15, Ecc 10:19), while the teeth are whitened with milk.
Zebulun (Gen 49:13) is situated on the coast, and reached up to the border of Phnicia. We do not learn of this except here and Deu 33:19; in Jdg 5:17 Asher occupies this position; presumably Zebulun was not able to maintain its position on the coast. Issachar (Gen 49:14 f.) is described as a bony ass, which, in spite of its strength, sacrificed independence for ignoble peace. To Dan (Gen 49:16 f.) two oracles are devoted. He is to judge the people of his own tribe, i.e. maintain his independence alongside of the other tribes. He is also compared to the cerastes, or horned snake, small but very venomous, which snaps at the horses heels (cf. Gen 3:15) and unhorses the rider. Hence Dan, while weak, may by skilful guerilla warfare do what it could not do in open battle. Gad (Gen 49:19): the plays on the tribes name are specially noticeable here, gad gedd yegdenn weh ygd qb. Gad is exposed to attacks by marauding nomads (troop means raiders), but he will turn upon and pursue them. Asher (Gen 49:20) has a fertile land (Deu 33:24), and exports Gainties for monarchs; those of Phnicia will be intended, but also foreign monarchs served by Phnician ships. Whether the Israelite king also, depends on the date of the verse. Much oil is still exported from the district. The blessing of Naphtali (Gen 49:21) is obscure. The lack of connexion between Gen 49:21 a and Gen 49:21 b is evident: Gen 49:21 a may be rendered also Naphtali is a slender terebinth; we should then read in Gen 49:21 b, He produces goodly shoots. If we take Gen 49:21 a as in Revelation , Gen 49:21 b should read, He yields goodly lambs. In neither case is the meaning clear.
To Joseph (Gen 49:22-26) a glowing, lengthy eulogy is devoted, which is often corrupt and incapable of translation. Gen 49:22 is quite simple in RV, but the text and rendering are dubious. Gen 49:23 is important for the date. It is often explained as referring to the attacks of the Syrians against the Northern Kingdom, under the dynasties of Omri and Jehu. But archers suit bands of raiders such as the Midianites better, and it is unsuitable in blessings on the tribes to take Joseph as a name for the Kingdom. Besides, the inclusion in J of so enthusiastic a panegyric on the Northern Kingdom is very unlikely after the Disruption. The time of the Judges, perhaps that of Gideon, is suitable. In Gen 49:24 we learn that his bow remained strong and steady, and the arms were nimble, rapidly discharging the arrows, in a strength drawn from the strong God of Jacob, through the name (mg.) of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. Gen 49:24 d is extremely obscure; the text may be incurably corrupt. More usually Yahweh is spoken of as a Rock. The Stone of Israel may have special reference to the Stone, Gods dwelling, set up at Bethel by Jacob. Gen 49:25 ab continues the description of God as the source of strength, and effects the transition to the blessings, in the first place from the sky, rain, and sunshine, then abundant waters springing from the inexhaustible subterranean abyss (Gen 1:2, Gen 1:6-8*), thus ensuring the fertility of the land, finally fertility of animal and human kind. Gen 49:26 a is quite corrupt; mg. should be read in Gen 49:26 bc, and in Gen 49:26 e for separated from read consecrated among, the point being not that Joseph was the royal tribe, but that it took a leading part in the Conquest. The other Rachel tribe, Benjamin, is depicted as a warlike tribe, living by plunder, especially perhaps of the caravans. The precise meaning is not clear, whether morning and evening alike he is active in his pursuit, or he devours the prey in the morning but at eventide has still some left to divide, or in the morning he is still eating what he has taken the evening before, and by evening has fresh booty to share.
Gen 49:1. the latter days: an eschatological expression, but not necessarily so here; it means in the distant future.
Gen 49:6. houghed: cut the sinew of the hind-leg (Jos 1:16; Jos 1:9, 2Sa 8:4).
Gen 49:14. sheepfolds: perhaps we should read panniers.
Gen 49:18. No part of the poem; a pious ejaculation by the scribe when he is half-way through.
Gen 49:19 f. Omit out of in Gen 49:20 and read their heel in Gen 49:19.
Gen 49:28 a (to unto them) is the close of the Blessing; with and blessed them P is resumed.
JACOB’S PROPHECY AS TO THE TWELVE TRIBES
(vs.1-28)
After a life of many failures and troubles, the last days of Jacob stand out in bright relief. His perception of God’s ways became much more clear and commendable as he neared the end of his life. Now at the age of 147 he called for all his sons in order to tell them their future that would reach much further than any of them personally would experience, but applies to each tribe, going on to “the last days” (v.1). For each tribe borrows its character from the character of its head. His failing eyesight did not deceive Jacob, as did that of his father Isaac (ch.27:1-25).
REUBEN
(vs.3-4)
Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn, portraying Jacob’s might and strength, pre-eminent in dignity and power. But by his glaring failure in self-discipline he forfeited all title to the rights of the firstborn. He stands for the boasted strength of man in the flesh, which eventually (as in the case of King Saul) turns out to be pathetic weakness. The tribe of Reuben then symbolizes Israel’s first coming as a nation into the land of Canaan, but very soon forfeiting all title to that land by the corruption of the flesh. As Reuben defiled Jacob’s property, so the nation Israel has defiled God’s property. This is the history of natural humanity in all ages. The flesh is as unstable and uncontrolled as the water of the seas.
SIMEON AND LEVI
(vs.5-7)
These two brothers are considered together, and united in cruelty and violence. Nothing favorable is said about them at all, and Jacob desired not to have any identification with them in their rampage of murder because of their bitter anger. He refers to their slaughter of all the men in the city of Hamor and Shechem (ch.34:25-26). A prophetic sentence is then passed, “I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.” Their unity in evil would result in division even among the tribes.
Jacob’s words here are prophetic of the condition of Israel from the time of the Judges until David. After being established in the land by Joshua, it was not long until the nation began to depart from the living God, practically with one accord giving themselves up to idol worship and the gross moral abuses that this involved. Though God delivered them a number of times, they reverted back again to the same low level. Later, when Saul became king, the condition of Israel did not improve, and Saul himself was guilty of glaring murder, even of the priests of God (1Sa 22:11-19), and of plotting the murder of David. Under these conditions the people were constantly in discord, divided and scattered.
JUDAH
(vs.8-12)
The prophecy as to Judah is in great contrast to that as to Simeon and Levi, for all is favorable. Though Judah had been guilty of very serious wrong too, his deeply felt repentance evident in chapter 44:18-34 was such that God was free to bless him greatly. His brothers would praise him (Judah means “praise”). He would subjugate his enemies. His father’s children would bow to his authority. He is likened to a lion, the king of beasts, feeding on the spoils of his conquest. The scepter of kingly authority would not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver, until the coming of Shiloh, the Lord Jesus. To Him (Shiloh) would be the obedience of the people.
Verse 11 however intimates His lowly character of identifying Himself with the godly in Israel. For a king was not expected to ride a donkey, but a horse, yet the Lord Jesus is prophesied of in Zec 9:1, as coming to Jerusalem riding on a donkey, and the Gospels give the history of this (Mat 21:1-9; Mar 11:1-10; Luk 19:35-38). But the vine and the “blood of the grapes” in which He washes His clothes is typical of the voluntary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on Calvary. His eyes red with wine are a contrast to “His eyes like a flame of fire” in Rev 1:14, where He is presented as judging in righteousness. In Gen 49:12 He is seen in grace, for also His teeth are white with milk, which speaks of gentle nourishment of the Word of God, a contrast to the sharp sword going out of His mouth (Rev 1:16), which also refers to the Word of God, but in terrible judgment.
The prophecy concerning Judah then denotes Israel’s history from David until the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. David was of the house of Judah, a “man after God’s heart,” not because he was without sin, but because he had a character that confessed and judged his sin (as did Judah). He was a type of Christ the King of Israel, and this prophecy therefore goes right on to the time of Christ’s coming in grace and His sacrifice. So far as the flesh is concerned, Judah himself was the same as his brothers, Simeon and Levi. It is not because he was better than they that his prophecy is favorable, but rather, their history signifies the ruin of Israel under law, while God makes Judah typical of the answer to Israel’s sin that is, the coming and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
ZEBULON
(v.13)
Zebulon was Leah’s sixth son, and for some reason is mentioned before Issachar, her fifth son. He would dwell at the seashore, which indicates the time of Israel’s being dispersed among the Gentiles, as thy have been since their rejection of Christ, for the sea is a type of the Gentile nations, and being a haven for ships implies Israel’s trade and commerce with the Gentiles.
ISSACHAR
(vs.14-15)
Issachar is said to be a donkey lying down between two burdens, becoming content to be a slave. Thus, when Israel has been mixed up with Gentiles, she has become a virtual slave to them rather than having Gentiles subservient to her. This condition of things continues through “the times of the gentiles,” so will not change until the time of the great tribulation.
DAN
(vs.16-18)
Dan was the first son of Rachel’s maid Bilhah. “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.” Prophetically this brings us to the time when self-government is resumed in Israel. To some degree this has been true since 1948. But it is added that “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider shall fall backward” (v.17) This prophecy specifically refers to the tribulation period when satanic activity rises to a dreadful height in the proud, deceitful reign of the antichrist in Israel. When we compare this verse with Rev 7:1-17, it seems likely the antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan, for in Rev 7:1-17 Dan is omitted from the 144,000. Well may Jacob add here, “I have waited for Your salvation, 0 Lord!” Yet even though Dan is missing from the 144,000 sealed in Rev 7:1-17, he will have his place in the blessing of the millennium, for it is plainly declared that he will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
GAD
(v.19)
Gad was the first son of Zilpah, Leah’s maid. His name means “a troop,” and this name is used in the prophecy that the troop (armies of enemy nations) would trample Gad (representing Israel) underfoot, as will be fulfilled in the tribulation period, but that Gad will in the end overcome the troop. God will give Israel the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
ASHER
(v.20)
Asher was Zilpah’s second son, his name meaning “happy.” The prophecy concerning him implies the rich provision that God will make for the nation Israel, even “royal dainties,” when they are restored to their land in the millennium, a wonderful contrast to their years of deprivation and desolation!
NAPHTALI
(v.21)
Naphtali was the second son of Bilhah, and is here called “a deer let loose; he uses beautiful words.” This describes another side of Israel’s blessing in the coming kingdom. After being restrained in bondage for centuries, she will be like a deer let loose in the open to enjoy the liberty she has forgotten was ever possible. This freedom too will bring beautiful words to her lips. Instead of bitter cursing, her mouth will be filled with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. In the Church of God today we are already blessed with such a experience, as Eph 4:8 tells us, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts of men.” The marvelous death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus has set believers free from a state of captivity; and to express that liberty we are given gifts from God to speak “beautiful words,” words that could never have been spoken before the Lord Jesus died and rose again.
JOSEPH
(vs.22-26)
The two sons of Rachel are left for the last consideration, though they are actually first in importance. For they are both types of the Lord Jesus. Joseph speaks of Christ as the One through whom all blessing in the millennium will be secured both for Israel and the nations. He is a fruitful bough by a well, drawing refreshment from the well of the Word of God, and his branches running over the wall, the wall of separation between Israel and the Gentiles. His branches run over the blessing of Gentiles.
The fruitfulness was not hindered by the fiercest opposition that the enemy could mount against Him. Joseph in his many afflictions remained firm and decided in his stand for God, in this way being a lovely type of Christ, who suffered far more than Joseph, His hands being made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. To press this typical character more fully, it is said in verse 24, “From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.” As the Shepherd Christ is the example of faithful, tender care. As the Stone He is the solid basis of all blessing.
Verses 25-26 indicate the widespread fulness of the blessing of the Almighty resting upon the Lord Jesus. There are blessings of heaven above, implying, though only faintly, that He would have a heavenly company, as in fact He does today, “blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3). “Blessing of the deep that lies beneath” implies the blessing of Gentile nations through the Messiah of Israel (Rev 17:15). The heavens speak of that which is above Israel, and the deep that which is in a lower place, as Gentiles will rightly be.
As to Israel, the Lord will share with her “blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father have excelled the blessing of my ancestors, up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.” The breasts speak of nourishment, and the womb, of fruitfulness, thus showing that the land will produce abundantly. Israel’s blessing in Christ will excel the blessings of Jacob’s ancestors, Abraham and Isaac, with widespread earthly blessing, “to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.” This completes the three spheres of the great blessing connected with the Messiah, the heavens, the deep, and the hills of earth.
All are on the head of Joseph, the one who was separated from his brothers, typical of Christ, blessed after suffering. All blessing then in the coming day will be seen to depend on the One who has suffered total rejection and the ignominious death of the cross, but who has been raised from among the dead and exalted above all heavens.
BENJAMIN
(v.27)
In contrast to Joseph, only one short verse is devoted to Benjamin. He speaks of Christ also, not as the Sufferer, but as “the Man of God’s right hand,” who will, as a wolf, strike fear into the heart of His enemies, judging in perfect righteousness all who rebel against divine authority. This will be seen in the judgments of the tribulation and also at the Great White Throne, where at last every enemy will be fully put under His feet. He will gain “the spoil” also, and divide it among believers. In other words, there will be results in blessing for Him and for believers because evil has finally received its just judgment.
Verse 28 concludes the subject of Israel’s blessing each of the tribes. It may not sound as though Simeon and Levi were blessed (vs.5-7), but the honest exposure of their sin is in itself a blessing if they would simply accept it in a spirit of self-judgment.
THE DEATH OF JACOB
(vs.29-33)
Jacob, maintaining full possession of his senses to the end, calmly gives instruction to his sons to bury him with his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, in the cave of Machpelah that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite (ch.23:16-20). Jacob was thus indicating that he had the same faith as his fathers in the resurrection power of God. He mentions that Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah and Leah had been buried there. Also, he reminds his sons that the purchase of the cave and the field had been made from the children of Heth, which means “fear.” Those unsaved are the children of fear, who, through fear of death, are all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb 2:15).
The evidence of Jacob’s being at this time led by the Spirit of God is beautiful. All seems to be ordered with calm deliberation, every necessary thing attended to in perfect time, so that his death was the expected culmination of all. How different was this than the disorder of much of his earlier life.
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
(a) last days.
(a) When God will bring you out of Egypt, and because he speaks of the Messiah, he calls it the last days.
14. Jacob’s blessing of his sons 49:1-28
Having blessed Pharaoh (Gen 47:7-10) and Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen 48:15-20), Jacob next blessed all 12 of his sons and foretold what would become of each of them and their descendants. He disqualified Reuben, Simeon, and Levi from leadership and gave that blessing to Judah. He granted the double portion to Joseph. This chapter is the last one in Genesis that gives the destinies of the family members of Abraham’s chosen line. It contains blessings, curses, judgments, and promises, all of which are prominent in Genesis.
"These chapters, then, take the story from the first mention of Abram in Gen 11:26 to the first mention of Israel as a people, a people blessed by God with a special blessing." [Note: Whybray, p. 4.]
The writer of Genesis called this section Jacob’s blessing (Gen 49:28). Isaac had prophetically outlined the future of his two sons’ families (ch. 27). Earlier Noah had prophesied the future of Canaan’s descendants (Gen 9:25-27). Likewise Jacob by divine inspiration foretold major characteristics of each of the twelve tribes that would issue from his twelve sons (Gen 49:1). Each blessing contains at least one of these elements: 1) a synopsis of the son’s personality, 2) a hint as to his potential, and 3) a prophecy of his future.
"Jacob predicted how things would turn out for each of his sons and their descendants, should they continue to display the character they had displayed thus far." [Note: Joel D. Heck, "A History of Interpretation of Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33," Bibliotheca Sacra 147:585 (January-March l990):20. See also Stigers, p. 325.]
This is the first long poem in the Bible.
"This chapter, in that it is poetry, seems to be intended to be a high point of the toledot ya’aqob (i.e., chaps. 37-50), if not the whole book of Genesis." [Note: R. E. Longacre, Joseph: A Story of Divine Providence, p. 23.]
This blessing rested on God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Each son learned how his branch of the family would benefit from and be a channel of blessing relative to the patriarchal promises. The natural character of each son and the consequences of that character would have their outcome in the future of the Israelites. The choices and consequently the characters of the patriarchs affected their descendants for generations to come, as is usually true.
"The Spirit of God revealed to the dying patriarch Israel the future history of his seed, so that he discovered in the character of his sons the future development of the tribes proceeding from them, and with prophetic clearness assigned to each of them its position and importance in the nation into which they were to expand in the promised inheritance." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 1:387.]
"It is fitting that the Book of Genesis, which opened with the creative power of the divine word, closes with the notion of the effective power of the inspired predictive word of the patriarch." [Note: Sarna, Understanding Genesis, p. 331.]
Jacob assumed in his blessing that his family would increase and possess the land of Canaan. This optimism reveals his faith.
"God gave His people this prophecy to bear them through the dismal barrenness of their experiences and to show them that He planned all the future. For Jacob’s family, the future lay beyond the bondage of Egypt in the land of promise. But the enjoyment of the blessings of that hope would depend on the participants’ faithfulness. So from the solemnity of his deathbed Jacob evaluated his sons one by one, and carried his evaluation forward to the future tribes." [Note: Ross, "Genesis," p. 98.]
The scope of his prophecy extends into the millennial age. God did not fulfill these prophecies completely during the lifetime of Jacob’s sons. He did not do so during Israel’s years in the land beginning with the conquest of Joshua and ending with the captivities either. Moreover, He has not done so since then.
"Jacob’s last words to his sons have become the occasion for a final statement of the book’s major theme: God’s plan to restore the lost blessing [lost in the Fall] through the offspring of Abraham.
"By framing Jacob’s last words between Gen 49:1 and Gen 49:28, the writer shows where his interests lie. Jacob’s words look to the future-’in days to come’-and draw on the past, viz., God’s blessing of mankind. It is within that context we are to read and understand Jacob’s words in this chapter." [Note: Sailhamer, "Genesis," pp. 274, 275.]
Reuben. As the first-born, Reuben could have anticipated preeminence among his brothers, leadership of the tribes, priesthood within the family, and the double portion of the birthright. However, he forfeited these blessings preferring rather to give free reign to his lust (Gen 35:22; cf. Esau). The leadership of the tribes therefore went to Judah, the priesthood to Levi eventually (cf. Exo 32:25-29; Num 3:12-13), and the double portion to Joseph. Joseph was the first-born of the favored Rachel whereas Reuben was Leah’s first-born. Joseph’s priority was not due solely to Jacob’s preference, however, but to the will of God as revealed in Joseph’s dreams.
"About no other tribe do we know so little as about Reuben. . . . The tribe produced no significant man, no judge, no king, no prophet." [Note: von Rad, p. 423.]
No priest came from Reuben either. Irresolution marked the Reubenites in the time of Israel’s judges (Jdg 5:15-16).
"This forfeiture is fulfilled historically in later times when the Reubenites living in Transjordan are integrated into the tribe of Gad.
"From this first oracle the teaching is clear that the behavior of one individual affects the destiny of his descendants." [Note: Hamilton, The Book . . . Chapters 18-50, p. 647.]
THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIBES
Gen 48:1-22; Gen 49:1-33
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. The Old Testament Church, quite as truly as the New, formed one whole with Christ. Apart from Him it had no meaning, and would have had no existence. It was the promised seed, always growing more and more to its perfect development in Christ. As the promise was kept to Abraham when Isaac was born, and as Isaac was truly the promised seed-in so far as he was a part of the series that led on to Christ, and was given in fulfilment of the promise that promised Christ to the world-so all through the history of Israel we must bear in mind that in them God is fulfilling this same promise, and that they are the promised seed in so far as they are one with Christ. And this interprets to us all those passages of the prophets regarding which men have disputed whether they are to be applied to Israel or to Christ: passages in which God addresses Israel in such words as, “Behold My servant,” “Mine elect,” and so forth, and in the interpretation of which it has been thought sufficient proof that they do not apply to Christ, to prove that they do apply to Israel; whereas, on the principle just laid down, it might much more safely be argued that because they apply to Israel, therefore they apply to Christ. 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. Every father desires to leave to his sons whatever he has himself found helpful, but as they gather round his dying bed, or as he sits setting his house in order, and considering what portion is appropriate for each, he recognises that to some of them it is quite useless to bequeath the most valuable parts of his property, while in others he discerns a capacity which promises the improvement of all that is entrusted to it. And from the earliest times the various characters of the tribes were destined to modify the blessing conveyed to them by their father. 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. A peculiar interest attaches to the history of some nations, and is not altogether absent from our own, from the precision with which we can trace the character of families, descending often with the same One knows at once to what families to look for restless and turbulent spirits, ready for conspiracy and revolution; and one knows also where to seek steady and faithful loyalty, public-spiritedness, or native ability. And in Israels national character there was room for the great distinguishing features of the tribes, and to show the richness and variety with which the promise of God could fulfil itself wherever it was received. The distinguishing features which Jacob depicts in the blessings of his sons are necessarily veiled under the poetic figures of prophecy, and spoken of as they would reveal themselves in worldly matters; but these features were found in all the generations of the tribes, and displayed themselves in things spiritual also. For a man has not two characters, but one; and what he is in the world, that he is in his religion. In our own country, it is seen how the forms of worship, and even the doctrines believed, and certainly the modes of religious thought and feeling, depend on the natural character, and the natural character on the local situation of the respective sections of the community. No doubt in a country like ours, where men so constantly migrate from place to place, and where one common literature tends to mould us all to the same way of thinking, you do get men of all kinds in every place; yet even among ourselves the character of a place is generally still visible, and predominates over all that mingles with it. Much more must this character have been retained in a country where each man could trace his ancestry up to the father of the tribe, and cultivated with pride the family characteristics, and had but little intercourse, either literary or personal, with other minds and other manners. As we know by dialect and by the manners of the people when we pass into a new country, so must the Israelite have known by the eye and ear when he had crossed the county frontier, when he was conversing with a Benjamite, and when with a descendant of Judah. We are not therefore to suppose that any of these utterances of Jacob are mere geographical predictions, or that they depict characteristics which might appear in civil life, but not in religion and the Church, or that they would die out with the first generation.
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. It has often been remarked that as a man draws near to death, he seems to see many things in a much clearer light, and especially gets glimpses into the future, which are hidden from others.
“The souls dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made.”
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. Jacob has studied these sons of his for fifty years, and has had his acute perception of character painfully enough called to exercise itself on them. He has all his life long had a liking for analysing men s rune life, knowing that, when he understands that, he can better use them for his own ends; and these sons of his own have cost him thought over and above that sometimes penetrating interest which a father win take in the growth of a sons character; and now he knows them thoroughly, understands their temptations, their weaknesses, their capabilities, and, as a wise head of a house, can, with delicate and unnoticed skill, balance the one against the other, ward off awkward collisions, and prevent the evil from destroying the good. This knowledge of Jacob prepares him for being the intelligent agent by whom God predicts in outline the future of His Church.
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. Some of us have got so little comfort or strength from religion ourselves, that we have no heart to offer it to others; and most of us have a feeling that we should seem to trifle were we to offer invisible aid against very visible calamity. At least we feel that we are doing a daring thing in making such an offer, and can scarce get over the desire that we had something to speak of which sight could appreciate, and which did not require the exercise of faith. Again and again the wish rises within us that to the sick man we could bring health as well as the promise of forgiveness, and that to the poor we could grant an earthly, while we make known a heavenly, inheritance. One who has experienced these scruples, and known how hard it is to get rid of them, will know also how to honour the faith of Jacob, by which he assumes the right to bless Pharaoh-though he is himself a mere sojourner by sufferance in Pharaohs land, and living on his bounty-and by which he gathers his children round him and portions out to them a land which seemed to have been most barren to himself, and which now seemed quite beyond his reach. The enjoyments of it, which he himself had not very deeply tasted, he yet knew were real; and if there were a look of scepticism, or of scorn, on the face of any one of his sons; if the unbelief of any received the prophetic utterances as the ravings of delirium, or the fancies of an imbecile and worn-out mind going back to the scenes of its youth, in Jacob himself there was so simple and unsuspecting a faith in Gods promise, that he dealt with the land as if it were the only portion worth bequeathing to his sons, as if every Canaanite were already cast out of it, and as if he knew his sons could never be tempted by the wealth of Egypt to turn with contempt from the land of promise. And if we would attain to this boldness of his, and be able to speak of spiritual and future blessings as very substantial and valuable, we must ourselves learn to make much of Gods promise, and leave no taint of unbelief in our reception of it.
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 naturalised, 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. So universally acknowledged and legitimate a desire is it to pass to ones children the honour achieved by a life of exertion, that states have no higher rewards to confer on their most useful servants than a title which their descendants may wear. But Joseph would not suffer his children to risk the loss of their share in Gods peculiar blessing, not for the most promising openings in life, or the highest civil honours. If the thoroughly open identification of them with the shepherds, and their profession of a belief in a distant inheritance, which must have made them appear madmen in the eyes of the Egyptians, if this was to cut them off from worldly advancement, Joseph was not careful of this, for resolved he was that, at any cost, they should be among Gods people. 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 uncle, as heads of tribes, so that Joseph is represented through the whole history by the two populous and powerful tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. No greater honour could have been put on Joseph, nor any more distinct and lasting recognition made of the indebtedness of his family to him, and of how he had been as a father bringing new life to his brethren, than this, that his sons should be raised to the rank of heads of tribes, on a level with the immediate sons of Jacob. And no higher honour could have been put on the two lads themselves than that they should thus be treated as if they were their father Joseph-as if they had his worth and his rank. He is merged in them, and all that he has earned is, throughout the history, to be found, not in his own name, but in theirs. It all proceeds from him; but his enjoyment is found in their enjoyment, his worth acknowledged in their fruitfulness. Thus did God familiarise the Jewish mind through its whole history with the idea, if they chose to think and have ideas, of adoption, and of an adoption of a peculiar kind, of an adoption where already there was an heir who, by this adoption, has his name and worth merged in the persons now received into his place. 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 steeping 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 case 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. It is so, often in precisely the way in which Joseph found it so; the son whose youth is most anxiously cared for, to whom the interests of the younger members of the family are sacrificed, and who is commended to God continually to receive His right-hand blessing, this son seems neither to receive nor to dispense much blessing; but the younger, less thought of, left to work his own way, is favoured by God, and becomes the comfort and support of his parents when the elder has failed of his duty. And in the case of much that we hold dear, the same rule is seen; a pursuit we wish to be successful in we can make little of, and are thrown back from continually, while something else into which we have thrown ourselves almost accidentally prospers in our hand and blesses us. Again and again, for years together, we put forward some cherished desire to Gods right hand, and are displeased, like Joseph, that still the hand of greater blessing should pass to some other thing. Does God not know what is oldest with us, what has been longest at our hearts, and is dearest to us? Certainly He does: “I know it, My son, I know it,” He answers to all our expostulations. It is not because He does not understand or regard your predilections, your natural and excusable preferences, that He sometimes refuses to gratify your whole desire, and pours upon you blessings of a kind somewhat different from those you most. earnestly covet. He will give you the whole that Christ hath merited; but for the application and distribution of that grace and blessing you must be content to trust Him.
You may be at a loss to know why He does no more to deliver you from some sin, or why He does not make you more successful in your efforts to aid others, or why, while He so liberally prospers you in one part of your condition, you get so much less in another that is far nearer your heart; but God does what He will with His own, and if you do not find in one point the whole blessing and prosperity you think should flow from such a Mediator as you have, you may only conclude that what is lacking there will elsewhere be found more wisely bestowed. And is it not a perpetual encouragement to us that God does not merely crown what nature has successfully begun, that it is not the likely and the naturally good that are most blessed, but that God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are? In Reuben, the firstborn, 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. Probably the gross offence had not been made known to the family. At least, the words “he went up” may be understood as addressed in explanation to the brethren. It may indeed have been that the blind old man, forcibly recalling the long-past transgression, is here uttering a mournful, regretful soliloquy, rather than addressing any one. It may be that these words were uttered to himself as he went back upon the one deed that had disclosed to him his sons real character, and rudely hurled to the ground all the hopes he had built up for his first-born. Yet there is no reason to suppose, on the other hand, that the sin had been previously known or alluded to in the family. Reubens hasty, passionate nature could not understand that if Jacob had felt that sin of his deeply, he should not have shown his resentment; he had stunned his father with the heavy blow, and because he did not cry out and strike him in return, he thought him little hurt. So do shallow natures tremble for a night after their sin, and when they find that the sun rises and men greet them as cordially as before, and that no hand lays hold on them from the past, they think little more of their sin-do not understand that fatal calm that precedes the storm. Had the memory of Reubens sin survived in Jacobs mind all the sad events that had since happened, and all the stirring incidents of the emigration and the new life in Egypt? 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 feelings, 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. Would they only pursue one direction, and concentrate their energies on one subject, they might become true heirs of promise, blessed and blessing; but they seem to lose relish for every pursuit on the first taste of success-all their energy seems to have boiled over and evaporated in the first glow, and sinks as the water that has just been noisily boiling when the fire is withdrawn from under it. No impression made upon them is permanent: like water, they are plastic, easily impressible, but utterly incapable of retaining an impression; and therefore, like water, they have a downward tendency, or at the best are but retained in their place by pressure from without, and have no eternal power of growth. And the misery of this character is often increased by the desire to excel which commonly accompanies instability. It is generally this very desire which prompts a man to hurry from one aim to another, to give up one path to excellence when he sees that other men are making way upon another: having no internal convictions of his own, he is guided mostly by the successes of other men, the most dangerous of all guides. So that such a man has all the bitterness of an eager desire doomed never to be satisfied. Conscious to himself of capacity for something, feeling in him the excellency of power, and having that “excellency of dignity,” or graceful and princely refinement, which the knowledge of many things, and intercourse with many kinds of people, have imparted to him, he feels all the more that pervading weakness, that greedy, lustful craving for all kinds of priority, and for enjoying all the various advantages which other men severally enjoy, which will not let him finally choose and adhere to his own line of things, but distracts him by a thousand purposes which ever defeat one another.
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.
In the sin, Levi seems to have been the moving spirit, Simeon the abetting tool, and in the punishment, it is the more dangerous tribe that s scattered, so that the other is left companionless. In the blessings of Moses, the tribe of Simeon is passed over in silence; and that the tribe of Levi should have been so used for Gods immediate service stands as evidence that punishments, however severe and desolating, even threatening something bordering on extinction, may yet become blessings to Gods people. The sword of murder was displaced in Levis hand by the knife of sacrifice; their fierce revenge against sinners was converted into hostility against sin; their apparent zeal for the forms of their religion was consecrated to the service of the tabernacle and temple; their fanatical pride, which prompted them to treat all other people as the offscouring of the earth, was informed by a better spirit, and used for the upbuilding and instruction of the people of Israel. In order to understand why this tribe, of all others, should have been chosen for the service of the sanctuary and for the instruction of the people, we must not only recognise how their being scattered in punishment of their sin over all the land fitted them to be the educators of the nation and the representatives of all the tribes, but also we must consider that the sin itself which Levi had committed broke the one command which men had up till this time received from the mouth of God; no law had as yet been published but that which had been given to Noah and his sons regarding bloodshed, and which was given in circumstances so appalling, and with sanctions so emphatic, that it might ever have rung in mens ears, and stayed the hand of the murderer. In saying, “At the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man,” God had shown that human life was to be counted sacred. He Himself had swept the race from the face of the earth, but adding this command immediately after, He, showed all the more forcibly that punishment was His own prerogative, and that none but those appointed by Him might shed-blood-“Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord.” To take private revenge, as Levi did, was to take the sword out of Gods hand, and to say that Gods was not careful enough of justice, and but a poor guardian of right and wrong in the world; and to destroy human life in the wanton and cruel manner in which Levi had destroyed the Shechemites, and to do it under colour and by the aid of religious zeal, was to God the most hateful of sins. But none can know the hatefulness of a sin so distinctly as he who has fallen into it, and is enduring the punishment of it penitently and graciously, and therefore Levi was of all others the best fitted to be entrusted with those sacrificial symbols which set forth the value of all human life, and especially of the life of Gods own Son. 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. As the serpent is the cognisance of Dan, the wolf of Benjamin, the hind of Naphtali, so is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He scorns to gain his end by a serpentine craft, and is himself easily taken in; he does not ravin like a wolf, merely plundering for the sake of booty, but gives freely and generously, even to the sacrifice of his own person: nor has he the mere graceful and ineffective swiftness of the hind, but the rushing onset of the lion-a character which, more than any other, men reverence and admire-“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise”-and a character which, more than any other, fits a man to take the lead and rule. 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. So that this prediction is but the first whisper of that which was afterwards so distinctly declared, that Davids seed should sit on the throne for ever and ever. It was not accomplished in the letter, any more than the promise to David was; the tribe of Judah cannot in any intelligible sense be said to have had rulers of her own up to the coming of Christ, or for some centuries previous to that date. For those who would quickly judge God and His promise by what they could see in their own day, there was enough to provoke them to challenge God for forgetting His promise. But in due time the King of men, He to whom all nations have gathered, did spring from this tribe; and need it be said that the very fact of His appearance proved that the supremacy had not departed from Judah? This prediction, then, partook of the character of very many of the Old Testament prophecies; there was sufficient fulfilment in the letter to seal, as it were, the promise, and give men a token that it was being accomplished, and yet so mysterious a falling short, as to cause men to look beyond the literal fulfilment, on which alone their hopes had at first rested, to some far higher and more perfect spiritual fulfilment.
But not only has it been objected that the sceptre departed from Judah long before Christ came, and that therefore the word Shiloh cannot refer to Him, but also it has been truly said that wherever else the word occurs it is the name of a town-that town, viz., where the ark for a long time was stationed, and from which the allotment of territory was made to the various tribes; and the prediction has been supposed to mean that Judah should be the leading tribe till the land was entered. Many objections to this naturally occur, and need not be stated. 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 “peace-making,” 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 seen 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 more than it had done, and never satisfied but in Him.
Zebulun, the sixth and last of Leahs sons, was so called because said Leah, “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. We find this same feature indicated in the blessing of Moses: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out, and Issachar in thy tents”-Zebulun having the enterprise of a seafaring community, and Issachar the quiet bucolic contentment of an agricultural or pastoral population: Zebulun always restlessly eager for emigration or commerce, for going out of one kind or other; Issachar satisfied to live and die in his own tents. 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, having 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. It is not for all men to quit the shore, and risk themselves in the miseries and disasters of so comfortless and hazardous a life; but happy the people which possesses, from one generation to another, men who must see with their own eyes, and to whose restless nature the discomforts and dangers of an unsettled life have a charm: It is not the instability of Reuben that we have in these men, but the irrepressible longing of the born seaman, who must lift the misty veil of the horizon and penetrate its mystery. And we are not to condemn, even when we know we should not imitate, men who cannot rest satisfied with the ground on which we stand, but venture into regions of speculation, of religious thought which we have never trodden, and may deem hazardous. The nourishment we receive is not all native-grown; there are views of truth which may very profitably be imported from strange and distant lands: and there is no land, no province of thought, from which we may not derive what may advantageously be mixed with our own ideas; no direction in which a speculative mind can go in which it may not find something which may give a fresh zest to what we already use, or be a real addition to our knowledge. No doubt men who refuse to confine themselves to one way of viewing truth-men who venture to go close to persons of very different opinions from their own, who determine for themselves to prove all things, who have no very special love for what they were native to and originally taught, who show rather a taste for strange and new opinions-these persons live a life of great hazard, and in the end are generally, like men who have been much at sea, unsettled; they have not fixed opinions, and are in themselves, as individual men, unsatisfactory and unsatisfied; but still they have done good to the community, by bringing to us ideas and knowledge which otherwise we could not have obtained. Such men God gives us to widen our views; to prevent us from thinking that we have the best of everything; to bring us to acknowledge that others, who perhaps in the main are not so favoured as ourselves, are yet possessed of some things we ourselves would be the better of. And though these men must themselves necessarily hang loosely, scarcely attached very firmly to any part of the Church, like a seafaring, population, and often even with a border running very close to heathenism, yet let us own that the Church has need of such-that without them the different sections of the Church would know too little of one another, and too little of the facts of this worlds life. 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 ease and plenty to a life of hardship and glory. They are not lazy nor idle, but are quite willing to use their strength so long as they are not overdriven out of their sleekness. They have neither ambition nor enterprise, and willingly bow their shoulders to bear, and become the servants of those who will free them from the anxiety of planning and managing, and give them a fair and regular remuneration for their labour. This is not a noble nature, but in a world in which ambition so frequently runs through a thorny and difficult path to a disappointing and shameful end, this disposition has much to say in its own defence. It will often accredit itself with un-challengeable common sense, and will maintain that it alone enjoys life and gets the good of it. They will tell you they are the only true utilitarians, that to be ones own master only brings cares, and that the degradation of servitude is only an idea; that really servants are quite as well off as masters. Look at them: the one is as a strong, powerful, well-cared-for animal, his work but a pleasant exercise to him, and when it is over never, following him into his rest; he eats the good of the land, and has what all seem to be in vain striving for, rest and contentment: the other, the master, has indeed his position, but that only multiplies his duties; he has wealth, but that proverbially only increases his cares and the mouths that are to consume it; it is he who has the air of a bondsman, and never, meet him when you may, seems wholly at ease and free from care.
Yet, after all that can be said in favour of the bargain an Issachar makes, and however he may be satisfied to rest, and in a quiet, peaceful way enjoy life, men feel that at the best there is something despicable about such a character. He gives his labour and is fed, he pays his tribute and is protected; but men feel that they ought to meet the dangers, responsibilities, and difficulties of life in their own persons, and at first hand, and not buy themselves off so from the burden of individual self-control and responsibility. The animal enjoyment of this life and its physical comforts may be a very good ingredient in a national character: it might be well for Israel to have this patient, docile mass of strength in its midst: it may be well for our country that there are among us not only men eager for the highest honours and posts, but a great multitude of men perhaps equally serviceable and capable, but whose desires never rise beyond the ordinary social comforts; the contentedness of such, even though reprehensible, tempers or balances the ambition of the others, and when it comes into personal contact rebukes its feverishness. 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?
There seems to have been an improvement in this tribe, an infusion of some new life into it. In the time of Deborah, indeed, it is with a note of surprise that, while celebrating the victory of Israel, she names even Issachar as having been roused to action, and as having helped in the common cause -” the princes of Issachar were with Deborah, even Issachar”; but we find them again in the days of David wiping out their reproach, and standing by him manfully.. And there an apparently new character is given to them-“the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” This quite accords, however, with the kind of practical philosophy which we have seen to be imbedded in Issachars character. Men they were not distracted by high thoughts and ambitions, but who judged things according to their substantial value to themselves; and who were, therefore, in a position to give much good advice on practical matters-advice which would always have a tendency to trend too much towards mere utilitarianism and worldliness, and to partake rather of crafty politic diplomacy than of far-seeing statesmanship, yet trustworthy for a certain class of subjects. And here, too, they represent the same class in the Church, already alluded to; for one often finds that men who will not interrupt their own comfort, and who have a kind of stolid indifference as to what comes of the good of the Church, have yet also much shrewd practical wisdom; and were these men, instead of spending their sagacity in cynical denunciation of what the Church does, to throw themselves into the cause of the Church, and heartily advise her what she ought to do, and help in the doing of it, their observation of human affairs, and political understanding of the times, would be turned to good account, instead of being a reproach.
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, arose 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,” recognising 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 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.
But why, in the full flow of his eloquent description of the varied virtues of his sons, does the patriarch suddenly check himself, lie back on his pillows, and quietly say, “I have waited for Thy salvation, O God?” Does he feel his strength leave him so that he cannot go on to bless the rest of his sons, and has but time to yield his own spirit to God? Are we here to interpolate one of those scenes we are all fated to witness when some eagerly watched breath seems altogether to fail before the last words have been uttered, when those who have been standing apart, through sorrow and reverence, quickly gather round the bed to catch the last look, and when the dying man again collects himself and finishes his work? Probably Jacob, having, as it were, projected himself forward into those stirring and warlike times he has been speaking of, so realises the danger of his people, and the futility even of such help as Dans when God does not help, that, as if from the midst of doubtful war, he cries, as with a battle cry, “I have waited for Thy salvation, O God.” His longing for victory and blessing to his sons far overshot the deliverance from Philistines accomplished by Samson. That deliverance he thankfully accepts and joyfully predicts, but in the spirit of an Israelite indeed, and a genuine child of the promise, he remains unsatisfied, and sees in all such deliverance only the pledge of Gods coming nearer and nearer to His people bringing with Him His eternal salvation. In Dan, therefore, we have not the catholic spirit of Zebulun, nor the practical, though sluggish, temper of Issachar; but we are guided rather to the disposition which ought to be maintained through all Christian life, and which, with special care, needs to be cherished in Church-life-a disposition to accept with gratitude all success and triumph, but still to aim through all at that highest victory which God alone can accomplish for His people. It is to be the battle-cry with which every Christian and every Church is to preserve itself, not merely against external foes, but against the far more disastrous influence of self-confidence, pride, and glorying in man-“For Thy salvation, O God, do we wait.”
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. The Church has often prospered by her Dan-like insignificance; the world not troubling itself to make war upon her. But oftener Gad is a better representative of the mode in which her successes are gained. We find that the men of Gad were among the most valuable of Davids warriors, when his necessity evoked all the various skill and energy of Israel. “Of the Gadites,” we read, “there separated themselves unto David into the hold of the wilderness men of might. and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like. the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains: one of the least of them was better than a hundred, and the greatest mightier than a thousand.” 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. If you be among the children of promise, among those that gather round God to catch His blessing, you shall overcome at the last. You may now feel as if assaulted by treacherous, murderous foes, irregular troops, that betake themselves to every cruel deceit, and are ruthless in spoiling you; you may be assailed by so many and strange temptations that you are bewildered and cannot lift a hand to resist, scarce seeing where your danger comes from; you may be buffeted by messengers of Satan, distracted by a sudden and tumultuous incursion of a crowd of cares so that you are moved away from the old habits of your life amid which you seem to stand safely; your heart may seem to be the rendezvous of all ungodly and wicked thoughts, you may feel trodden under foot and overrun by sin, but, with the blessing of God, you shall overcome at the last. Only cultivate that dogged pertinacity of Gad, which has no thought of ultimate defeat, but rallies cheerfully and resolutely after every discomfiture.
PREFACE.
Much is now denied or doubted, within the Church itself, concerning the Book of Exodus, which was formerly accepted with confidence by all Christians.
But one thing can neither be doubted nor denied. Jesus Christ did certainly treat this book, taking it as He found it, as possessed of spiritual authority, a sacred scripture. He taught His disciples to regard it thus, and they did so.
Therefore, however widely His followers may differ about its date and origin, they must admit the right of a Christian teacher to treat this book, taking it as he finds it, as a sacred scripture and invested with spiritual authority. It is the legitimate subject of exposition in the Church.
Such work this volume strives, however imperfectly, to perform. Its object is to edify in the first place, and also, but in the second place, to inform. Nor has the author consciously shrunk from saying what seemed to him proper to be said because the utterance would be unwelcome, either to the latest critical theory, or to the last sensational gospel of an hour.
But since controversy has not been sought, although exposition has not been suppressed when it carried weapons, by far the greater part of the volume appeals to all who accept their Bible as, in any true sense, a gift from God.
No task is more difficult than to exhibit the Old Testament in the light of the New, discovering the permanent in the evanescent, and the spiritual in the form and type which it inhabited and illuminated. This book is at least the result of a firm belief that such a connection between the two Testaments does exist, and of a patient endeavour to receive the edification offered by each Scripture, rather than to force into it, and then extort from it, what the expositor desires to find. Nor has it been supposed that by allowing the imagination to assume, in sacred things, that rank as a guide which reason holds in all other practical affairs, any honour would be done to Him Who is called the Spirit of knowledge and wisdom, but not of fancy and quaint conceits.
If such an attempt does, in any degree, prove successful and bear fruit, this fact will be of the nature of a scientific demonstration.
If this ancient Book of Exodus yields solid results to a sober devotional exposition in the nineteenth Christian century, if it is not an idle fancy that its teaching harmonises with the principles and theology of the New Testament, and even demands the New Testament as the true commentary upon the Old, what follows? How comes it that the oak is potentially in the acorn, and the living creature in the egg? No germ is a manufactured article: it is a part of the system of the universe.
ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE PROLOGUE, Exo 1:1-6.
Books linked by conjunction “And:” Scripture history a connected whole.
So is secular history organic: “Philosophy of history.” The Pentateuch being a still closer unity, Exodus rehearses the descent into Egypt.
Heredity: the family of Jacob.
Death of Joseph. Influence of Egypt on the shepherd race.
A healthy stock: good breeding. Goethe’s aphorism.
Ourselves and our descendants.
GOD IN HISTORY, Exo 1:7.
In Exodus, national history replaces biography.
Contrasted narratives of Jacob and Moses. Spiritual progress from Genesis to Exodus.
St. Paul’s view: Law prepares for Gospel, especially by our failures.
This explains other phenomena: failures in various circumstances, of innocence in Eden; of an elect family; now of a race, a nation.
Israel, failing with all advantages, needs a Messiah. Faith justifies, in Old Testament as in New.
Scripture history reveals God in this life, in all things.
True spirituality owns God in the secular: this is a gospel for our days.
THE OPPRESSION, Exo 1:7-22.
Early prosperity: its dangers: political supports vain.
Joseph forgotten. National responsibilities: despotism.
Nations and their chiefs. Our subject races.
The Church and her King: imputation. Pharaoh precipitates what he fears.
Egypt and her aliens: modern parallels.
Tyranny is tyrannous even when cultured.
Our undue estrangement from the fallen: Jesus a brother. Toil crushes the spirit
Israel idolatrous. Religious dependence.
Direct interposition required. Bitter oppression.
Pharaoh drops the mask. Defeated by the human heart. The midwives.
Their falsehood. Morality is progressive.
Culture and humanity.
Religion and the child.
CHAPTER II.
THE RESCUE OF MOSES, Exo 2:1-10.
Importance of the individual.
A man versus “the Time-spirit.”
The parents of Moses.
Their family: their goodly child.
Emotion helps faith, 30.
The ark in the bulrushes.
Pharaoh’s daughter and Miriam.
Guidance for good emotions: the Church for humanity.
THE CHOICE OF MOSES, Exo 2:11-15.
God employs means.
Value of endowment. Moses and his family. “The reproach of Christ.”
An impulsive act.
Impulses not accidents. The hopes of Moses.
Moses and his brethren. His flight.
MOSES IN MIDIAN, Exo 2:16-22.
Energy in disaster.
Disinterested bravery. Parallels with a variation.
The Unseen a refuge. Duty of resisting small wrongs. His wife.
A lonely heart.
CHAPTER III.
THE BURNING BUSH, Exo 2:23-25.
Death of Raamses. Misery continues.
The cry of the oppressed.
Discipline of Moses.
How a crisis comes.
God hitherto unmentioned. The Angel of the Lord.
An unconsuming fire.
Inquiry: reverence. God finds, not man.
“Take off thy shoe.” “The God of thy father.”
Immortality. “My people,” not saints only.
The good land. The commission.
God with him. A strange token, 53.
A NEW NAME, Exo 3:14; Exo 6:2-3.
Why Moses asked the name of God: idolatry: pantheism.
A progressive revelation.
Jehovah. The sound corrupted. Similar superstitions yet.
What it told the Jews. Reality of being.
Jews not saved by ideas. Streams of tendency. The Self-contained. We live in our past.
And in our future.
Yet Jehovah not the impassive God of Lucretius.
The Immutable is Love. This is our help.
Human will is not paralysed.
The teaching of St. Paul. All this is practical.
This gives stability to all other revelations. Our own needs.
THE COMMISSION, Exo 3:10, Exo 3:16-22.
God comes where He sends.
The Providential man. Prudence.
Sincerity of demand for a brief respite.
God has already visited them. By trouble He transplants.
The “borrowing” of jewels.
CHAPTER IV.
MOSES HESITATES, Exo 4:1-17.
Scripture is impartial: Josephus.
Hindrance from his own people. The rod.
The serpent: the leprosy.
“I am not eloquent.”
God with us. Aaron the Levite.
Responsibility of not working. The errors of Moses.
Power of fellowship. Vague fears.
With his brother, Moses will go. The Church.
This craving met by Christ.
Family affection. Examples.
MOSES OBEYS, Exo 4:18-31.
Fidelity to his employer. Reticence.
Resemblance to story of Jesus. He is the Antitype of all experiences.
Counterpoint in history. “Israel is My son.”
A neglected duty Zipporah. Was she a helpmeet?
Domestic unhappiness. History v. myth.
The failures of the good.
Men of destiny are not irresponsible.
His first followers: a joyful reception.
Spiritual joy and reaction.
CHAPTER V.
PHARAOH REFUSES, Exo 5:1-23.
Moses at court again. Formidable.
Power of convictions but also of tyranny and pride. Menephtah: his story.
Was the Pharaoh drowned? The demand of Jehovah.
The refusal.
Is religion idleness? Hebrews were taskmasters.
Demoralised by slavery. They are beaten.
Murmurs against Moses. He returns to God. His remonstrance.
His disappointment. Not really irreverent.
Use of this abortive attempt.
CHAPTER VI.
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MOSES, Exo 6:1-30.
The word Jehovah known before: its consolations now.
The new truth is often implicit in the old.
Discernment more needed than revelation. “Judgments.”
My people: your God.
The tie is of God’s binding.
Fatherhood and sonship.
Faith becomes knowledge. The body hinders the soul.
We are responsible for bodies. Israel weighs Moses down.
We may hold back the saints.
The pedigree.
Indications of genuine history.
“As a god to Pharaoh.”
We also.
CHAPTER VII.
THE HARDENING OF PHARAOH’S HEART, Exo 7:3-13.
The assertion offends many.
Was he a free agent? When hardened. A.V. incorrect.
He resists five plagues spontaneously. The last five are penal.
Not “hardened” in wickedness, but in nerve. A.V. confuses three words: His heart is
(a) “hardened,”
(b) it is made “strong”
(c) “heavy.”
Other examples of these words.
The warning implied.
Moses returns with the signs.
The functions of miracle.
THE PLAGUES, Exo 7:14.
Their vast range.
Their relation to Pantheism, Idolatry, Philosophy.
And to the gods of Egypt. Their retributive fitness.
Their arrangement.
Like our Lord’s, not creative.
God in common things.
Some we inflict upon ourselves. Yet rationalistic analogies fail.
Duration of the conflict.
THE FIRST PLAGUE, Exo 7:14-25.
The probable scene.
Extent of the plague. The magicians. Its duration.
Was Israel exempt? Contrast with first miracle of Jesus.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SECOND PLAGUE, Exo 8:1-15.
Submission demanded. Severity of plague.
Pharaoh humbles himself.
“Glory over me.” Pharaoh breaks faith.
THE THIRD PLAGUE, Exo 8:16-19.
Various theories. A surprise. Magicians baffled.
What they confess.
THE FOURTH PLAGUE, Exo 8:20-32.
“Rising up early.”
Bodily pain. Beetles or flies? “A mixture.”
Goshen exempt. Pharaoh suffers. He surrenders.
Respite and treachery. Would Moses have returned?
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIFTH PLAGUE, Exo 9:1-7.
First attack on life. Animals share our fortunes.
The new summons. Murrain.
Pharaoh’s curiosity.
THE SIXTH PLAGUE, Exo 9:8-12.
No warning, yet Author manifest. Ashes of the furnace.
Suffering in the flesh. The magicians again. Pharaoh’s heart “made strong.”
Dares not retaliate.
THE SEVENTH PLAGUE, Exo 9:13-35.
Expostulation not mockery.
God is wronged by slavery.
Civil liberty is indebted to religion. “Plagues upon thine heart.”
A mis-rendering: why he was not crushed.
An opportunity of escape. The storm.
Ruskin upon terrors of thunderstorm.
Pharaoh confesses sin.
Moses intercedes. The weather in history. Job’s assertion
CHAPTER X.
THE EIGHTH PLAGUE, Exo 10:1-20.
Moses encouraged.
Deliverances should be remembered. A sterner rebuke. Locusts in Egypt.
Their effect. The court interferes. Yet “their hearts hardened” also.
Infatuation of Pharaoh. Parallel of Napoleon.
Women and little ones did share in festivals.
A gentle wind. Locusts. Another surrender.
Relief. Our broken vows.
THE NINTH PLAGUE, Exo 10:21-29.
Menephtah’s sun-worship.
Suddenness of the plague. Concentrated narrative.
Darkness represents death.
The Book of Wisdom upon this plague.
Isaiah’s allusions. The Pharaoh’s character.
Altercation with Moses.
CHAPTER XI.
THE LAST PLAGUE ANNOUNCED, Exo 11:1-10.
This chapter supplements the last. The blow is known to be impending. Uses of its delay.
Israel shall claim wages. The menace.
Parallel with St. John.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PASSOVER, Exo 12:1-28.
Birthday of a nation. The calendar.
“The congregation.” The feast is social.
The nation is based upon the family. No Egyptian house escapes.
National interdependence. The Passover a sacrifice.
What does the blood mean? Rationalistic theories. Harvest festivals.
The unbelieving point of view: what theories of sacrifice were then current? “A sacrifice was a meal.”
Human sacrifices. The Passover “unhistorical.” Kuenen rejects this view.
Phenomena irreconcilable with it.
What is really expressed? Danger even to Jews.
Salvation by grace. Not unbought.
The lamb a ransom. All firstborn are forfeited. Tribe of Levi.
Cash payment. Effect on Hebrew literature.
Its prophetic import.
The Jew must co-operate with God: must also become His guest.
Sacred festivals. Lamb or kid. Four days reserved.
Men are sheep. Heads of houses originally sacrifice. Transition to Levites in progress under Hezekiah, complete under Josiah.
Unleavened bread. The lamb. Roast, not sodden.
Complete consumption. Judgment upon gods of Egypt.
The blood a token unto themselves. On their lintels.
The word “pass-over.”
Domestic teaching.
Many who ate the feast perished. Aliens might share.
THE TENTH PLAGUE, Exo 12:29-36.
The blow falls. Pharaoh was not “firstborn”: his son “sat upon his throne.”
The scene.
The demands of Israel. St. Augustine’s inference.
THE EXODUS, Exo 12:37-42.
The route.
Their cattle, a suggested explanation.
“Four hundred and thirty years.”
CHAPTER XIII.
THE LAW OF THE FIRSTBORN, Exo 13:1.
The consecration of the firstborn.
The Levite. “They are Mine.”
Joy is hopeful. Tradition?
Phylacteries. The ass.
The Philistines. No spiritual miracle.
Education.
THE BONES OF JOSEPH, Exo 13:19.
Joseph influenced Moses.
His faith.
Circumstances overcome by soul. God in the cloud.
Hebrew poetry and modern.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE RED SEA, Exo 14:1-31.
Stopped on the march.
Pharaoh presumes.
The panic.
Moses. Prayer and action. “Self-assertion”?
The midnight march.
The lost army.
ON THE SHORE, Exo 14:30-31.
Impressions deepened. “They believed in Jehovah.” So the faith of the apostles grew.
CHAPTER XV.
THE SONG OF MOSES, Exo 15:1-22.
A song remembered in heaven. Its structure.
The women join. Instruments. Dances.
God the Deliverer, not Moses. “My salvation.”
Gratitude. Anthropomorphism. “Ye are gods.” “Jehovah is a Man–of war.”
The overthrow.
First mention of Divine holiness.
An inverted holiness.
“Thou shalt bring them in.”
SHUR, Exo 15:22-27.
Disillusion. Marah.
A universal danger.
Prayer, and the use of means.
“A statute and an ordinance.” Such compacts often repeated. The offered privilege.
It is still enjoyed.
“The Lord for the body.” Elim.
CHAPTER XVI.
MURMURING FOR FOOD, Exo 16:1-14.
We too fear, although Divinely guarded.
They would fain die satiated.
Relief tries them as want does.
The Sabbath. A rebuke.
Moses is zealous. His “meekness.”
The glory appears.
Quails and manna.
MANNA, Exo 16:15-36.
Their course of life is changed.
A drug resembles manna.
The supernatural follows nature.
They must gather, prepare, be moderate.
Nothing over and no lack. Socialistic perversion.
Socialism. Christ in politics.
SPIRITUAL MEAT, Exo 16:15-36.
Manna is a type. When given.
An unearthly sustenance.
What is spirituality? Christ the true Manna.
Universal, daily, abundant.
The Sabbath. The pot of manna.
CHAPTER XVII.
MERIBAH, Exo 17:1-7.
A greater strain. What if Israel had stood it?
They murmured against Moses. The position of Aaron. An exaggerated outcry.
Witnesses to the miracle. The rock in Horeb.
The rod. Privilege is not acceptance.
AMALEK, Exo 17:8-16.
A water-raid.
God’s sheep must become His warriors. War.
Joshua. The rod of God.
A silent prayer. Aaron and Hur must join in it.
So now. But the army must fight.
“The Lord my banner.” Unlike a myth.
CHAPTER XVIII.
JETHRO, Exo 18:1-27.
Gentiles in new aspect. Church may learn from secular wisdom.
Little is said of Zipporah: Jethro’s pleasure.
A Gentile priest recognised. Religious festivity.
Jethro’s advice: its importance.
Divine help does not supersede human gift.
THE TYPICAL BEARINGS OF THE HISTORY.
Narrative is also allegory. Danger of arbitrary fancies. Example from Bunyan. Scriptural teaching.
Some resemblances are planned: others are reappearances of same principle.
So that these are evidential analogies, like Butler’s.
Others appear forced. “I called My Son out of Egypt” refers to Israel.
But the condescending phrase promised more, and the subsequent coincidence is significant.
Truths cannot all be proved like Euclid’s.
CHAPTER XIX.
AT SINAI, Exo 19:1-25.
Sinai and Pentecost. The place. Ras Sufsfeh. God speaks in nature.
Moses is stopped; the people must pledge themselves. Dedication services.
An appeal to gratitude, and a promise.
“A peculiar treasure.” “A kingdom and priests.”
The individual, and Church order. “On eagles’ wings.”
Israel consents. The Lord in the cloud. Manifestations are transient.
Precautions. The trumpet.
“The priests.” A plbiscite. Contrast between Law and Gospel: Methodius.
Theophanies.
None like this.
CHAPTER XX.
THE LAW, Exo 20:1-17.
What the law did. It could not justify. It reveals obligation.
It convicts, not enables. It is an organic whole. And a challenge.
The Spirit enables: love is fulfilment of law. Luther’s paradox.
Law and Gospel contrasted. Its spiritual beauty: two noble failures.
The Jewish arrangement of the Commandments. St. Augustine’s. The Anglican. An equal division.
THE PROLOGUE, Exo 20:2.
Their experience of God.
God and the first table. The true object of adoration: men must adore. Agnosticism.
God and the second table.
Law appeals to noble motives.
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:3.
Monotheism and a real God.
False creeds attractive. Spiritualism. Science indebted to Monotheism.
Unity of nature a religious truth. Strength of our experimental argument.
Informal apostacy. Luther’s position. Scripture. The Chaldeans.
Animal pleasure.
The remedy: “Thou shalt have … Me.”
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:4-6.
Imagery not all idolatry. The subtler paganisms.
Spiritual worship, like a Gothic building, aspires: images lack expansiveness.
God is jealous.
The shadow of love.
Visiting sins on children.
Part of vast beneficent law.
Gospel in law.
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:7.
Meaning of “in vain.”
Jewish superstition. Where swearing is wholly forbidden.
Fruitful and free use of God’s name.
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:8-11.
Law of Sabbath unique. Confession of Augsburg. Of Westminster.
Anglican position. St. Paul.
The first positive precept. Love not the abolition of the law.
Property of our friends. The word “remember.” The story of creation.
The manna. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.
Christ’s freedom was that of a Jew. “Sabbath for man.”
Our help, not our fetter. “My Father worketh.”
THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:12.
Bridge between duty to God and to neighbour.
Father and child.
“Whosoever hateth not.” Christ and His mother. Its sanction.
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:13.
Who is neighbour? Ethics and religion.
Science and morals.
A Divine creature. Capital punishment.
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:14.
Justice forbids act: Christ forbids desire. Sacredness of body.
Human body connects material and spiritual worlds. Modifies, while serves.
Marriage a type.
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:15.
Assailed by communism, by Rome. Various specious pleas.
Laws of community binding.
None may judge his own case, St. Paul enlarges the precept.
THE NINTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:16.
Importance of words. Various transgressions.
Slander against nations, against the race. Love.
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:17.
The list of properties.
The heart. The law searches.
THE LESSER LAW, Exo 20:18 – Exo 23:33.
A remarkable code. The circumstances.
Moses fears: yet bids them fear not.
Presumption v. awe. He receives an expanded decalogue, an abridged code.
Laws should educate a people; should not outrun their capabilities.
Five subdivisions.
I. THE LAW OF WORSHIP, Exo 20:22-26.
Images again forbidden.
Splendour and simplicity. An objection.
Modesty.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE LESSER LAW (continued).
II. RIGHTS OF THE PERSON, Exo 21:1-32.
The Hebrew slave. The seventh year. Year of jubilee. His family.
The ear pierced. St. Paul’s “marks of the Lord.” Assaults.
The Gentile slave.
The female slave.
Murder and blood-fiends.
Parents. Kidnappers.
Eye for eye. Mitigations of lex talionis.
Vicious cattle.
III. RIGHTS OF PROPERTY, Exo 21:33 – Exo 22:15.
Negligence: indirect responsibility: various examples.
Theft.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE LESSER LAW (continued).
IV. VARIOUS ENACTMENTS, Exo 22:16 – Exo 23:19.
Disconnected precepts. No trace of systematic revision. Certain capital crimes.
SORCERY, Exo 22:18.
Abuses have recoiled against religion.
Sorcerers are impostors, but they existed, and do still.
Moses could not leave them to enlightened opinion. Propagated apostacy.
Traitors in a theocracy.
When shall witchcraft die?
THE STRANGER, Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9.
“Ye were strangers.”
A fruitful principle. Morality not expediency.
Cruelty often ignorance: Moses educates.
The widow. The borrower.
Other precepts.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE LESSER LAW (continued).
An enemy’s cattle. A false report.
Influence of multitude: the world and the Church.
Favour not the poor.
Other precepts. “A kid in his mother’s milk.”
V. ITS SANCTIONS Exo 23:20-33.
A bold transition: the Angel in Whom is “My Name.”
Not a mere messenger.
Nor the substitute of Exo 33:2-3.
Parallel verses.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE COVENANT RATIFIED. THE VISION OF GOD, Exo 24:1-18
The code is accepted, written, ratified with blood.
Exclusion and admittance. The elders see God: Moses goes farther. Theophanies of other creeds.
How could they see God?
Moses feels not satisfaction, but desire.
His progress is from vision to shadow and a Voice.
We see not each other.
St. Augustine.
The vision suits the period: not post-Exilian.
Contrast with revelation in Christ.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE SHRINE AND ITS FURNITURE, Exo 25:1-40.
The God of Sinai will inhabit a tent. His other tabernacles.
The furniture is typical. Altar of incense postponed.
The ark enshrines His law and its sanctions.
The mercy-seat covers it.
Man’s homage. The table of shewbread.
The golden candlestick (lamp-stand).
THE PATTERN IN THE MOUNT, Exo 25:9-40.
Use in Hebrews. Plato.
Not a model, but an idea. Art.
Provisional institutions.
The ideal in creation, 388.–In life.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE TABERNACLE.
“Temple” an ambiguous word.
“Curtains of the Tabernacle.”
Other coverings.
The boards and sockets.
The bars. The tent.
Position of veil and of the front.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE OUTER COURT.
The altar.
The quadrangle.
General effect.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE HOLY GARMENTS.
Their import.
The drawers. “Coat.” Head-tires. Robe of the ephod. Ephod. Jewels.
Breastplate. Urim and Thummim. Mitre. Symbolism.
THE PRIESTHOOD.
Universal desire and dread of God.
Delegates.
Scripture. First Moses.
His family passed over. The double consciousness expressed.
Messianic priesthood.
CHAPTER XXIX.
CONSECRATION SERVICES.
Why consecrate at all?
Moses officiates. The offerings.
Ablution, robing, anointing.
The sin-offering.
“Without the camp.”
The burnt-offering.
The peace-offering (“ram of consecration”).
The wave-offerings.
The result.
CHAPTER XXX.
INCENSE, Exo 30:1-10.
The impalpable in nature.
“The golden altar.”
Represents prayer. Needs cleansing.
A CENSUS, Exo 30:2-16.
A census not sinful. David’s transgression. The half-shekel. Equality of man.
Christ paid it.
Its employment.
THE LAVER, Exo 30:17-21.
Behind the altar. Purity of priests.
Made of the mirrors.
ANOINTING OIL AND INCENSE, Exo 30:22-38.
Their ingredients. All the vessels anointed.
Forbidden to secular uses.
Modern analogies.
CHAPTER XXXI.
BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB, Exo 31:1-18.
Secular gifts are sacred.
The Sabbath. The tables and “the finger of God.”
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE GOLDEN CALF.
Sin of the people; of Aaron. God rejects them.
Intercession. The Christian antitype.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
PREVAILING INTERCESSION.
The first concession. The angel.
“The Tent of the Meeting.”
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE VISION OF GOD.
To know is to desire to know. A fit season. The greater Name.
The covenant renewed. The tables. The skin of his face shone.
Lessons.
CHAPTER XXXV.
CONCLUSION, Exo 35:1-35 – Exo 40:1-38.
The people obey.
The forming of the nation: review.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary