NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 48:1-7

1Now it came about after these things that Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is sick.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. 2When it was told to Jacob, “Behold, your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel collected his strength and sat up in the bed. 3Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, 4and He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.’ 5Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. 6But your offspring that have been born after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance. 7Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

Gen 48:1 “Joseph was told” The rabbis say that Ephraim studied regularly with his grandfather Jacob and he is the one who told Joseph, but this is typical of rabbinical comments that are based on a supposition, not contextual or textual information. It is always fair to ask those who claim to speak for God, “Show me where you got this from Scripture.”

“So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him” These boys were half-Egyptian, but apparently this is setting the stage for the patriarchal blessing (i.e., adoption) which would include them as full heirs.

Gen 48:3 “Jacob said to Joseph, ‘God Almighty'” This is the traditional patriarchal name for God (cf. Exo 6:3). It is El Shaddai; El from the general name for God from the root “to be strong” and Shaddai from the root for a “woman’s breast,” which seems to mean “the all-sufficient One.” See full note in Special Topic: Names for Deity .

“appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me” Luz is the Canaanite name for Bethel (cf. Gen 28:17; Gen 28:19; Gen 35:9-15). Apparently, as YHWH had blessed Jacob, Jacob was now going to bless Joseph’s sons. It is interesting to note that, as godly a man as Joseph was, YHWH never appeared to him as He did to the Patriarchs (see note at Gen 46:2), which shows that even this literary unit concerning Joseph is really in the larger section on the life of Jacob.

Gen 48:4 “I will make you fruitful and numerous” There are three specific blessings here which are related to the Abrahamic blessing of Gen 12:1-3 : (1) I will make you fruitful and numerous; (2) I will make you a company of peoples; and (3) I will give the land to your descendants.

It is interesting that Jacob leaves out the clause from Gen 35:11 (line 5), “and kings shall come forth from you,” because apparently that aspect was for Judah (cf. Gen 49:10). Prosperity and abundance would characterize the family, but kings would come from Judah (i.e., Messiah, Isa 9:6-7; Mic 5:2).

“for an everlasting possession” This is the Hebrew term ‘olam. It must be interpreted in light of the context. When one remembers the exilic period it is obvious that this term does not mean to perpetuity. See Special Topic: Forever (‘olam) .

Gen 48:5 “are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are” It is interesting that in Gen 48:1 Manasseh is mentioned before Ephraim, but from Gen 48:5 and Gen 48:14 Ephraim will appear before Manasseh. This seems to be planned by Jacob (cf. Gen 48:13-14). Ephraim and Manasseh are going to replace Simeon and Reuben as the firstborn, pre-imminent heirs of Jacob (cf. 1Ch 5:1). The younger Ephraim will be the stronger of the two. This does not affect Judah’s leadership of the family (cf. 1Ch 5:2)! This is as much a discipline of Reuben (cf. Gen 35:22; Gen 49:4; 1Ch 5:1) and Simeon (cf. Gen 34:25; Gen 49:5-7) as it was an inclusion for Joseph’s sons. Not only is there reversal in expectation between Manasseh and Ephraim (as there was with Esau and Jacob), but this same reversal of expectation will occur between Joseph and Judah (cf. Gen 49:8-12). Joseph was the obvious choice for family leadership, but the choice was YHWH’s, not the culture (i.e., remember David and his brothers).

Gen 48:6 “But your offspring that have been born after them” This implies that Joseph may have more children, but if he did we have no record of them in the Bible.

Gen 48:7 This is a historical summary about Joseph’s mother. Rachel’s death was painful and shocking to Jacob. He saw these two grandsons of Rachel’s first son, Joseph, as somehow coming from Rachel herself. They would be considered full “sons” (in an inheritance sense) of Rachel. She would be happy for this even in the afterlife!

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

after these things. The blessing of Joseph’s sons took place after Jacob’s charge concerning his burial.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 48

So it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, your father’s sick ( Gen 48:1 ):

He’s dying.

and so Joseph grabbed his two sons to go and visit his father for the last time, Manasseh and Ephraim. And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, your son Joseph is coming unto you: and so Israel gathered together his strength, and he sat up on the bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and he said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came in the land of Egypt, are mine; even as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. And thy issue, whichever you have after them, will be yours, and will be called after the name of their brothers in their inheritance. And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, and when there was yet but a little way to come to Bethlehem: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem. And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these? And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them ( Gen 48:1-9 ).

So as Joseph comes in to his father, Jacob first of all rehearses to Joseph the fact that God met him in the area near Bethel, Luz, which was later called Bethel, the house of God. And it was there that God promised to give unto Jacob and to his seed that land as an everlasting covenant. Now it is interesting that God gave to Abraham the promise, to Isaac the promise, and now to Jacob God spoke and gave the promise of this land. After Jacob there is no account of God’s appearing to any of the sons of Jacob to confirm the promise that He made.

God made the promise to Abraham, confirmed it to Isaac, confirmed it to Jacob. But now Joseph hears it from his dad, not from God directly. But now his father is relating to him the promise of God. How that God promised to me and to my seed that land, everlasting covenant. And so he is relating it on to Joseph.

Now, he said, the two sons that have been born from you here in Egypt I’m claiming them. They’re going to be mine. If you have any more children after this, they can be named after you. But these two I’m claiming for me, they’re going to be just like Reuben and Simeon and they will get their inheritance in the land.

Now it was customary that the oldest son receive a double portion of the inheritance. But here Jacob is promising to Joseph the double portion; the double portion will be in Ephraim and Manasseh. So he gets the double portion of the blessing from Jacob in that Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons born of Joseph will become tribes and will inherit the land as tribes. By which we then see that there are more than twelve tribes of Israel, because Ephraim and Manasseh became tribes and received their inheritance in Israel. So Joseph becoming two, Ephraim and Manasseh, in reality, there are thirteen tribes in Israel.

Now Jacob also said, “Any that are born after this, they’re yours. But these two are mine.” So it is interesting that in one of the listings of the tribes, there is actually a listing of the tribe of Joseph. So if indeed there were descendants of Joseph and there was a tribe of Joseph, they did not receive any actual inheritance in the land, but the inheritance went to Ephraim and Manasseh. But the land was divided into twelve portions and apportioned out to the twelve tribes, but the thirteenth tribe was the tribe of Levi. They did not receive any portion in the land but actually dwelt in about forty-eight cities that were given to the tribes of Levi, but no portion of the land was apportioned out to them.

But it is interesting that we always read of twelve tribes. You never read of the thirteen tribes of Israel but of the twelve tribes of Israel. And whenever there is a listing of the tribes, there are always a listing of only twelve. At some times, one tribe or another is deleted from the listing of the twelve.

For instance, when we read of the twelve tribes of Israel that are sealed in the book of Revelation, chapter seven, the tribe of Dan is missing from that list. Usually in the listing of the tribes, the tribe of Levi is missing from the list, but Levi is inserted in Revelation chapter seven, and the tribe of Dan is deleted from the listing of the tribe as those who will be sealed during the Great Tribulation, the hundred and forty-four thousand sealed to be spared a portion, at least, of the Great Tribulation that is coming.

Twelve is a symbolic number. It is the number of human government. And that is the reason why you have twelve apostles, twelve tribes, though there may be more than the twelve. In talking about governmental purposes, there are always twelve listed and only twelve for the purpose of human type of government. Twelve is the number of human government. So the twelve tribes of Israel, though in reality there were thirteen actual tribes or possibly if indeed the tribe of Joseph existed separate from Ephraim and Manasseh you had fourteen tribes but never a listing of fourteen, only of twelve.

So here he claims the two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. They’re just going to be like Reuben and Simeon and they shall receive their inheritance in the land. And so then Israel, and no doubt his eyes were failing him, and he saw just the shadowy figure of Joseph’s two sons who at this time were probably in their twenties. They weren’t just little kids. They were probably in their twenties at this time because Joseph by this time was fifty-six years old. And so his sons are in their early twenties at this point.

And so Jacob sees these two others and he said, Who are these? And Joseph answered, “These are my two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim”.

And Joseph thought that they bring them near to him and he kissed them and he hugged them. And Israel said to Joseph, I had given up ever seeing your face: and, lo, God is even showing me your children ( Gen 48:10-11 ).

He had really figured that he would never be able to see the face of Joseph again. But God in His grace, not only did he get to see Joseph again but Joseph’s children.

And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with the face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him. And Israel stretched out his hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn ( Gen 48:12-14 ).

So as Joseph brought the two sons up to his father in order that they might receive a blessing from his father, he brought them up so that Jacob’s right hand would rest upon Manasseh and his left hand would rest upon Ephraim, because Manasseh was the older and thus the first blessing to go to the older son. But as he brought them up in this order that the old man might just lay his hands on the two boys, the old man crossed his hands. And he put his right hand over here on Ephraim and his left hand over here on Manasseh and began to bless them. And Joseph said, “Wait a minute, dad, wait a minute, you got a mistake here”. And he says, “Oh, son, I know what I’m doing”. And so Ephraim was then blessed and given a place of prominence over Manasseh though he was not the firstborn.

Now this is not the first time this happened. Even with Jacob himself, the old man that was doing this, he was not the firstborn. His brother Esau was firstborn and yet the blessing had come to him. And so now he is doing the same thing with his grandsons crossing his hands and pronouncing the greater blessing upon Ephraim.

And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my father Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day ( Gen 48:15 ),

That’s an interesting phrase, isn’t it? Recognizing that his provision the bottom line had come from God. Sure he’d been out there working. Sure he’d been out there taking care of the cattle and the sheep and so forth. And yet when it comes right down to it, I depend upon God for my sustenance. If God doesn’t sustain me I’m not going to be sustained. God has fed me all the days of my life.

And the Angel which redeemed me ( Gen 48:16 )

Now this is interesting, he blessed Joseph and said, “God before whom my father Abraham and Isaac did walk.” That is, God the Father. “The God which fed me all the days of my life to this day.” That would be the work of the Holy Spirit in the ministry to the saints. “The Angel which redeemed me from all evil.” That would be the work of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. And so here you actually have the trinity of God being mentioned in the prayer of Abraham. God of my father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who has fed me; the Angel of the Lord who redeemed me.

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. And when Joseph saw that his father had laid the right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father, Not so, father: for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head. 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: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I’m dying: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow ( Gen 48:16-22 ).

And so one portion more; two portions going to Joseph and thus the birthright being passed on to Joseph; his receiving of the two portions. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

The use of the two names is observed once more. Jacob was sick, but, hearing that Joseph was coming to see him, it was Israel that strengthened himself. Once again Jacob was the speaker and in what he said the planning of the schemer was still evident.

Yet how wonderfully the divine overruling is seen, for in Jacob’s adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh the redemption of Joseph from Egypt was brought about. Joseph had married an Egyptian woman and occupied a place of peculiar power in Egypt. What more likely than that his sons should be brought up as Egyptians? The action of Jacob in claiming these boys as his retained the succession of Joseph within the border of the people of God.

In the latter part of the story the name is Israel and the whole life of the man was one of faith. Evidently he acted entirely under divine impulse in crossing his hands so that the right lay on Ephraim’s head and the left on Manasseh. Thus it is seen that notwithstanding all his faults and failures, this son of Isaac and Abraham was indeed a man of faith and an instrument through whom it was possible for God to carry out His purposes.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Joseph Visits His Dying Father

Gen 47:27-31; Gen 48:1-7

How inexorable is the must of death! For many years Jacob had exceeded the ordinary span of human life, and now, like the last apple on the tree, he must be gathered. For seventeen years he had been familiar with Egypts splendid temples, obelisks and pyramids; he had been surrounded with all the comforts that filial love could devise; but nothing could make him forget that distant cave in the land of Canaan. In his judgment Egypts most splendid pyramid was not to be compared with that humble sepulcher where the mortal remains of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekah, and of the faithful Leah awaited his. On Josephs second visit he was weaker, and with an effort nerved himself for the interview. The angel-ladder and Rachels death stood prominently out before the dying eyes. When he returned from this pathetic reverie he turned to the two boys who stood awestruck beside him and adopted them, for their beloved fathers sake.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Gen 48:1-7

Jacob looked back on his life and saw but three things-God, love, grief. These were all he had to speak of. They were a trinity of the past; they dwarfed everything else.

I. “God appeared unto me at Luz.” This one first and great appearance of God was memorable in all his life, because it was the first. It stamped itself upon his life; even in old age the memory of it was not obscured, effaced, or weakened, but was with him in the valley of the shadow of death.

II. Less august, but even more affecting, was the second of his three experiences-love. Of all whom he had known, only two names remained to him in the twilight between this life and the other-God, and Rachel. The simple mention of Rachel’s name by the side of that of God is itself a monument to her.

III. The third of these experiences was that Rachel was buried. When Rachel died the whole world had but one man in it, and he was solitary, and his name was Jacob.

Application.-(1) See how perfectly we are in unity with the life of this, one of the earliest men. How perfectly we understand him! How the simplest experiences touch us to the quick! (2) The filling up of life, however important in its day, is in retrospect very insignificant. (3) The significance of events is not to be judged by their outward productive force, but by their productiveness in the inward life. (4) In looking back through the events of life, though they are innumerable, yet those that remain at last are very few,-not because all the others have perished, but because they group themselves and assume moral unity in the distance.

H. W. Beecher, Sermons (1870), p. 217.

Gen 48:15-16

When St. Paul wished to select from the history of Jacob an instance of faith, he took the scene described in the text, when Joseph brings his two sons to the deathbed of his father. The text is therefore to be considered as one in which faith was signally exhibited.

I. Jacob seems to make it his object, and to represent it as a privilege, that he should take the lads out of the family of Joseph, though that family was then one of the noblest in Egypt, and transplant them into his own, though it had no outward distinction but what it derived from its connection with the other. Faith gave him this consciousness of superiority; he knew that his posterity were to constitute a peculiar people, from which would at length arise the Redeemer. He felt it far more of an advantage for Ephraim and Manasseh to be counted with the tribes than numbered among the princes of Egypt.

II. Observe the peculiarity of Jacob’s language with regard to his preserver, and his decided preference of the younger brother to the elder, in spite of the remonstrances of Joseph. There was faith, and illustrious faith, in both. By the “Angel who redeemed him from all evil,” he must have meant the Second Person of the Trinity; he shows that he had glimmerings of the finished work of Christ. The preference of the younger son to the elder was typical of the preference of the Gentile Church to the Jewish. Acting on what he felt convinced was the purpose of God, Jacob did violence to his own inclination and that of those whom he most longed to please.

III. Jacob’s worshipping (referred to in Hebrews xi.) may be taken as proving his faith. What has a dying man to do with worshipping, unless he is a believer in another state? He leans upon the top of his staff as if he would acknowledge the goodness of his heavenly Father, remind himself of the troubles through which he had been brought and of the Hand which alone had been his guardian and guide.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2261.

References: Gen 48:15, Gen 48:16.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi., p. 274. Gen 48:16.-J. Wells, Bible Children, p. 69; J. Burns, Sketches of Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 131; A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 186; J. Thain Davidson, Talks with Young Men, p. 133. Gen 48:21.-J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 152; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 379; S. A. Brooke, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 265; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1630. Gen 48:22.-W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister, p. 153. Gen 49-F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 175. Gen 49:1.-F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes, pp. 1, 13. Gen 49:1, Gen 49:2.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 554. Gen 49:1-12.-R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. ii., p. 275. Gen 49:1-27.-W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister, p. 171. Gen 49:3, Gen 49:4.-F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes, p. 53; J. C. M. Bellew, Five Occasional Sermons, p. 19. Gen 49:8-12.-J. Monro Gibson, The Ages before Moses, p. 219.

Genesis 48 and 49

(with Deut. 33 and Judges 5)

Jacob’s blessing of his sons marks the close of the patriarchal dispensation. Henceforth the channel of God’s blessing to man does not consist of one person only, but of a people or nation. As the patriarchal dispensation ceases it secures to the tribes all the blessing it has itself contained. The distinguishing features which Jacob depicts in the blessing of his sons were found in all the generations of the tribes, and displayed themselves in things spiritual also.

In these blessings we have the history of the Church in its most interesting form. The whole destiny of Israel is here in germ, and the spirit of prophecy in Jacob sees and declares it. (1) Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted as sons of Jacob. No greater honour could have been put on Joseph than this: that his sons should be raised to the rank of heads of tribes, on a level with the immediate sons of Jacob. He is merged in them, and all that he has earned is to be found not in his own name, but in theirs. (2) The future of Reuben was of a negative, blank kind: “Thou shalt not excel”; his unstable character must empty it of all great success. (3) “Simeon and Levi are brethren,” showing a close affinity and seeking one another’s aid, but for bad purposes, and therefore they must be divided 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 sword of murder was displaced in Levi’s hand by the knife of sacrifice; (4) Judah is the kingly tribe; from it came David, the man who more than any other satisfies man’s ideal of a prince. (5) Zebulon was a maritime tribe; always restlessly eager for emigration or commerce. Issachar had the quiet, bucolic contentment of an agricultural or pastoral population. (6) “Dan shall judge his people.” This probably refers to the most conspicuous of the judges, Samson, who belonged to this tribe. The whole tribe of Dan seems to have partaken of the grim humour with which Samson saw his foes walk time after time into the traps he set for them-a humour which comes out with singular piquancy in the narrative of one of the forays of this tribe, in which they carried off Micah’s priest, and even his gods. (7) Gad was also to be a warlike tribe; his very name signified a marauding, guerilla troop, and his history was to illustrate the victories which God’s people gain by tenacious, watchful, ever renewed warfare.

M. Dods, Israel’s Iron Age, p. 173.

References: Gen 48.-F. Whitfield, The Blessings of the Tribes, p. 236; J. R. Macduff, Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains, p. 23; R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. ii., p. 265. Gen 49:1, Gen 49:2.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 554.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 48 Jacob adopts Ephraim and Manasseh

1. The sons of Joseph brought to Jacob (Gen. 48-12)

2. The words of Jacob (Gen 48:3-7)

3. Ephraim and Manasseh presented (Gen 48:8-14)

4. Jacobs blessing (Gen 48:13-16)

5. Josephs interference (Gen 48:17-20)

6. Jacobs last words to Joseph (Gen 48:21-22)

The adoption of Josephs sons is interesting and instructive. As the offspring of the Gentile wife Asenath they were in danger of becoming gentilized and thus forget their fathers house. Jacob frustrated this by adopting the sons. It was an action of faith. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped leaning on the top of his staff (Heb 11:21). Again the younger is preferred. When Jacob speaks of the Angel, the Redeemer (literal translation) he speaks of Jehovah who appeared unto him, whom he met face to face at Peniel. Full of hope, dying Jacob predicted the return of his offspring to the land of Canaan.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

thy father: Joh 11:3

his two sons: Gen 41:50-52, Gen 46:20, Gen 50:23, Job 42:16, Psa 128:6

Reciprocal: Gen 30:24 – And she Gen 47:31 – And Israel bowed Gen 49:22 – a fruitful Num 1:32 – General Num 1:34 – Manasseh 2Ki 13:14 – fallen sick Ecc 7:2 – better Mat 19:13 – brought Joh 11:1 – was sick

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

CLOSE OF THE PATRIARCHAL AGE

With the history of Joseph, Genesis concludes what is called the patriarchal age. Yet there are two or three facts for consideration before passing to the next book.

THE LIFE OF JUDAH

For example, Josephs history was interrupted almost at the beginning by that of his brother Judah (chap. 38). Judahs history is shameful, but recorded because it bears upon the genealogy of Jesus, since Tamar, prostitute though she were, became an ancestress of our blessed Lord (Mat 1:3).

JACOB BLESSING JOSEPHS SONS (Genesis 48)

Note the past and the future of Jacobs faith as enunciated in Gen 48:3-4 : his adoption of the two sons of Joseph, and how in some sense they were to receive the blessing forfeited by Reuben and Simeon (see the following chapter and compare 1Ch 5:1-2). By the adoption of these two sons the tribes of Israel were enlarged to thirteen, but by a special divine arrangement, as we shall see subsequently, that of Levi had no part in the division of the land of Canaan, and the nation was thus able to always preserve the original number, twelve.

Of the two sons of Joseph Jacob gave the pre-eminence to one contrary to the law of primogeniture and evidently by divine guidance, though for reasons we do not know. By and by we shall see a fulfillment of this predictive blessing on these sons, a kind of credal expression of Jacob (Gen 48:15-16). This is the earliest creed of the true faith on record, and suggests an example to us in these days when all sorts of people say they believe in God, meaning so many different things thereby. We should be careful that it be known in what God we believe, namely, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all that the term implies. When in this blessing Jacob speaks of the the Angel who redeemed him, he means Jehovah himself, since (as we have learned) he is identical with the second person of the Trinity. Angel means the sent one (see Gal 4:4-5).

Note the triumphant faith of Jacob through this closing transaction of his career. His assurance of the fulfillment of Gods promises to His people takes away the fear of death from him and leads him to regard those promises greater than all the worldly glories enjoyed by Joseph and his sons as princes of Egypt. Observe also that he disposes of that which God has promised him for his descendants with as much confidence, as he would dispose of an earthly estate.

JACOBS PROPHECY OF THE TWELVE TRIBES (Genesis 49)

In accordance with the curse on Reuben (Gen 49:3-4), his tribe never attained distinction in Israel. Simeon and Levi for the same reason were both divided and scattered in the later allotment of the land (Gen 49:5-7): see for the former, Jos 19:1-9; 2Ch 15:9; 2Ch 34:6, and for the latter Num 35:7-8; Num 35:3 Jos 21:1-42. Levis curse was turned into a blessing, doubtless because of their righteous conduct, as will be seen later. Compare Exo 32:25 and Deu 33:8-11.

The reason Judah obtained the preeminence (Gen 49:8-12) was not for his superior moral character (as we have seen) but for reasons known only to God..Judah means praise, and it is striking to see in the history of Israel how when Judah came to power in the time of David, the worship of Jehovah revived. David who came to Judah was himself the sweet psalmist of Israel who has given to the saints of every generation songs of praise that never grow old.

It is in connection with Judah (Gen 49:10) that we have the clearest prophecy of the Redeemer since that of Eden (Gen 3:15). His was to be the royal tribe, and the scepter should not depart from him nor the lawgiver (or the rulers staff) from between his feet until Shiloh should come. Jews and Christians agree that Shiloh, peace-maker, applies to Christ. It is noticeable that the tribe of Judah maintained at least the semblance of government in Israel until after the crucifixion, while since that time she has had no national existence. All agree in regarding this one of the strong evidences of the Messiahship of Jesus.

Zebulun, in fulfillment of the prediction in Gen 49:13, dwelt on the Sea of Galilee, his border running back on the west and north to Sidon, Naphtali being contiguous. Their occupations and dangers as seamen made them courageous, and they jeoparded their lives in the battles of the Kingdom (1Ch 12:33-34). The territory of Issachar was one of the most fertile in Canaan, explaining their pacific and industrious life, predicted in Gen 49:14-15. The language concerning Dan is difficult to understand (Gen 49:16-17), but Ashers territory like that of the two other tribes mentioned was one of the best in Israel and corresponded with the meaning of his name, happy or fortunate. Of Naphtali we have spoken in connection with Zebulun. The tribe of Benjamin seems to have been always warlike and cruel in character.

The death of Jacob calls attention to the fact that his last days were not only his most tranquil but those in which we see the work of his conversion and sanctification carried to its culminating point.

THE BURIAL OF JACOB AND THE DEATH OF JOSEPH (Genesis 50)

What period of time was devoted to the ceremonial worship for the grandees of Egypt (Gen 50:3)? During this period Joseph was isolated from the court of Pharaoh, which accounts for his request of others (Gen 50:4-5).

How did Josephs brethren exhibit needless fear on their return (Gen 50:15-16)? Do you think they spoke the truth in alluding to their father, or was it a ruse on their part? How does the circumstance illustrate the power of a guilty conscience? How does Josephs reply illustrate the kindness of God to us in Christ (Gen 50:21)? In what way does the circumstance suggest the ground of assurance for them who put their trust in Christ?

In what way did Joseph exhibit his faith in Gods promise concerning Israel (Gen 50:24-25)? Compare Heb 11:22.

QUESTIONS

1.Which of Josephs sons received the preeminence in Jacobs blessing?

2.What important lesson is suggested by Gen 48:15-16?

3.In what way has the meaning of Judahs name been fulfilled in history?

4.Quote the prophecy of Gen 49:10, and show its application to Christ.

5.State the typical and dispensational aspects of Josephs history as given in the last lesson.

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

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 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Gen 48:1. His two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. We here see again with what alacrity, reverence and devotion the sons of the holy patriarchs awaited the final benediction of their departing Sires, while the children after the flesh paid no regard to it. God had on special occasions appeared to the patriarchs, and blessed them and their seed. The believing children therefore awaited it at the hands and from the prophetic spirit of their sires, being assured that they had a right to confer it. In the christian church the same custom is preserved, on the admission of young people to communion; on the appointment of ministers to their work; and in the apostolic age, they laid their hands upon them anew for almost every important mission, praying devoutly for God to give the Spirit.

Gen 48:5. Ephraim and Manasseh. Jacob, guided by the Spirit of God, preferred Ephraim before Josephs firstborn. He received them not as grandsons, but as sons begotten of his own body, and made them heads of tribes. Thus Ephraim shared with Reuben in the double portion given to the firstborn.

Gen 48:6. And thy issue. Whatever issue Joseph might have, if any survived, they were associated with the two half tribes of which his sons were the heads.

Gen 48:14. Israelguiding his hands wittingly. Joseph having placed his sons kneeling, and in order, according to their age, to receive the blessing, Israel, as Tertullian supposes, crossed his hands to confer it.

Gen 48:16. The angel which redeemed me. The word Angel, being joined here with Goel, is not equivocal. He is the angel who appeared to Abraham under the oak of Mamr, and called to him out of heaven by the name of Elohim, and of JEHOVAH. Gen 18:22. He is the ever-living Goel of Job; his only Redeemer and hope. Gen 19:25. He is our near kinsman, to whom belonged the right of redemption. Rth 3:12. Boaz said to Ruth, There is a kinsman [Goel] nearer than I. He is our Saviour and deliverer, as the word is constantly rendered in the book of Psalms. The christian fathers have so understood the word, and with common consent. Vide Bulli def. fid. This is the Word which was in the beginning, the Word that was made flesh, and dwelt among us. He is the Angel whom Jacob invoked in his last moments, as he had done through life; he is the Lord Jesus to whom St. Stephen commended his spirit. Act 7:59. Where then, oh Socinian, where is thy Redeemer!

Gen 48:22. Which I tookwith my sword. The scriptures being silent concerning any violence used by Jacob, we can only say that some of the ancients have thought that Jacob retook Shechem a second time out of the hands of the Amorites; others have thought that he fought to rescue the sepulchre of his fathers; but certain it is, that Shechem was given to Josephs children. Jos 17:1; Jos 24:32. Joh 4:5. There also Josephs bones were interred. But many think, that the patriarch solely alludes here to the act of Simeon and Levi, who put the males of Shechem to the sword.

REFLECTIONS.

Jacob still remembered, and now recited, the promises which God first made him at Bethel or Luz; for God had made them to him and his children. In like manner let every believer keep his eye fixed on the promises through the whole of his pilgrimage, for those gracious words of God which comforted and encouraged him in his youth, or in his trouble, must encourage him to the end, and be the prop and support of his children. The recollection of past mercies seems, where faith is kept in exercise, to recal all the ancient heaven felt in the soul, when God delivered us in the day of trouble.

This venerable patriarch, on the approach of Joseph to his bed, was reminded of Rachel, though now dead more than half a century; and he wished Joseph to know that he received the birthright on her account. But oh how much does the recollection of saints in glory, whom we once so dearly loved, enliven the gloomy aspect of the grave. Wearied with the evils of life, and with the crimes of men, the good man wants to associate with the society of the blessed. He wishes to shake off the cumbrous load of flesh, whose infirmities daily increase; he wishes to pierce the veil of futurity, and escape away. At length death suddenly throws open the massy gates, unfolds the scenes of glory, and his soul springs up into everlasting life.

How happy, how divinely happy is the aged man, who in dying, sees himself surrounded with children and with grandchildren kneeling for a blessing, and in a fair way both for worldly and everlasting prosperity. This heightens the joys of dying, and augments the hopes of heaven. And surely this, with the children of the righteous, should be no small motive to conversion and piety. This divine change will, above all considerations, augment the joys of a good father in his last moments, and the want of it will be the greatest affliction of his soul.

But the lustre of Josephs blessing, on account of righteousness, eclipsed the glory of Reuben, on account of sin, and a sin committed forty years before. Mark then, oh my soul, the consequences of a single crime. Not to mention the destruction to which it exposes both body and soul, the consequences, even where the sincerest repentance follows, may be lasting as life, and afflictive to our children after death. The God of Israel is a jealous God, and it is better to die than to revolt against his arm.

In conferring those blessings, was the patriarch prompted by the Spirit to bless Ephraim above Manasseh? Then we learn that divine endowments, spiritual offices and temporal gifts, are bestowed by a sovereign act of Gods good pleasure. Are all apostles? Are all evangelists? Do all speak with tongues? If the secondary gifts and blessings are our allotment, let us adore him for what we have and diligently improve them, that at his coming we may be called good and faithful servants, and be invited to enter into the joy of our Lord.And it is one presumed mark of Reubens repentance, that we never hear that he murmured either against Jacob, or against Joseph.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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?

Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch

Gen 47:27 to Gen 48:22. Jacob Extracts an Oath that Joseph will Bury him in Canaan, and Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh.

Gen 47:22 f., Gen 48:3-6 belong to P. To J Gen 47:29-31 may be assigned. Gen 48:1 f., Gen 48:8-22 was formerly attributed to E, recent critics assign it to JE. The analysis is somewhat as follows: E, Gen 48:1-2 a, Gen 48:8-9 a, Gen 48:10 b, Gen 48:11 f., Gen 48:15 f., Gen 48:20 (from In thee), Gen 48:21 f. J, Gen 48:2 b, Gen 48:9 b, Gen 48:10 a, Gen 48:3 f., Gen 48:17-19, Gen 48:20 a (to day). The origin of Gen 47:7 is uncertain, it is out of place here. It may have led up to a request for burial in Rachels tomb, which had to be suppressed as it was in conflict with Ps statement that he was buried in Machpelah (Gen 50:13). But if so, the tomb would hardly have been called Rachels sepulchre (1Sa 10:2) but Jacobs. From Gen 50:5, however, it would seem that J represented Jacob as buried in a grave he had himself digged, rather than in the family grave. The blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh explains how it is that the two sons of Joseph ranked as two independent tribes; Jacob had adopted them by the ceremony of taking them between his knees (Gen 48:12); also why Ephraim the younger was a mightier tribe than Manasseh the firstborn.

Gen 47:29. Cf. Gen 24:2*.

Gen 48:7. Cf. Gen 35:16-20*.by me: read mg

Gen 47:8. Here Jacob can see, whereas in Gen 47:10 a he is blind, like Isaac. In this story Jacob seems not to have seen them previously, so his death happened soon after his arrival in Egypt.

Gen 47:22. cf. mg. The reference is to Shechem, where Joseph was buried (Jos 24:32). We have no other account of any such capture by Jacob, who is nowhere represented as a warrior. Moreover the passage implies that Jacob had distributed their territory to all the tribes.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

ISRAEL’S BLESSING FOR JOSEPH AND HIS SONS

A little later Joseph was told that his father was sick, so he brought his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim to visit him. Jacob strengthened himself to sit on the bed. Then Jacob speaks to Joseph of God’s first recorded appearance to him (Gen 28:11-15) at Luz (or Bethel) in Canaan, giving him His special blessing, promising to multiply him into a multitude of people and to give that land to his descendants for an everlasting possession (vs.3-4). Jacob was therefore not interested in any other land on earth. Though he would himself be in heaven and have no part of the earthly inheritance, he was deeply concerned about the welfare of his descendants, and Joseph too has the same concern.

Now Jacob claims the two sons of Joseph as his own, calling the Ephraim and Manasseh in order of their birth (v.5). This was not just a whim of Jacob’s old age, but history has proved it to be an important matter. Jacob had 12 sons at the time, the exact number of administrative completeness. Why should he give Joseph an extra place among the tribes by naming them after his two sons? The wisdom of God was in this, for later we find that Levi was given no distinctive inheritance among the tribes (Num 1:47-53) because that tribe was separated in order to do the service of God in the tabernacle and among all the tribes. Thus the 12 tribes were each given their distinct inheritance in the land of Canaan, while the Levites were dispersed among the tribes.

However, any sons that Joseph might have afterward would be considered connected with either Ephraim or Manasseh (v.6).

Verse 7 is the only expression we hear from Jacob’s lips as to the death of his favored wife, Rachel. The depths to which his heart was affected is not at all dwelt upon, but though he so restrained his feeling, the memory of it was real and poignant as he tells Joseph of the exact location of her death and the place of her burial. These were things he would not forget.

By this time Jacob’s eyesight had failed, so he did not recognize Ephraim and Manasseh (vs.8-10), but when Joseph brought them near, Jacob kissed and embraced them, telling Joseph he had not expected to see him again, but that now God had allowed him to see Joseph’s sons.

To receive the blessing of Jacob, Manasseh was presented by Joseph on Jacob’s right hand and Ephraim on his left (v.13), but Jacob crossed his arms, putting his right hand on Ephraim’s head and his left on Manasseh’s head (v14). Verse 15-16 tell us that he blessed Joseph, then invoked the blessing of the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac upon both Ephraim and Manasseh, speaking of God as the one who had fed him all his life. Consistently with his claiming them as his own sons, he asks that his name would be upon them, and the names of Abraham and Isaac, stressing the continuity of the blessing of God upon that family. Also, he says “may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” This is clearly earthly blessing, not having anything to do with heaven.

Joseph was not pleased that Jacob had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head and took hold of his hand to change it to the head of Manasseh, telling him that since Manasseh was firstborn, Jacob should put his right hand on his head. But Jacob firmly refused, for he knew well what he was doing. It is natural to think that the firstborn should have the prime honor, but God often reverses such things. Adam had the place of the firstborn in creation, but Christ has rightly taken the place of having all the rights of the firstborn (Col 1:15-16). Jacob too no doubt remembered that Esau was set aside so that Jacob would take first place (Gen 25:23).

Another important feature of this is evident in the meaning of the names of these brothers. Manasseh means “forgetting” and Ephraim means “fruitful,” because Joseph was caused to forget the natural blessing of his father’s house because fruitful in Egypt. But forgetting is negative: fruitfulness is positive, and the positive must take the first place. Jacob says that Manasseh would become great, but Ephraim would be greater than he (v.19). Both are blessed (v.20), but Ephraim is set before Manesseh.

Jacob then calmly speaks of his death, but assures Joseph that God would be with him bring him again into the land of promise. This referred, not to Joseph personally (except for his bones), but to Joseph’s family. He reminds Joseph again that he had given him a portion double to that of his brothers, speaking of taking it by conquest from the Amorites, the enemies within the land of canaan, though we are from the Amorites, the enemies within the land of canaan, though we are given no record of such warfare. But the sufferer, Joseph, is well repaid for all the affliction he had seen.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

48:1 And it came to pass after these things, that [one] told Joseph, Behold, thy father [is] sick: and he took with him his {a} two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

(a) Joseph valued his children being received into Jacob’s family, which was the Church of God, more than enjoying all the treasures of Egypt.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jacob’s adoption of Joseph’s sons 48:1-11

The events recorded in the last three chapters of Genesis deal with the last days of Jacob and Joseph. In these last chapters there are many other references to earlier episodes in the book.

"This constant harking back to earlier episodes and promises is totally in place in a book whose theme is the fulfillment of promises, a book that regularly uses analogy between episodes as a narrative technique. And at the close of a book it is particuarly [sic] appropriate to exploit these cross-linkages to the full. It reinforces the sense of completeness and suggests that the story has reached a natural stopping point." [Note: Ibid., p. 461.]

"It is appropriate that the end of Genesis should draw to a close with repeated references to the thematic word of the book (b-r-k, ’to bless’)." [Note: Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26, p. 863.]

This very important section explains how Ephraim and Manasseh came to have equal standing with Joseph’s brothers and why Joseph did not become the head of a tribe. Manasseh would have been between 20 and 26 years old at this time (Gen 41:50; Gen 47:28). Ephraim, of course, was younger.

It was as Israel, the prince with God, that Jacob performed this official and significant act (Gen 48:2-4; cf. Heb 11:21). His action was in harmony with God’s will and purpose for the chosen family, and it involved the patriarchal promises to which he referred (cf. Gen 35:10-12).

"Jacob may be losing his health, but he is not losing his memory. He can recall the incident of many years earlier when God appeared to him at Luz [Bethel] (Gen 35:9-15). He repeats the promises of God about fertility, multiplication, that his seed will be an assembly of nations, and finally the promise of land. The only essential element of that theophany he does not repeat is the name change from Jacob to Israel. In this way, Jacob minimizes his role and maximizes God’s role in that event." [Note: Hamilton, The Book . . . Chapters 18-50, p. 628.]

By adopting Joseph’s first two sons as his own and giving them equal standing with Joseph’s brothers, Jacob was bestowing on Joseph the double portion of the birthright (Gen 48:5; cf. Gen 48:22; 1Ch 5:1-2). He was also in effect elevating Joseph to the level of himself. Joseph was the first son of Jacob’s intended first wife. Jacob’s reference to Rachel (Gen 48:7) shows that she, as the mother of Joseph, was in his mind in this act. This act honored her. The other sons of Joseph received their own inheritances.

"Verse 7 has long puzzled biblical interpreters. Why the mention of Rachel at this point in the narrative, and why the mention of her burial site? If we relate the verse to what precedes, then the mention of Rachel here could be prompted by the fact that just as she had borne Jacob ’two sons’ (Gen 44:27, Joseph and Benjamin) at a time when he was about to enter (Gen 48:7) the land, so also Joseph gave Jacob ’two sons’ (Gen 48:5) just at the time when he was about to enter Egypt." [Note: Sailhamer, "Genesis," p. 271.]

Jacob’s eyes were failing in his old age (Gen 48:10) so he may not have recognized Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. Gen 27:1). However it seems more likely that by asking "Who are these?" (Gen 48:8) Jacob was identifying the beneficiaries as part of the legal ritual of adoption and or blessing (cf. Gen 27:18). The eyesight of both Isaac and Jacob failed in their old age.

"There is a slight touch of irony here: Jacob had secured Isaac’s blessing by guile and deceit, while Joseph is securing the blessing for his sons by honesty and forthrightness." [Note: Davis, p. 294.]

Jacob gave God the credit that he was able to see Joseph’s sons (Gen 48:11). He had come to acknowledge God’s providential working and grace in his life as he realized how faithful God had been to him in spite of his unfaithfulness.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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: Expositors Bible Commentary