Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 49:9

Judah [is] a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

9. a lion’s whelp ] For the comparison of Judah with a lion, which through this verse became its historic symbol, cf. 2Es 12:31-32 ; Rev 5:5. The metaphor of a lion is applied to Gad (Deu 33:20) and to Dan (Deu 33:22). For its use in poetical description, cf. Num 23:24; Num 24:9; Mic 5:8 ; 1Ma 3:4.

gone up ] The lion, having seized and devoured its prey, returns to its fastness in the hills, secure and inaccessible.

stooped down couched ] A description of the movements of a lion (cf. Num 24:9) stalking its prey, running swiftly and secretly, and gathering itself for a final spring. The verb describes the habitual swiftness and force in the movements of the tribe.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Judah is as

a lions whelp, or as a young lion, for courage, and strength, and terror to his enemies. The particle as is here wanting, as also Gen 49:14,17,21,22, and in many other places, as Psa 11:1; 12:6; 22:6, &c. And he is rightly compared first to a lions whelp, then to an old lion, to signify the growth of that tribe in strength and interest; and that from small beginnings, and a precedency of order only, Jdg 1:1,2, it should ascend to the height of honour, and power, and happiness in David, and especially in the Messiah, who should conquer all nations.

From the prey… thou art gone up. Having taken the prey, i.e. conquered thine enemies, thou art

gone up in triumph; or gone up, i.e. grown greater and higher after thy victories, as the manner is. Or he alludes to the lions, which usually dwell in mountains, as divers writers observe, and come down to prey in the valleys, and when they have got their prey, they go up to their habitations, and so shall Judah do.

He stooped; a change of the person very frequent in prophetical writings, as we shall oft have occasion to note hereafter.

He couched. When he hath taken the prey, he doth not convey it away to his den with haste and speed for fear the enemy should return and overtake him, but like a lion he stoops down to feed upon his prey, and coucheth or lieth down securely to rest himself after he hath eaten it, without the least fear of any enemy, as it is observed of him, Isa 31:4. Judahs conquests shall not be interrupted or followed with ill successes and defeats or overthrows afterward, as it frequently happens in the course of war, but he quietly possess his spoils, and after the bloody wars, to which he will be forced, shall enjoy a sweet peace and tranquillity, which his posterity did, 1Ki 4:25.

As an old lion, or rather a grown lion, not a decrepit and impotent lion, but one come to his full strength; who shall presume or dare to disturb or provoke him? All shall fear him, and seek peace with him.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Judah is a lion’s whelp,…. Or as one; the note of similitude being wanting, as Aben Ezra and Ben Melech observe; he was comparable to a young lion for his strength, courage, and generosity; and it may refer to the infant state of this tribe in the times of the judges, who first went up against the Canaanites and overcame them, Jud 1:1

from the prey, my son, thou art gone up; alluding to the lion going up to the mountains, where it chiefly resides, after it has found its prey and satiated itself with it:

he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; one that is grown up, and has arrived to its full strength, such an one is a proper emblem of David king of Israel, of his royalty, courage, valour and conquests; and who having subdued the nations round about him, couched like a lion, and had rest from all his enemies; and especially this was verified in the times of Solomon his son, when he had peace on all sides, and Judah and Israel dwelt safely under their vines and fig trees, 1Ki 4:24

who shall rouse him up? a lion grown up and in its full strength, or a lioness, as some choose to interpret it, and which is the fiercest, and therefore the most dangerous to rouse up when laid down, either in its den, or with its prey in its paws: so dangerous it was to provoke the tribe of Judah, as its enemies after found, especially in the times of David: all this may be applied to Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah; the lion being the king of beasts, and the strongest among them, may denote the kingly power and authority of Christ, his great strength as the mighty God and mighty Saviour, his courage in engaging with all the powers of darkness, and valour in vanquishing all enemies; his generosity and lenity to those that stoop to him, and his fierceness to his adversaries, who took the prey from the mighty, and then ascended on high, leading captivity captive; where he sat down at the right hand of God at rest and ease, and who will dare to rouse him up, or be able to stand before him when once he is angry? This verse in some ancient o writings of the Jews is interpreted of Messiah the son of David.

o Raya Mehimna in Zohar in Exod. fol. 49. 3. 4.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

9. Judah is a lion’s whelp. This similitude confirms the preceding sentence, that Judah would be formidable to his enemies. Yet Jacob seems to allude to that diminution which took place, when the greater part of the people revolted to Jeroboam. For then the king of Judah began to be like a sleeping lion, for he did not shake his mane to diffuse his terror far and wide, but, as it were, laid him down in his den. Yet a certain secret power of God lay hidden under that torpor, and they who most desired his destruction, and who were most able to do him injury, did not dare to disturb him. Therefore, after Jacob has transferred the supreme authority over his brethren to Judah alone; he now adds, by way of correction, that, though his power should happen to be diminished, he would nevertheless remain terrible to his enemies, like a lion who lies down in his lair. (204)

(204) Bishop Lowth’s translationin this:

“

Judah is a lion’s welp. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up He stoopeth down, he coucheth as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him?”

It is to be observed that three different words are here used in the original to express the metaphor, which illustrates the character of the tribe of Judah. First, גור, ( gur) the lion’s cub; secondly, אריה, ( aryah,) the full-grown lion; and thirdly, לביא, ( labi,) the old lioness. These different terms are supposed to represent the tribe of Judah in its earliest period, in the age of David, and in subsequent times.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(9) Judah is a lions whelp.We have seen that the sons of Jacob had each his signet, and that Judahs was so large as to be worn by him attached to a cord fastened round his neck (Gen. 38:18). Probably his emblem was a lion; that of Zebulun a ship; that of Issachar an ass; that of Dan an adder, and so on. Using then his self-chosen emblem, Jacob compares him, first, to a lions whelp, full of activity and enterprise, and which, after feasting upon its prey, goes up to its mountain lair, calm and fearless in the consciousness of its strength. But as Judah is a young lion in his activity and fearlessness, so is he a lion full-grown and majestic in his repose, which Jacobs words literally describe. For the stooping down is the bending of the limbs together before the lion couches, that is, lies down in his den.

As an old lion.Heb., as a lioness, the female being said to be more fierce than the male, and to resent more angrily any disturbance of its rest.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

9. Whelp of a lion Three different Hebrew words are here employed for lion, represented in our translation by whelp, lion, and lioness. The patriarch first calls Judah a lion’s whelp, and then directly addresses him, as if, like a lion, he had seized his prey, and having eaten what he would, had gone up to his lair in the mountains. He then resumes the third person, and pictures the victorious lion as having bowed and crouched down, either for repose or in readiness to pounce upon any victim which might approach him. In this crouching attitude he is further described as a lioness, fiercest of all the lion family, and most dangerous to rouse up in the lair. Hence the apocalyptic expression, “lion of the tribe of Judah,” (Rev 5:5. ) “The form of this vision came from remembered sights and sounds in the far-away Syrian mountains, but its substance came from an energy, courage, and might that were to burst upon the world in still increasing splendour through successive generations, yet incomprehensible to the wisest prophet in advance of their historic development. It came from Jerusalem, the Ariel, ‘or lion of God’ from David, who, in one of his loftiest lyrics, cried, ‘Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies,’ (Psa 18:40,) from the ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah,’ whose eyes are one day to be turned upon men ‘like a flame of fire,’ and his voice to fill the world ‘like the sound of many waters . ’” Newhall .

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