26 The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, Unto the bounds of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
And by the best things of the ancient mountains, And by the precious things of the everlasting hills, And by the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof. And let the good will of him that dwelt in the bush Come upon the head of Joseph, Upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
He stood, and measured the earth; He beheld, and discomfited the nations; And the eternal mountains were scattered, The everlasting hills gave way: His ways are everlasting.
And he came near, and kissed him. And he smelt the smell of his clothes, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Jehovah hath blessed. And God give thee of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of corn and new wine. Let peoples serve thee, And races bow down to thee. Be lord over thy brethren, And let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be they that curse thee, And blessed be they that bless thee.
And Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above; And by thy sword shalt thou live; And thou shalt serve thy brother; And it shall come to pass when thou rovest about, That thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
And the Almighty ùGod bless thee, and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou mayest become a company of peoples. And may he give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, in order that thou mayest possess the land of thy sojourning, which God gave to Abraham!
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If a man or a woman have vowed the special vow of a Nazarite, to consecrate themselves to Jehovah;
His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me;
He sent a man before them: Joseph was sold for a bondman. They afflicted his feet with fetters; his soul came into irons; Until the time when what he said came about: the word of Jehovah tried him. The king sent and loosed him -- the ruler of peoples -- and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler over all his possessions: To bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his elders wisdom.
His enemies will I clothe with shame; but upon himself shall his crown flourish.
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving-kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah, that hath mercy on thee.
And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them: it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever.
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The bars of the earth [closed] upon me for ever: But thou hast brought up my life from the pit, O Jehovah my God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Genesis 49
Commentary on Genesis 49 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 49
Ge 49:1-33. Patriarchal Blessing.
1. Jacob called unto his sons—It is not to the sayings of the dying saint, so much as of the inspired prophet, that attention is called in this chapter. Under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit he pronounced his prophetic benediction and described the condition of their respective descendants in the last days, or future times.
Ge 49:3, 4. Reuben forfeited by his crime the rights and honors of primogeniture. His posterity never made any figure; no judge, prophet, nor ruler, sprang from this tribe.
Ge 49:5-7. Simeon and Levi were associate in wickedness, and the same prediction would be equally applicable to both their tribes. Levi had cities allotted to them (Jos 21:1-45) in every tribe. On account of their zeal against idolatry, they were honorably "divided in Jacob"; whereas the tribe of Simeon, which was guilty of the grossest idolatry and the vices inseparable from it, were ignominiously "scattered."
Ge 49:8-12. Judah—A high pre-eminence is destined to this tribe (Nu 10:14; Jud 1:2). Besides the honor of giving name to the Promised Land, David, and a greater than David—the Messiah—sprang from it. Chief among the tribes, "it grew up from a lion's whelp"—that is, a little power—till it became "an old lion"—that is, calm and quiet, yet still formidable.
10. until Shiloh come—Shiloh—this obscure word is variously interpreted to mean "the sent" (Joh 17:3), "the seed" (Isa 11:1), the "peaceable or prosperous one" (Eph 2:14)—that is, the Messiah (Isa 11:10; Ro 15:12); and when He should come, "the tribe of Judah should no longer boast either an independent king or a judge of their own" [Calvin]. The Jews have been for eighteen centuries without a ruler and without a judge since Shiloh came, and "to Him the gathering of the people has been."
Ge 49:13. Zebulun was to have its lot on the seacoast, close to Zidon, and to engage, like that state, in maritime pursuits and commerce.
Ge 49:14, 15. Issachar—
14. a strong ass couching down between two burdens—that is, it was to be active, patient, given to agricultural labors. It was established in lower Galilee—a "good land," settling down in the midst of the Canaanites, where, for the sake of quiet, they "bowed their shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute."
Ge 49:16-18. Dan—though the son of a secondary wife, was to be "as one of the tribes of Israel."
17. Dan—"a judge."
a serpent … an adder—A serpent, an adder, implies subtlety and stratagem; such was pre-eminently the character of Samson, the most illustrious of its judges.
Ge 49:19. Gad—This tribe should be often attacked and wasted by hostile powers on their borders (Jud 10:8; Jer 49:1). But they were generally victorious in the close of their wars.
Ge 49:20. Asher—"Blessed." Its allotment was the seacoast between Tyre and Carmel, a district fertile in the production of the finest corn and oil in all Palestine.
Ge 49:21. Naphtali—The best rendering we know is this, "Naphtali is a deer roaming at liberty; he shooteth forth goodly branches," or majestic antlers [Taylor, Scripture Illustrations], and the meaning of the prophecy seems to be that the tribe of Naphtali would be located in a territory so fertile and peaceable, that, feeding on the richest pasture, he would spread out, like a deer, branching antlers.
Ge 49:22-26. Joseph—
22. a fruitful bough, &c.—denotes the extraordinary increase of that tribe (compare Nu 1:33-35; Jos 17:17; De 33:17). The patriarch describes him as attacked by envy, revenge, temptation, ingratitude; yet still, by the grace of God, he triumphed over all opposition, so that he became the sustainer of Israel; and then he proceeds to shower blessings of every kind upon the head of this favorite son. The history of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh shows how fully these blessings were realized.
Ge 49:27-33. Benjamin
27. shall ravin like a wolf—This tribe in its early history spent its energies in petty or inglorious warfare and especially in the violent and unjust contest (Jud 19:1-20:48), in which it engaged with the other tribes, when, notwithstanding two victories, it was almost exterminated.
28. all these are the twelve tribes of Israel—or ancestors. Jacob's prophetic words obviously refer not so much to the sons as to the tribes of Israel.
29. he charged them—The charge had already been given and solemnly undertaken (Ge 47:31). But in mentioning his wishes now and rehearsing all the circumstances connected with the purchase of Machpelah, he wished to declare, with his latest breath, before all his family, that he died in the same faith as Abraham.
33. when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons—It is probable that he was supernaturally strengthened for this last momentous office of the patriarch, and that when the divine afflatus ceased, his exhausted powers giving way, he yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.