Genesis 49

1. AND Jacob called unto his sons, and said : Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.

2. Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob ; And hearken unto Israel your father.

3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength ; The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.

4. Unstable as water, thou shalt not have the excellency ;

Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed :

Then defiledst thou it : he went up to my couch.

5. Simeon and Levi are brethren ;

Weapons of violence are their swords.

6. O my soul, come not thou into their council ;

Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united ;

For in their anger they slew a man,

And in their self will they houghed an ox.

7. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ;

And their wrath, for it was cruel :

I will divide them in Jacob,

And scatter them in Israel.

8. Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise :

Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies ;

Thy father’s sons shall bow down before thee.

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 a lioness ; who shall rouse him up ?

10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come ;

And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.

11. Binding his foal unto the vine,

And his ass’s colt unto the choice vine ;

He hath washed his garments in wine,

And his vesture in the blood of grapes :

12. His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk.

13. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea :

And he shall be for an haven of ships ; And his border shall be upon Zidon.

14. Issachar is a strong ass,

Couching down between the sheepfolds :

15. And he saw a resting place that it was good,

And the land that it was pleasant ;

And he bowed his shoulder to bear,

And became a servant under taskwork.

16. Dan shall judge his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

17. Dan shall be a serpent in the way,

An adder in the path,

That biteth the horse’s heels,

So that his rider falleth backward.

18. I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

19. Gad, a troop shall press upon him :

But he shall press upon their heel.

20. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,

And he shall yield royal dainties.

21. Naphtali is a hind let loose :

He giveth goodly words.

22. Joseph is a fruitful bough,

A fruitful bough by a fountain ;

His branches run over the wall.

23. The archers have sorely grieved him,

And shot at him, and persecuted him :

24. But his bow abode in strength,

And the arms of his hands were made strong,

By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,

(From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel,)

25. Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee,

And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee,

With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath,

Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.

26. The blessings of thy father

Have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors

Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills :

They shall be on the head of Joseph,

And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

27. Benjamin is a wolf that ravineth : In the morning he shall devour the prey, And at even he shall divide the spoil.

The death-scene was sublime. All the sons were summoned and stood round the bed. The time has arrived to give them all his last blessing. It comes in a series of flitting fragmentary visions, in which son after son, tribe after tribe, is presented; the character of each son sketched, the after destiny of each tribe dimly and brokenly shadowed forth: not a set of distinct prophecies, as if Jacob had the particular events that were to happen actually before his eye, and was giving so many imaginative descriptions of them—still less a set of prophetic sketches contrived by some one long after the events had happened, and put into the lips of the dying seer. W. H.

The words were of mingled blessing and prediction. Before him, in prophetic vision, unrolled, as it were, pictures of the tribes of which his sons were to be the ancestors; and what he saw he sketched in grand outlines. It is utterly impossible to regard these prophetic pictures as exact representations of any one definite period or even event in the history of Israel. They are sketches of the tribes in their grand characteristics, rather than predictions, either of special events, or of the history of Israel as a whole. And to them applies especially the description which one has given of prophetic visions generally, that “they are pictures drawn without perspective,”—that is, such that you cannot discern the distance from you of the various objects. A. E.—Before Jacob’s mind are gathered in one living picture all the pleasing and painful events of which they have been the cause. With prophetic vision he traces the characters and dispositions of the fathers, as they are transmitted, expanded, or modified, through the history of their descendants. And aided by this insight, he allots to every one, on the authority of God, his fitting portion of that land in which he himself has led a pilgrim life for more than a hundred years, and which now stands with all its natural diversities and with its rich and manifold productions, as vividly and distinctly before his mind as the different characters of his own sons. K.

Looking back into the rude scenes of a very distant age, I see a man surrounded by a few camels and sheep, whose greatest boon was a well of spring-water or a pasture. This man knew very few moral rules, and did not always obey what he knew; he had no Ten Commandments, no prophets, no Gospel,—yet I see that

28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

man turning with unspeakable awe to the One invisible; longing, even unrighteously, for the spiritual birthright. In his distress I see him struggling as a wrestler with God the night through. As years go on I see him growing and rising in spiritual life, and at the end I see him, the most secular of the patriarchs, uplifted into such faith in God and into such visions as only faith can see, so that his lips break into the first prophetic song found in the Bible—every sentence filled with the finest insight, with a wonderful condensation of thought, of beauty and boldness of imagery, and all standing together as a series of great sculptures, in which the coming history of the Hebrew tribes is cut as in the everlasting rock. Mercer.

Jacob prophesies the destiny of each of his sons, and predicts, in still clearer terms, the advent of the Messiah. He is first represented in general terms, as “the seed of the woman.” It is predicted that he shall descend from Shem. From among the sons of Shem, Abraham is selected: from the sons of Abraham, Isaac is chosen: of the two sons of Isaac, Jacob obtains the blessing: from the twelve sons of Jacob, Judah is announced as the ancestor of the Deliverer of man: and from all the numerous descendants of Judah, it is at length predicted that the Messiah shall spring from the line of David. By these gradual revelations the providence of God perpetually kept up the attention, and preserved the faith of man in the expected Mediator; and the prophecy of Jacob was eminently useful to strengthen the faith of the Israelites in that gloomy season of bondage and distress, which began after the death of Joseph, and continued till the Exodus. G. T.—The prophecy of Jacob sketches generally the fortunes of his family; but all is leading up to that which was to be the great consummation, when the promised Seed should come and extend the blessings of the Spiritual Israel throughout all the world. It is to be carefully noted, that the occupation of Canaan by the twelve tribes under Joshua was not the point to which his expectations pointed as an end, but rather that from which his predictions took their beginning. The return to Canaan was a fact established in the decrees of Providence, the certainty of which rested on promises given and repeated to the Patriarchs. Jacob therefore does not repeat this, further than by the injunction, in the previous chapter, and again at the end of this, that he should be buried, not in Egypt, but at Machpelah, the burying-place of his fathers. E. H. B.

2. Jacob and Israel both apply to the same person, and to the race of which he is the head. The one refers to the natural, the other to the spiritual. The distinction is similar to that between Elohim and Jehovah: the former of which designates the eternal God, antecedent to all creation, and therefore equally related to the whole universe; the latter, the self-existent God, subsequent to the creation of intelligent beings, and specially related to them, as the moral Governor, the Keeper of covenant, and the Performer of promise. M.

2-27. The Spirit of God gives light and life to the germ of prophecy in Jacob’s mind. First, he sees Reuben stand before him, full of strength and gentleness; but by one act of sin and shame he has forfeited his birthright. His tribe receives but a small inheritance in the south eastern pastures, between the Jordan and Euphrates. This tribe plays an unimportant part in all the after history.—The fierce, undisciplined, fiery natures of Levi and Simeon come next into review. They receive now the punishment of their cruelty and treachery on Hamor and Sichem. As a tribe they could not dwell together. Their inheritance is divided and dispersed among the rest.—Next comes the kingly, haughty, and powerful Judah. He receives the birthright of sovereignty taken from Reuben. His tribe possessed invincible heroism, certainty of the future royal dignity, riches and abundance in their fruitful borders.—Zebulun seems to have had a disposition for business and commerce. It was to settle on the sea-shore, and stretch to Sidon.—Issachar is a powerful, but lazy, beast of burden. His dwelling suits his character. So that he can have peace, he is content with subjection.—Dan has an independent adventurous spirit, which spurs him on to bold and crafty deeds.—Gad allows himself to be attacked, but boldly turns and defeats the enemy. In his district, on the east of Jordan, this tribe was more exposed than most to continual assaults.—Asher is delicate, and prepares kingly dainties.—Naphtali is a slim hind, with eloquent beautiful language.—But all there is of outward blessing and riches is heaped on Joseph’s house. Fruitful and powerful, he spreads himself on all sides. No assault can fall on him. In the fulness of his possessions he surpasses his brethren. In Benjamin, the youngest son of the beloved wife, is only to be seen a spirit of lawlessness and viovidence, which made this tribe dangerous, and brought upon it well-deserved humiliations. This “prophetic land-chart” of Canaan is very remarkable; for, although Jacob is guided by the character of his sons in the description which he gives of their future lot, and by their past conduct, yet the Spirit of prophecy gives a width of meaning to his words, and the result turned out very differently from what might have been expected. Gerlach.

3,4. Reuben, the firstborn, appears in many points not to have been by any means the worst of the brethren. He took no part in the deed of violence and treachery against the Shechemites; he dissuaded his brethren from the murder of Joseph, and wished to restore him to his father; he offered to become surety for the safety of Benjamin. But the dark spot of his life, and one which abode upon the mind of his father,—so that he disregarded his offered suretyship for Benjamin,—was his foul sin with Bilhah his father’s concubine. Alf.—The prerogatives of the birthright consisted chiefly in a double portion of the father’s estate; the priesthood; and the kingdom, that is, the chief authority among his brethren. The first of these was given to Joseph; the second to Levi; and the third to Judah, to descend to their respective tribes; while the tribe of Reuben, who had forfeited his prerogative by his crime, recorded before by Moses and now alluded to by Jacob, was to continue in obscurity. Bp. Patrick.

In v. 4, the phrase, “Unstable as water,” does not compare water to the solid earth or to more solid rock as treacherous to the foot and unsafe to stand on; but rather as bubbling, effervescing under heat or applied force—as therefore a fit image of ungoverned passion; of wantonness, impatient of restraint. Reuben had no moral stamina, and therefore could not hold his natural place of headship as the firstborn—a moral lesson worthy of thoughtful consideration. A young man given to licentious indulgence can have no solid bottom to his character. The sagacious will never trust him. H. C.—Reuben ought, as the firstborn, to have been the firmest defender of the honor of the family, and it was by him that it had been violated. For that reason the crown of dignity and might, to which his birthright entitled him, was taken from his head.

5-7. Simeon and Levi were the next in order, but the dignity, which Reuben had forfeited, could not be conferred upon them; for through their treachery toward the Shechemites they had brought disgrace upon the house of Jacob. They had wafted for the purpose of crime, therefore they were to be scattered in Israel. The three elder sons were thus excluded from the rights and privileges of the birthright. They were not to inhabit the heart of the land, which would otherwise have fallen to their share. Reuben’s inheritance was to be outside the true holy land, and therefore was not even mentioned. Simeon and Levi were to be scattered in fragments among the rest of the tribes, and therefore to lose the advantages and independence, which only compactness and unity could secure. K.—Jacob pronounces a curse upon their anger, not because indignation against sin is unwarrantable in itself, but because their wrath was marked by deeds of fierceness and cruelty. He does not cut them off from any part in the promised inheritance; but he divides and scatters them. M.—Their fault was a bad union; their punishment is a just division. Their fault was “hand-in-hand;” they were too near; their punishment is, they shall be set far enough asunder. So whom the devil hath joined God puts insunder, and a righteous thing it is it should be so. Bp. Andrews.—The tribe of Simeon had not any inheritance properly of their own, but only a portion in the midst of the tribe of Judah (Josh. 19 : 1-9); whence several of them afterward went in quest of new habitations (1 Chron. 4 : 39, 42), and so were divided from the rest of their brethren. The tribe of Levi had no inheritance allotted to them, but were dispersed among all the tribes, having certain cities assigned to them, with a little land adjoining. This indeed did not prove a curse to them, they having the tenth of all the increase of the land: for this curse seems to have been taken off by reason of their eminent services in falling on the worshippers of the golden calf, and so consecrating themselves to the Lord (Exod. 32 : 26, 29); on which account Moses blesses this tribe a little before his death, whereas he gives no blessing to the tribe of Simeon, but leaves them under the curse here pronounced by Jacob. Bp. Patrick.

8. Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise.** The rest of the nation shall be called Jews, and their whole country Judea, from Judah (Esther 3 : 6 ; Matt. 27 : 37). This tribe was famous also for their conquests over their enemies (Judg. 1 : 2), and the dominion which it enjoyed over their brethren. It was famous for the kingdom of the house of David; but especially because the Messiah was born of this tribe, whose kingdom is everlasting. Bp. Kuder.

On the neck of thine enemies. The intrepid and successful bravery of the men of

Judah was often the subject of admiration. As soon as the tribes of Israel sent forth separate armies against the Canaanites, the tribe of Judah gained a high distinction which was well maintained in succeeding generations. The fiercest giants about the region of Hebron could not stand before Caleb and his brave associates. David was of the tribe of Judah. By him was the kingdom of Israel raised to a pitch of power and glory which made his name great in distant lands. The enemies of Judah were more especially overthrown and brought into complete subjection under David, who, evidently referring to this prophecy, says (Ps. 18 : 40), “Thou hast also given me the neck of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me.”

—Thy father’s sons shall bow down before thee. They shall acknowledge thee as exalted to the highest dignity among them. This prediction began to be accomplished when he took precedence of the other tribes in leading the armies of Israel, after the death of Joshua. It was also still more fully confirmed at a subsequent period (1 Chron. 5 : 2), “For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler.” But its complete accomplishment was to be realized only in Christ, in that transcendent dignity with which he is invested as King of kings and Lord of lords. Its ultimate spiritual fulfilment is to be seen symbolically represented in Rev. 5 : 5-8, where, when the Lion of the tribe of Judah takes the sealed book, the whole host of heavenly worshippers are discovered in prostrate adorations at his feet. Bush.

9. Literally:** “A young lion is Judah; from the prey, my son, art thou gone up: he kneels, he couches as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him up?” Judah is a lion’s whelp: he goes forth to the prey, he mounts up with his prey triumphantly to the mountain-den; there he couches as a lion, nay, like the still fiercer lioness, who shall venture to rouse him? In the description the imagery increases in force, perhaps in reference to the continually increasing power of this tribe, which received its consummation in the greatest of all Victors, in the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5 : 5). Geri.

10. The meaning of the verse appears to be** “The Sceptre (either of royal, or perhaps only of tribal, authority) shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver (senator or scribe) from before him, until Shiloh (i.e. either ’the Prince of peace,’ or ‘he whose right it is’) shall come, and to him shall the nations be obedient.” There are some obscure expressions, but we may confidently hold that the above paraphrase conveys the true sense of the passage. E. H. B.—Shall not depart from Judah. Shall not pass from him to another, is the meaning. So general an expression should be taken in its obvious general import; namely, that Judah should retain the supremacy among the tribes of Israel, and should yield it to no other. This is verified in its history. For notwithstanding the revolt of the ten tribes, and the seventy years of captivity, it (and it alone) maintained its nationality to the coming of the Messiah, at which time it still had its own national institutions and laws. At the captivity, the nationality of the rival kingdom of the revolted tribes ceased, and was known no more: that of Judah continued to the coming of the Messiah, and soon after ceased forever. Ruler’s staff—between his feet. As often represented in ancient sculptures, Shiloh; meaning, Peaceful, or Maker of peace. Compare Prince of peace, in Isaiah 9:6. That this refers to the Messiah, was held by the oldest Jewish interpreters, and there is no sufficient ground for dissenting from their opinion. To him; referring either to the nearest subject, Shiloh, the most obvious grammatical reference, or to Judah the leading subject of the sentence. In the former case, the word peoples is to be taken in its widest sense. In the latter, it has its more usual meaning, namely the tribes of Israel; and the reference is to the most brilliant period of Judah’s supremacy, when all were united under the sway of David and Solomon. T. J. C.—Far more probable is the rendering which makes Shiloh a proper name, and the subject of the verb, signifying “Peace,” or rather, “the Peace-maker,” the “Prince of peace.” So, with slight variations, Luther, Vater, Gesenius, Rosenmüller, Hengstenberg, Knobel, Keil and others of the highest authority. The title is one most appropriate to Messiah (see Isaiah, 9:6). The word is legitimately formed from the verb Shalah, to rest, to be at peace; and if the received reading be the true reading, there need be little doubt that this is its meaning. E. H. B.

This victorious tribe shall maintain its preeminence above the rest until the Prince of Peace shall come, to whom, not only the other tribes, but all people, shall yield obedience. The triumph which all nations shall enjoy in Abraham and his seed is to consist in peace, which the mighty, victorious Leader shall give to them. The “Prince of Peace,” as says Isaiah, carrying out this image, shall erect a kingdom in which peace shall have no end.

Gerl.—This distinctive feature of the Messiah’s character and mission is the theme of Ps. 72 and of many passages in Isaiah, e.g. 9:6, 7, and 11:1-10, and 60:18-22. These prophecies naturally follow the lead of this and therefore sustain the construction here given it. Moreover, it is natural and highly probable that Jacob, whose twelve sons were to found the twelve tribes of Israel and who knew that the Messiah was to come in the line of some one of his sons, should indicate which. Noah had designated Shem: God had designated Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; now the choice is naturally made out of these twelve. H. C.

As regards the fulfilment of this prophecy, it is undoubted that the tribal authority and the highest place in the nation continued with Judah until the destruction of Jerusalem. Israel never ceased to be a nation, Judah never ceased to be a tribe with at least a tribal sceptre and lawgivers, or expositors of the law, Sanhedrim or Senators, and with a general preeminence in the land, nor was there a foreign ruler of the people, till at least the time of Herod the Great, just before the birth of the Saviour. E. H. B.—We learn from history that Judah never lost his tribe, the greatest care having been exercised to preserve distinct this tribe and its families. Thus, in the days of Saul the men of Judah were numbered apart (1 Sam. 11:8); the same also was the case in the time of David (2 Sam. 24:9). Prophets also were employed to record the genealogies of this tribe under the kings (2 Chron. 12:15, and 13:22), and the same care appears to have been exercised during the captivity in Babylon, for while there was difficulty in making out the genealogies of some of the other tribes there was none in regard to this (Ez. 2:62; Neh. 7:64). And while in fact a portion of the other ten tribes never returned at all to the land of their fathers, Judah, with Benjamin its accessory, returned with its integrity unbroken, and so remained till the birth of Christ, the whole nation as well as the land itself receiving its denomination from Judah, the one being called “Jews,” the other “Judea.” Thus it was that the sceptre, or the tribal constitution, did not depart from Judah before the predicted era. It is abundantly evident, however, that both the sceptre and what is called the lawgiver are long since lost in Judah; that the tribe of Judah has lost the record of its genealogies; and that none can discriminate the true descendants of the patriarch Judah from the descendants of Benjamin or of the other patriarchs. Either then this word of promise to Judah has failed forevermore, or Shiloh is come, and it is vain to look for another Messiah. Bush.

The second king of Israel was of the tribe of Judah; and from that time to the Babylonish captivity Judah had not only the sceptre of a tribe, but the sceptre of a kingdom. When it was promised that the sceptre should not depart from Judah, it was implied that it should depart from the other tribes: accordingly the tribe of Benjamin became an appendage to the kingdom of Judah, and the other ten tribes were carried into Assyria, whence [as tribes] they never returned. The Jews also were carried captive to Babylon, but returned after seventy years. During their captivity they had lived as a distinct people; had rulers and governors of their own; and a “prince of Judah” (Ez. 1:8). These princes and rulers managed their return and settlement afterward. After the Babylonish captivity they lived under the dominion of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, not so free as before; but still as a distinct people under their own laws. The authority of their rulers and governors subsisted under these foreign masters; afterward under the Asmonean princes; and even in our Saviour’s time. Their power indeed in capital causes, especially those relating to the state, was abridged. The sceptre was then departing; and in about forty years it totally departed. Their city was taken; their temple was destroyed; and they themselves were either slain with the sword, or sold for slaves. And from that time to this, they have never formed one body or society, but have been dispersed among all nations; their tribes and genealogies have been all confounded; and they have lived without a ruler, without a lawgiver, and without supreme authority and government in any part of the earth. And this a captivity not for seventy years, but for seventeen hundred.—Unto him shall the gathering of the people be. That is, of the Gentiles. This is foretold in many other Scriptures. It began to be fulfilled in Cornelius the centurion, and in a few years the Gospel was disseminated in the most considerable parts of the then known world. We ourselves were of the Gentiles, but are now gathered unto Christ. Bp. Newton.

We now see the excellency of the blessing given to Judah. He was to be the father of the Shiloh; and till the Shiloh came, this tribe was to be the most glorious of all the tribes of Israel. The great burden of Judah’s blessing was the promise of the Messiah. Bush.—He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who having spoiled principalities and powers went up a Conqueror, and couched so as none can stir him up when he sat down on the right hand of the Father. To him belongs the sceptre; to him shall the gathering of the people be, as the Desire of all nations (Hag. 2:7), who being lifted up from the earth should draw all men unto him, and in whom the children of God that are scattered abroad should meet, as the centre of their unity. H.

11,22. The image of Judah, given in antique poetic speech, is in the highest degree picturesque. We see him binding his beast to the vine, which is the blessing of his land. The choice red sap flows for him in such abundance that he has washed his garments in it, which therefore show the royal purple. We only need look at him to see the profuse abundance yielded by his land. The dark fire peculiar to wine streams from his eyes, the dazzling white of milk from his teeth; so that we see with what his land overflows. As the land designed for him brings forth the noblest and richest fruit, the royal vine, so he himself is comparable in lofty energy to the royal lion, and as such he will bear the sceptre. Here plainly two stages are distinguished in Judah’s future, a stage of conflict and one of peace. In the conflict for the attainment of his high destiny he will be the resistless conqueror, in peace the ruler unsurpassed in glory. History has brought the fulfilment. Not only was Judah in the van on the desert-march, not only was he the unwearied champion in the conquest of the land, but in other ways he showed his lion-like superiority. The age of greatest triumph and glory was ushered in by David when he assumed the sceptre and staff, no more to depart from his house. And under Solomon, the calmly couching lion, followed the most peaceful epoch of abundant prosperity, as under a true Prince of Peace. This was the climax of Israelitish national life. But the ideal was not reached then, still less afterward. On this account prophecy speaks again and again of a new setting up of the tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11), of a future David to whom it belongs to administer the law (Ezek. 34:23), who will subjugate all nations and bring in eternal peace. This king will enter Zion riding on the animal of peace (Zech. 9:9); under him men will enjoy the abundance of the land undisturbed (Joel 4:18; Micah 4:4). The final fulfilment of this patriarchal blessing we can only find with the apostolic Church in Christ, who has overcome as “the lion of the tribe of Judah,” and now extends his kingdom in undisturbed peace, and rejoices in its glory. Orelli.

The whole description here is full of Messianic allusions, which were afterward taken up in the prophecy of Balaam; then applied to David (Ps. 89); and from him carried forward in prophecy, through Ps. 72, Isa. 9:11, to Ezek. 21:27, and Zech. 9:9, till they were finally realized in Jesus Christ, “sprung out of Juda,” “our peace, who hath made both one,” and who “must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet,” “the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David,” who “hath prevailed.” A. E.—Through the Old Testament Scriptures we find the conception of a kingdom to be set up in the latter days held forth continually both as the hope of Israel, and as the consummation of God’s purposes of grace for mankind. We go back to that primitive scene of the patriarch of the twelve tribes, dying in a strange land, his sons gathered around him as he braces himself upon the edge of his couch, and leans upon the top of his staff and worships the God before whom his fathers “Abraham and Isaac did walk,” and as his dimmed eyes brighten with the vision of the future, we hear him say, with the confidence of a Seer to whom that vision is reality,—“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh—the Peace shall come; and unto him shall the obedience of the Peoples be.” Hardly is David seated upon his throne in Judah, and the ark that had rested in Shiloh brought up to Zion, when, as if to disclaim the fulfilment of Jacob’s prediction in himself, the Psalmist prophesied anew the coming of the Lord’s anointed, who should have “the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession” (Ps. 2).

But though Judah in the time of her prosperity must still wait for the consummation of her kingdom, yet in her times of depression and fear the promise is renewed to revive her hope. Isaiah then lifts up his voice like a trumpet, rallying the discomfited and despairing people: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever” (Isa. 9:6, 7). And Zechariah, making the hills of Palestine vocal with the welcome to Messiah, sings, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion: shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy king cometh unto Thee” (Zech. 9:9); and Micah reaches forth the prophetic benediction to Bethlehem—“Though least among the thousands of Judah, yet out of her shall he come forth that is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

And all the history of the ages is brought to crystallize about this single thread of the promised kingdom of the Messiah. It is wonderful with what tenacity of assertion the Bible holds to this conception of the kingdom of God; it is amazing with what majesty of purpose, what stateliness of march the Providence of God moves ever toward the consummation of that kingdom in the coming of Christ. Men, kings, peoples, dynasties, empires, as brought within the contemplation of this Book, are nothing, save as they touch upon this kingdom, and are the agents or opponents of its progress. Egypt, Arabia and Tyre, Assyria, Babylon and Persia, the later Macedonian and Roman empires—all are of no account save as they help or hinder the unfolding of the kingdom of God. The covenant with Abraham posited that kingdom in the oath of Jehovah as the guarantee of its universality and its perpetuity; the constitution of Israel under a Theocracy erected before the world a symbol of this divine kingdom, and provided within itself the means of its spiritual development; and when the fulness of time had arrived for the spiritual to burst its shell and stand forth in the beauty of Righteousness, the majesty of Truth, the power of Love, then the polity like the ritual fell away, and symbol, prophecy, and history met and were fulfilled in Christ. J. P. T.

13. The lot of God’s providence exactly agrees with the plan of God’s counsel, like a true copy with the original. If prophecy says, Zebulun shall be a haven of ships, Providence will so plant him. God appoints the bounds of our habitation. It is our wisdom and duty to accommodate ourselves to our lot, and to improve it. If Zebulun dwell at the haven of the sea, let him be for a haven of ships. H.

14,15. The principal portion of the great plain of Esdraelon fell to the lot of the tribe of Issachar. And for the sake of securing himself in so desirable a portion, Issachar appears to have become at times humbly subservient to the Cananites of the adjacent fortified towns, and to the proud country of Phœnicia on the near sea-coast. The people of Issachar—in the language of Ritter—“assumed a position of almost slavish servitude in relation to the Phœnicians, becoming their common carriers, mule-drivers, and servants of all work.” Such humiliation of this tribe the dying Jacob must have foreseen, when he spake this of Issachar. N. C. B.

16,17. Dan. We have only to consult the history of Samson’s warfare with the Philistines to see how strikingly this predicted character was then realized. Bush.—18. That the long-promised Seed was in Jacob’s thought is forcibly and beautifully suggested in the midst of these dying benedictions by the words—“I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.” In the sustaining hope of a coming Saviour he had waited and trusted through many long years; for these words express the precious experiences of a life. As Jesus himself testified of Abraham, “He rejoiced to see my day,” hailing it joyously from afar, so Jacob witnesses of himself, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.” H. C.—Nothing can be more natural than to suppose that the dying patriarch, at the moment when he was formally transmitting to his children the theocratic blessing, had his thoughts lifted up toward that great salvation, of which all these material and temporal benedictions pronounced upon his sons were but the shadows and the types, and of which perhaps he had been incidentally reminded by the mention of the biting serpent, to which he had just likened Dan. It is noticeable that this is the first occurrence of the term salvation. T. W.

The salvation he waited for was Christ, the promised Seed, whom he had spoken of (v. 10). Now that he was going to be gathered to his people, he breathes after him to whom the gathering of the people shall be. Now that he is going to enjoy the salvation, he comforts himself with this, that he had waited for the salvation. It is the comfort of a dying saint thus to have waited for the salvation of the Lord; for then he shall have what he has been waiting for: long-looked-for will come. H.—Our Lord appears as the chief, the central object of prophecy; the light that illuminates its obscurity. Even in the early period of the patriarchs, he was the principal object of desiring expectation to holy men. All the ancient saints were waiting for him, down to Simeon, who could depart in peace, because his eyes had seen the Saviour. R. Hall.

19. Gad. The language refers to attacks of nomadic tribes which would harass and annoy the Gadites, but which they would successfully repel. 20. Asher. The import of the blessing is that Asher should possess a specially productive soil. Whitelaw.

22-26. There is here a fulness of paternal feeling, a richness and prodigality of blessing, such as would naturally be poured forth on the lost and recovered child of the object of early love, and child of old age. These natural affections, under divine guidance, often become, as here, the fittest instruments for the expression of the divine will. T. J. C.—The blessing on Joseph forms the climax of the father’s fondness and the prophet’s fervor. Taking his name (adding or increase) as a sign both of his past abundance and his future enlargement, he compares him to a fruitful vine, or rather a branch of the vine of Israel, throwing its shoots over the wall of the cistern by which it is planted; and he promises his favorite son every form of blessing that man could desire or enjoy. As in all his history, so in this prophecy especially, Joseph is one of the most eminent types of Christ. P. S.

22. A fruitful bough. Joseph is fitly compared to a fruitful bough by reason of his numerous offspring. He was the head of two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they were both very numerous. 23. Joseph was aimed and shot at and greatly oppressed by his enemies. His own brethren reviled him, shooting at him with the arrows of bitter words: they contrived his death. He was sold into Egypt through envy, and imprisoned by a lie. 24. But his bow abode in strength. The Divine help and mercy did not forsake him: he was preserved and relieved by the mighty God of Israel. By him he was kept alive, when his death was designed; preserved chaste, when he was greatly tempted; rendered prosperous in his lowest circumstances; and from them advanced to great dignity, and made an instrument of very great good to others. From thence, that is, from the same Divine power and mercy, Joseph, who had been sold, tempted, maligned, and imprisoned, and greatly oppressed, became the feeder, and stay and support (called here stone, compare Gen. 28:11), or rock of defence of his father and his family. “Neither was there a man born like unto Joseph, a governor of his brethren, a stay of the people” (Ecclus. 49:15). Bp. Kidder.

25,26. These two thoughts—the peaceful abundance of his old age, which he owed to Joseph, and the persecutions his beloved son had endured—stir the fountains of his affections until they overflow with blessings. Blessings of heaven above,—the air, the rain, and the sun. Blessings of the deep,—the springs and streams, as well as the fertile soil. Blessings of the breasts and the womb,—the children of the home and the young of the flocks and herds. The benedictions pronounced upon Joseph exceed those that came upon Jacob himself from his fathers. To Joseph is given a double portion, with a double measure of affection from a father’s heart. M.

27. Benjamin.** As Judah is likened to a lion, Issachar to a strong ass, Dan to a serpent, Naphtali to an hind let loose, Joseph to a fruitful bough, or tree planted by the waters; so Benjamin is fitly compared to a ravenous wolf, for his warlike courage and success against his enemies. Kidder.—It was a fierce and warlike tribe, as appears from several instances, and especially in the case of the Levite’s wife (Judg. 20), when they alone waged war against all the other tribes, and overcame them in two battles. In the morning. The morning and night here are the morning and night of the Jewish state, which is the subject of all Jacob’s prophecy: as in Moses’s prophecy, which is an exposition of this of Jacob, “Benjamin shall dwell in safety; the Lord shall cover him all the day long.” This imports that Benjamin should continue longer than the other tribes, even to the very last times of the Jewish state. And this was most exactly fulfilled. As the tribe of Benjamin annexed itself to the tribe of Judah as its head, so it ran the same fortune with it: they went together into captivity; they returned home together; and were both in being when Shiloh came. Bp. Newton.

28,29. The concluding words (v. 29) show that this was a formal appointment of Jacob’s twelve sons to be the twelve heads of the chosen race, now becoming a nation, instead of its having one head as hitherto; and also that the blessings and prophecies of the dying patriarch had respect rather to the tribes than to their individual ancestors; and henceforth the tribes are continually spoken of as if they were persons. P. S.

The Jews, without reference to their religious belief, are among the most remarkable people in the annals of mankind. Sprung from one stock, they pass the infancy of their nation in a state of servitude in a foreign country, where, nevertheless, they increase so rapidly, as to appear on a sudden the fierce and irresistible conquerors of their native valleys in Palestine. There they settle down under a form of government and code of laws totally unlike those of any other rude or civilized community. They sustain a long and doubtful conflict, sometimes enslaved, sometimes victorious, with the neighboring tribes. At length, united under one monarchy, they gradually rise to the rank of a powerful, opulent, and commercial people. Subsequently weakened by internal discord, they are overwhelmed by the vast monarchies which arose on the banks of the Euphrates, and transplanted into a foreign region. They are partially restored, by the generosity or policy of the Eastern sovereigns, to their native land. They are engaged in wars of the most romantic gallantry, in assertion of their independence, against the Syro Grecian successors of Alexander. Under Herod, they rise to a second era of splendor, as a dependent kingdom of Rome: finally, they make the last desperate resistance to the universal dominion of the Cessars. Scattered from that period over the face of the earth—hated, scorned, and oppressed, they subsist, a numerous and often a thriving people; and in all the changes of manners and opinions retain their ancient institutions, their national character, and their indelible hope of restoration to grandeur and happiness in their native land. Thus the history of this, perhaps the only unmingled race, which can boast of high antiquity, leads us through every gradation of society, and brings us into contact with almost every nation which commands our interest in the ancient world; the migratory pastoral population of Asia; Egypt, the mysterious parent of arts, science, and legislation; the Arabian Desert; the Hebrew theocracy under the form of a federative agricultural republic, their kingdom powerful in war and splendid in peace; Babylon, in its magnificence and downfall; Grecian arts and luxury endeavoring to force an unnatural refinement within the pale of the rigid Mosaic institutions; Roman arms waging an exterminating war with the independence even of the smallest states; it descends, at length, to all the changes in the social state of the modern European and Asiatic nations.

The religious history of this people is no less singular. In the narrow slip of land inhabited by their tribes the worship of one Almighty Creator of the Universe subsisted, as in its only sanctuary. In every stage of society, under the pastoral tent of Abraham, and in the sumptuous temple of Solomon, the same creed maintains its inviolable simplicity. During their long intercourse with foreign nations in Egypt and Babylon, though the primitive habits and character of the Hebrew nation were greatly modified, and perhaps some theological notions engrafted on their original tenets, this primary distinction still remains; after several periods of almost total apostasy, it revives in all its vigor. Nor is this merely a sublime speculative tenet, it is the basis of their civil constitution, and their national character. As there is but one Almighty God, so there is but one people

49 : 29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people : bury 30 me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace : 31 there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his 32 wife ; and there I buried Leah : the field and the cave that is therein, which was pur- 33 chased from the children of Heth. And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.50 : 1 And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And 2 Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father : and the physicians 3 embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him ; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming : and the Egyptians wept for him threescore and ten days. 4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of 5 Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die : in my grave which I have 6 digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go 7 up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, Go up, 8 and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. And Joseph went up to bury his 9 father : and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and 10 all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his 11 father’s house : only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the 12 land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen : and it was a 13 very great company. And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond 14 Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation : and he made a 15 mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaan- 16 ites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the 17 Egyptians : wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan. 18 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them : for his sons carried him 19 into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which 20 Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a buryingplace, of Ephron the Hittite, 21 before Mamre.

The life of Jacob is a most striking illustration of the difficult sort of natural material which the grace of God often has to work upon.

Jacob was not by nature a noble character. But the grace of God made him noble in the hour of trial. Of all men, Jacob might have applied himself to the language of the great apostle two thousand years after: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Hence, next to David’s life, this checkered, troubled life of Jacob is the most instructive on the subject of Christian experience of any of the biographies of holy scripture. Nor is there a place of spiritual history into which sin and sorrow can cast the believing soul which may not directly or indirectly find its illustration in the story of Jacob’s experience. This account of the last hours and the death of such a man is beautifully presented here. When “the time drew near that Israel must die,” as we have already seen, he at once proceeded with the greatest self-possession to set his house in order. He has now announced the prophetic oracles concerning his posterity in the “afterhood of days,” and has given solemn charge to lay his dead body with Abraham and Sarah and Isaac, in the land of the inheritance. And his work being all done, he lies down to await his last summons. Calmly he yielded up his spirit to Him who gave it, and is “gathered to his fathers.” S. R.

29-32. Abraham had testified his faith in the divine promises by the purchase of the burying-place of Machpelah, and Jacob would show that he had the same confidence. His command to his sons was a public profession that he had lived and was now dying in the same faith by which his progenitors had embraced the promise. What was said by Paul of Joseph may be said of Jacob, that “by faith he gave commandment concerning his bones.” Bush.

33. Jacob is the only one of the Old Testament patriarchs whom we are able to accompany to his very last hour. And here we see how the Old Testament death-bed was surrounded by brightness and peace, the fear of death being swallowed up in the certain hope of the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Baum.—He rather appears to have conquered death than to have suffered it. Who, seeing the end of this illustrious patriarch, can help exclaiming, There is none like the God of Jeshurun! Let Jacob’s God be my God! Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! A. C.—Death was no new subject to him; salvation not an untried theme; the grave no strange country; heaven not an unlooked-for home. He had waited for the Angel of the Covenant, who had redeemed him from all evil, and the summons, when it came, found him ready and willing to enter into the eternal presence. His work was done; his last blessings and behests had been pronounced; his last accents of prayer and praise breathed out; and he had now nothing to do but “to gather up his feet into his bed,” and cheerfully to resign his spirit into the hand of his Father and his God. He was gathered to his people according to his own expectation and his hope. Bush.

Here is more than quiet hope, here is full certainty of salvation: here is a waiting, an expectation which can afford to be patient because it is certain, and can in no case be mistaken. No remorse for the past disturbs him; the sinner has become the favored of God, the heir of the promise. No fear of the future concerns him; assured of God’s salvation, his soul is thus set free from everything that might even at the last trouble his peace, and it surrenders all unconditionally with the words, “Lo, I die, but God shall be with you,” and he falls asleep like a child on the faithful bosom of its mother. Glorious fruits of the hope of salvation in the glimmering twilight of the ancient covenant! If they could thus depart who have not seen the promises fulfilled, but merely beholding them from afar have believed and embraced them, what should be the life, what at last the death, of those who walk at noonday, and rejoice in an accomplished salvation! Van O.

His yielding up the ghost and being gathered unto his people—as if these two events were in close juxtaposition—and the latter previous to the funeral which took place many days after—indicate another sort of gathering with his ancestors than merely being buried with them; as if his spirit in returning to God joined Abraham and Isaac—standing before him who is the God, not of the dead but of the living. T. C.

“Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” This declaration of Christ, while it anticipates the vocation of the Gentiles as fellow-heirs with Israel of spiritual and celestial blessings, refers us in its full and final accomplishment to the grand eternal assembly of the redeemed: it points the eye of faith and hope to a prospect before which all others fade into littleness and darkness. What a multitude must that be which embraces the saved of all ages, from the beginning to the end of time! “a multitude,” indeed, “which none can number;” innumerable as the leaves of autumn which moulden into earth, types of the buried bodies of the saints; innumerable as the leaves of spring which reappear in vernal beauty, types of those bodies destined to reappear in the beauty of the resurrection. Every dispensation, Patriarchal, Mosaic, Christian, will meet and mingle there. And not those only who walked with God in the shadowy moonlight of Judaism, and those who followed Christ in the bright sunshine of the gospel; but those also who “felt after their Maker, if happily they might find him,” in the glimmering gloom of natural reason, may swell that immense host of the redeemed. Let us be followers of those who through faith and patience now inherit the promises; followers of those devout patriarchs who sought a better country; children of Abraham, Israelites indeed! R. Hail.

50 : 1. In full accordance with the promise made to Jacob by Jehovah at Beersheba, Joseph is present to close his eyes, and that done the great Egyptian prince gives vent to his uncontrollable sorrow. It is a beautiful exhibition of nature asserting her rights in spite of all official grandeur and etiquette. Joseph the man, the son, is above Joseph the prince. In all the glories of his exaltation he is not ashamed of his connection, by birth and sympathy, with this tribe of shepherds from Canaan. He sees by faith, as Moses did afterward, that it is better to be Jacob’s son than prince of the Empire of Egypt. S. R.

2-4. Embalmed Israel. Great numbers of embalmed bodies (“mummies”) have been found in Egyptian tombs within the present century, in perfect preservation. On this point the coincidences between sacred and profane history are striking. The practice was very ancient, some mummies bearing the date of the oldest kings. It was performed by a special class of physicians. In harmony with Moses, Herodotus and Diodorus state that the embalming process occupied forty days; the entire period of mourning seventy. Classic authorities give accounts similar to this of great mourning for the dead. The monuments contain representations to the same effect. Funeral trains and processions are represented abundantly in the oldest tombs at Elithias, also at Sagguarah, at Gizeh, and at Thebes. A coincidence so minute as this is noticed; that mourners forbore to shave their hair or beard; but none might appear before the king unshorn. Consequently we observe that Joseph does not come before the king in person but “spake unto the house of Pharaoh” requesting them to speak in his behalf to the king. H. C.

7-13. Of the funerals of the kings of Judah usually no more is said than this, They were buried with their fathers in the city of David; but the funeral of the patriarch Jacob is more largely and fully described. He had spoken more than once of dying for grief and going to the grave bereaved of his children, but he dies in honor, and is followed to the grave by all his children. His orders concerning his burial were given and observed in faith, and in expectation both of the earthly and of the heavenly Canaan. H.—9. A very great company. This must have been a very grand funeral procession—and that for more than two hundred miles—such as the world has seldom seen. There were not only the family of Israel—and not only the officers of the court, “the servants of Pharaoh”—but “the elders of Egypt,” or the grandees of the empire. There were also chariots and horsemen, so that, with the attendants taken with them by so many high persons, the camp was very great, as the text states. Kit.—The splendor and magnificence of our Patriarch’s funeral seem to be without a parallel in history. The noble obsequies of Marcellus come nearest in comparison. But how do even these fall short of the simple narrative before us! For what are the six hundred beds, for which the Roman solemnities on this occasion were so famous, when compared to that national itinerant multitude which swelled like a flood and moved like a river; to “all Pharaoh’s servants, to the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,” that is, to the officers of his household, and deputies of his provinces; with “all the house” of Joseph, and his “brethren,” and his “father’s house,” conducting their solemn sorrow for two hundred miles into a distant country? Stackhouse.

10. Atad, beyond Jordan. The vast cavalcade which left Egypt with the corpse of Jacob did not move directly by the shortest route to Canaan, but around on the eastern side of the Dead Sea to the Jordan. This was probably to avoid collision with the people of the thickly-settled country of South Canaan, or from unfriendly relations between Egypt and that region.

Scriptural meaning and use of the term “Elder.” It is worthy of special note that in this enumeration of the great personages that attended the funeral we have mentioned “all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt.” The first mention we have of the “elder,” as a title of office, is in the case of Eliezer, the servant and elder of Abraham’s house in Gen. 24 : 2. It is obvious, from that place and this, that the title denoted from the first a ministerial agency, and therefore the term servant connected with it denoted nothing servile, but simply that the office was ministerial and under the direction of a higher authority. This is precisely the use made of the term in the New Testament. The apostles denominated themselves “stewards,” or upper servants of the Church of God. It is a very striking illustration of the perpetuity of usage in certain terms as conveying the same general ideas from age to age. Why should the name “elder” have been given to ministerial agents, whether civil or religious? Doubtless from the first form of government on earth—the patriarchy—the government of the “old man” of the tribe. So long as human life extended to near a thousand years there could be no other government either in state or church than that of the family. The list of patriarchs from Adam to Abraham is doubtless a list of the succession of ruling heads over the people “that called on the name of Jehovah.” When human life was shortened to a little more than a century this system of natural rulers or elders must, in the nature of the case, give way to the system of chosen rulers from among several of the same age. The term “elder” was transferred from the patriarchs to the appointed rulers, and hence, both in state and church, we find the Zakan (Hebrew), Presbuteros (Greek), elder (English) applied, as here, to the public ministers of Egypt, and subsequently to the magistrates of Moab and to both the civil and ecclesiastical rulers in Israel. The same idea of naming the officer from a term denoting age has run through all history since. Thus the Greek councillors were “Patres” (fathers), the Roman

Senators (from Senex, an old man), and from the Latin was derived the Spanish Signor and the French Signeur. Then the German “Alderman,” or older man, the same which we still apply to the councillors of a city. In the church of God that has continued to be the term properly denoting rule and ministerial authority in every age, through both the Old and New Testament. For, while other terms are applied to the ministers of religion in the New Testament, it will be found that they are used only incidentally. The term “Apostle,” as describing men “sent” out by Christ as his witnesses—the term “epi-cepos”—occurring only half a dozen times, and always in speaking to Greeks—is manifestly only a Greek explanation of the old ecclesiastical term “Presbyter”—“elder,” which Greeks had not yet grown familiar with. “Presbyter” is the fundamental title of office in the church throughout the history; and so in the prophetic visions of the church of the future as the Apostle John saw it in the Apocalypse, it still continues under the same organization. For he saw “four-and-twenty elders”—twelve representatives of the Old Testament church and twelve of the New—leading on the redeemed church, and casting their crowns at the feet of the Lamb, that sat upon the throne. It is a singular fact that on the monuments of Egypt the same peculiarity of “elder” as the name for a nobleman is found. The symbol in hieroglyphics, denoting a head man, or noble, is the figure of an old man with a long staff in hand. As a title of honor this is said to occur constantly on the monuments. S. R.