Jacob’s prophetical blessings of his twelve sons: his death.
49:1. And Jacob called his sons, and said to them: Gather yourselves
together, that I may tell you the things that shall befall you in the
last days.
49:2. Gather yourselves together, and hear, O ye sons of Jacob, hearken
to Israel, your father:
49:3. Ruben, my firstborn, thou art my strength, and the beginning of
my sorrow; excelling in gifts, greater in command.
My strength, etc.... He calls him his strength, as being born whilst
his father was in his full strength and vigour: he calls him the
beginning of his sorrow, because cares and sorrows usually come on with
the birth of children. Excelling in gifts, etc., because the firstborn
had a title to a double portion, and to have the command over his
brethren, which Ruben forfeited by his sin; being poured out as water,
that is, spilt and lost.
49:4. Thou art poured out as water, grow thou not; because thou wentest
up to thy father’s bed, and didst defile his couch.
Grow thou not.... This was not meant by way of a curse or imprecation;
but by way of a prophecy foretelling that the tribe of Ruben should not
inherit the pre-eminences usually annexed to the first birthright,
viz., the double portion, the being prince or lord over the other
brethren, and the priesthood: of which the double portion was given to
Joseph, the princely office to Juda, and the priesthood to Levi.
49:5. Simeon and Levi brethren: vessels of iniquity waging war.
49:6. Let not my soul go into their counsel, nor my glory be in their
assembly: because in their fury they slew a man, and in their self-will
they undermined a wall.
Slew a man, ... viz., Sichem the son of Hemor, with all his people,
Gen. 34.; mystically and prophetically it alludes to Christ, whom their
posterity, viz., the priests and the scribes, put to death.
49:7. Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn: and their wrath,
because it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter
them in Israel.
49:8. Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hand shall be on the
necks of thy enemies; the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.
49:9. Juda is a lion’s whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up:
resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse
him?
A lion’s whelp, etc.... This blessing of Juda foretelleth the strength
of his tribe, the fertility of his inheritance; and principally that
the sceptre and legislative power should not be utterly taken away from
his race till about the time of the coming of Christ: as in effect it
never was: which is a demonstration against the modern Jews, that the
Messiah is long since come; for the sceptre has long since been utterly
taken away from Juda.
49:10. The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from
his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the
expectation of nations.
49:11. Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the
vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of
the grape.
49:12. His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than
milk.
49:13. Zabulon shall dwell on the seashore, and in the road of ships,
reaching as far as Sidon.
49:14. Issachar shall be a strong ass, lying down between the borders.
49:15. He saw rest that it was good: and the land that it was
excellent: and he bowed his shoulder to carry, and became a servant
under tribute.
49:16. Dan shall judge his people like another tribe in Israel.
Dan shall judge, etc.... This was verified in Samson, who was of the
tribe of Dan, and began to deliver Israel. Judges 13.5. But as this
deliverance was but temporal and very imperfect, the holy patriarch
(ver. 18) aspires after another kind of deliverer, saying: I will look
for thy salvation, O Lord.
49:17. Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that
biteth the horse’s heels, that his rider may fall backward.
49:18. I will look for thy salvation, O Lord.
49:19. Gad, being girded, shall fight before him: and he himself shall
be girded backward.
Gad being girded, etc.... It seems to allude to the tribe of Gad; when
after they had received for their lot the land of Galaad, they marched
in arms before the rest of the Israelites, to the conquest of the land
of Chanaan: from whence they afterwards returned loaded with spoils.
See Jos. 4. and 12.
49:20. Aser, his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield dainties to
kings.
49:21. Nephthali, a hart let loose, and giving words of beauty.
49:22. Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and comely to behold: the
daughters run to and fro upon the wall;
Run to and fro, etc.... To behold his beauty; whilst his envious
brethren turned their darts against him, etc.
49:23. But they that held darts, provoked him, and quarrelled with him,
and envied him.
49:24. His bow rested upon the strong, and the bands of his arms and
his hands were loosed, by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob: thence
he came forth a pastor, the stone of Israel.
His bow rested upon the strong, etc.... That is, upon God, who was his
strength: who also loosed his bands, and brought him out of prison to
be the pastor, that is, the feeder and ruler of Egypt, and the stone,
that is, the rock and support of Israel.
49:25. The God of thy father shall be thy helper, and the Almighty
shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings
of the deep that lieth beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and
of the womb.
49:26. The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings
of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come:
may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite
among his brethren.
The blessings of thy father, etc.... That is, thy father’s blessings
are made more prevalent and effectual in thy regard, by the additional
strength they receive from his inheriting the blessings of his
progenitors Abraham and Isaac. The desire of the everlasting hills,
etc.... These blessings all looked forward towards Christ, called the
desire of the everlasting hills, as being longed for, as it were, by
the whole creation. Mystically, the patriarchs and prophets are called
the everlasting hills, by reason of the eminence of their wisdom and
holiness. The Nazarite.... This word signifies one separated; and
agrees to Joseph, as being separated from, and more eminent than, his
brethren. As the ancient Nazarites were so called from their being set
aside for God, and vowed to him.
49:27. Benjamin a ravenous wolf, in the morning shall eat the prey, and
in the evening shall divide the spoil.
49:28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: these things their
father spoke to them, and he blessed every one with their proper
blessings.
49:29. And he charged them, saying: I am now going to be gathered to my
people: bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the
field of Ephron the Hethite,
To be gathered to my people.... That is, I am going to die, and so to
follow my ancestors that are gone before me, and to join their company
in another world.
49:30. Over against Mambre, in the land of Chanaan, which Abraham
bought together with the field, of Ephron the Hethite, for a possession
to bury in.
49:31. There they buried him, and Sara his wife: there was Isaac buried
with Rebecca, his wife: there also Lia doth lie buried.
49:32. And when he had ended the commandments, wherewith he instructed
his sons, he drew up his feet upon the bed, and died: and he was
gathered to his people.