Genesis 49:1-4
The Blessing upon Reuben... [ Continue Reading ]
The Blessing upon Reuben... [ Continue Reading ]
And Jacob called unto his sons, he summoned them to his death-bed, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. In prophetic exaltation and in poetic form he sets before them what the future has in store for them, especially as to the Messia... [ Continue Reading ]
Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel, your father. The solemn and impressive admonition was made in order to get their full attention. The things which would befall them according to their dispositions and natures, but above all according to the providence a... [ Continue Reading ]
Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Jacob speaks with deep feeling: Reuben, my first-born thou, my might and the head of my strength. He was the first-fruits of Jacob's vigor, both spiritual and bodily. I... [ Continue Reading ]
Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; he was like the bubbling of boiling water, rashly impulsive, and therefore he would lose the dignity and the preference of his birthright. BECAUSE THOU WENTEST UP TO THY FATHER'S BED, in lying with Bilhah, his father's concubine, Genesis 35:22; THEN DEFILEDST... [ Continue Reading ]
Simeon and Levi are brethren, not only by parentage, but also in character; they also were unfit for leadership. INSTRUMENTS OF CRUELTY ARE IN THEIR HABITATIONS, the swords which they used in their revenge upon the Shechemites were weapons of wickedness, and Jacob does not wish to be identified with... [ Continue Reading ]
The blessing upon Simeon and Levi... [ Continue Reading ]
O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united; the thought of being closely identified with them fills Jacob with horrified dismay. FOR IN THEIR ANGER THEY SLEW A MAN, their murdering of the helpless Shechemites was an infamous trick; AND IN THEIR SE... [ Continue Reading ]
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; the anger in itself may have been justified at the time, but the fact that its violence sought such an outlet is beyond excuse; AND THEIR WRATH, FOR IT WAS CRUEL; they went to excess in their angry impetuosity. I WILL DIVIDE THEM IN JACOB, AND SCATTER THEM I... [ Continue Reading ]
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies: thy father's children shall bow down before thee. The prophecy of the patriarch here rises to a joyful exultation, as he makes Judah the prince and ruler among his brethren and explains his name. Judah... [ Continue Reading ]
The Blessing upon Judah... [ Continue Reading ]
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? From his youth Judah had shown that he possessed the nature, the character of a lion, as a whelp, as a young lion, as a mature lion. Having caught his p... [ Continue Reading ]
The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be. This is one of the most remarkable and inspiring Messianic promises in the entire Old Testament. The scepter is the mark of royal power, and the ruler's... [ Continue Reading ]
Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. This part of the prophecy refers not only to the extraordinary fertility of the country of Judah in the Land of Promise, which promised him a superabundance... [ Continue Reading ]
His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk. In Him we have the fullness of those gifts which will bring us true happiness here and eternal salvation beyond the grave.... [ Continue Reading ]
Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. The country later inhabited by the tribe of Zebulun fronted on two seas, on the Sea of Galilee in the east and on the Mediterranean in the west. Its northwestern boundary was to ex... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BLESSING UPON ZEBULUN, ISSACHAR, AND DAN... [ Continue Reading ]
Issachar is a strong ass, literally, an ass of bone, one with a very strong bony frame, COUCHING DOWN BETWEEN TWO BURDENS;... [ Continue Reading ]
and he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute, he willingly bowed down under a heavy load and served with hard labor. The territory of Issachar was in the fruitful plain of Jezreel, a fact which imposed upon the pe... [ Continue Reading ]
Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Although the son of a handmaid, he still shall have a full inheritance with the other sons, and, moreover, an amount of independence, which occasionally gave him the leadership, as in the days of Samson, and which caused a part of the tribe... [ Continue Reading ]
Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder, a dangerous viper, IN THE PATH, THAT BITETH THE HORSE-HEELS, SO THAT HIS RIDER SHALL FALL BACKWARD. Although this is here not spoken in a reproachful sense, yet it characterizes the Danites, especially in their expedition against the peaceful city of Lais... [ Continue Reading ]
I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. This is Jacob's longing cry in the midst of his prophecy, for he asks not only the assistance of the Lord for his descendants in this prayer, but he also confesses that his own longing to see the Messiah, like that of Eve, had not been fulfilled, and he reali... [ Continue Reading ]
Gad, a troop shall overcome him; but he shall overcome at the last. The picture is that of a person crowded by malicious hordes, who nevertheless manages not only to hold his own, but even to turn upon the masses and drive them away. The tribe of Gad, living on the eastern side of the Jordan, was ha... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PROPHECY UPON GAD, ASHER, NAPHTALI, JOSEPH, AND BENJAMIN... [ Continue Reading ]
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties, shall produce pleasant foods. The fat which he would bring forth on his very fertile land in the plains toward Phenicia, would be his bread, for the country was noted for the excellence of its wheat and of its olive-oil.... [ Continue Reading ]
Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words. In comparing Naphtali to a gazelle, Jacob predicts that he will be both a handsome and an active warrior. The fine words probably include such poems as that sung by Deborah, Judges 4, 5.... [ Continue Reading ]
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. Here the prophetic song of Jacob rises to a solemn exultation. The descendants of Joseph would increase so rapidly in their territory that they would soon extend beyond their own boundaries into the neighb... [ Continue Reading ]
The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him;... [ Continue Reading ]
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). Here the powerful and victorious growth of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh is pictured, in consequence of which all enemies would b... [ Continue Reading ]
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 breasts and of the womb. Rains from heaven above and sufficient water from springs and brooks to give the necessary m... [ Continue Reading ]
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. The blessings of Jacob upon Joseph exceeded in extent and com... [ Continue Reading ]
Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. There would be no end to the successful raids of this warlike tribe, such men as Ehud, Saul, and Jonathan being members of it. At the same time, however, there would be ever present that... [ Continue Reading ]
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. Not one was omitted in the blessing, although there was a big difference in the form and in the nature of the blessings.... [ Continue Reading ]
And he charged them and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people, the time when his soul was to be added to those of his fathers was at hand; BURY ME WITH MY FATHERS IN THE CAVE THAT IS IN THE FIELD OF EPHRON, THE HITTITE,... [ Continue Reading ]
The Death of Jacob... [ Continue Reading ]
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 of Ephron, the Hittite, for a possession of a burying-place.... [ Continue Reading ]
There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife; and there I buried Leah.... [ Continue Reading ]
The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. Cf Genesis 23. What Jacob had charged Joseph to do in the event of his death, Genesis 47:30, he here repeated to all his sons, giving them explicit directions regarding the burial-ground, lest they make any mist... [ Continue Reading ]
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet in to the bed, for he had been sitting on his couch, AND YIELDED UP THE GHOST, AND WAS GATHERED UNTO HIS PEOPLE, the expression which denotes also here the hope of a final glorious resurrection unto eternal life, a resurr... [ Continue Reading ]