Genesis 49:6

_O MY SOUL, COME NOT THOU INTO THEIR SECRET; UNTO THEIR ASSEMBLY, MINE HONOUR, BE NOT THOU UNITED: FOR IN THEIR ANGER THEY SLEW A MAN, AND IN THEIR SELFWILL THEY DIGGED DOWN A WALL._ Into their secret, х_ COWD_ (H5475)] - a divan, a conclave of wicked conspirators. MINE HONOUR, х_ KªBODIY_ (H3519)] - joined with a feminine verb, as being in parallelism with х_ NAPSHIY_ (H5315)] my soul; and both words are in the nominative, 'let not my soul' - i:e., let me not come into their circle (secret). [The Septuagint has: kai epi tee sustasei autoon mee erisai ta eepata mou, as if their Hebrew text had been _ KAABEED_ (H3515), liver, the seat of the mind.] IN THEIR SELF-WILL THEY DIGGED DOWN A WALL. This translation is not correct; because there

3-7 Reuben was the first-born; but by gross sin, he forfeited the birthright. The character of Reuben is, that he was unstable as water. Men do not thrive, because they do not fix. Reuben's sin left a lasting infamy upon his family. Let us never do evil, then we need not fear being told of it. Simeon and Levi were passionate and revengeful. The murder of the Shechemites is a proof of this. Jacob protested against that barbarous act. Our soul is our honour; by its powers we are distinguished from, and raised above, the beasts that perish. We ought, from our hearts, to abhor all bloody and mischievous men. Cursed be their anger. Jacob does not curse their persons, but their lusts. I will divide them. The sentence as it respects Levi was turned into a blessing. This tribe performed an acceptable service in their zeal against the worshippers of the golden calf, Genesis 49:32. Being set apar...

Verse Genesis 49:6. _INTO THEIR SECRET COUNCIL_, c.] Jacob here exculpates himself from all participation in the guilt of Simeon and Levi in the murder of the Shechemites. He most solemnly declares that he knew nothing of the _confederacy_ by which it was _executed_, nor of the _secret council_ in which it was _plotted_. If it should be said that the words תבא tabo and תחד _techad_ should be translated in the _future tense_ or in the _imperative_, as in our translation, I shall not contend though it is well known that the _preterite_ is often used for the _future_ in Hebrew, and vice versa. Taken thus, the words mark the strong detestation which this holy man's soul felt for the villany of his sons: "My soul _shall not come_ into their secret council. My honour _shall_ _not be united_ to their confederacy.

- Jacob Blesses His Sons 5. מכרה _m__e__kêrāh_, “weapon;” related: כיר _kārar_ or כרה _kārāh_ dig. “Device, design?” related: מכר _mākar_ “sell,” in Arabic “take counsel. Habitation.” 10. מחקק _m__e__choqēq_, “lawgiver, judge, dispenser of laws.” This word occurs in six other places - Numbers 21:18; Deuteronomy 33:21; Jud. Deuteronomy 5:14;...

EXPOSITION GENESIS 49:1 AND JACOB (having closed his interview with Joseph and his two sons) CALLED (by means of messengers) UNTO HIS SONS (_i.e._ the others who were then absent), AND SAID, GATHER YOURSELVES TOGETHER,—the prophet's last utterance must be a public one—THAT I MAY TELL YOU—literally, and I _will tell you_—THAT WHICH SHALL BEFALL YOU—קָרָא, in the sense of happening or occurring to any one, is here equivalent to קָרָה (cf. Genesis 42:4, Genesis 42:38)—IN THE LAST DAYS—literally, _in the end of the days, _not simply in f

O MY SOUL, COME NOT THOU INTO THEIR SECRET,.... Their cabinet counsels, combinations and conspiracies; this Jacob said, as abhorring the wicked counsel they had took of slaying the Shechemites; and lest any should think he was concerned in it, or connived at it, he expressed a detestation of the fact on his dying bed: the future tense may be put for the past; and so Onkelos renders it, "my soul was not in their secret"; and so the other two Targums paraphrase it, that when they got and consulted together, his soul was not pleased and delighted with their counsel, but abhorred it; or "my soul shall not come", which Jarchi thinks prophetical refers to the case of Zimri, the son of Salu, of the tribe of Simeon, as the following clause to the affair of Korah, of the tribe of Levi, as foreseeing and disapproving them, and desiring they might not be called by his name, or his name called upon...

L, 2. _And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last day. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father._ It must have been a great comfort to the old man to have all his twelve sons with him. What a quiet answer this was to his former unbelief! They were all there, yet he could remember the time when he had said, «Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away.» Ah! we also shall have in our later days to chide ourselves for our foolish unbelief. «Jacob called unto his sons,» so he was not bereaved after all. They are all here, Jacob. It falls to the lot of few fathers to have twelve sons, and to fewer still to have all twelve of them gathered about his dying bed. «Gather yourselves together.» They were t...

CHAPTER 49 JACOB'S PROPHECY _ 1. The call of Jacob: “Gather yourselves together” (Genesis 49:1)_ 2. The prophecy concerning his sons (Genesis 49:3) Reuben (Genesis 49:3) Simeon and Levi (Genesis 49:5) Judah (Genesis 49:8) Zebulun (Genesis 49:13) Issachar (Genesis 49:14) Dan ...

THE BLESSING OF JACOB. This poem had an independent origin, but if it was incorporated in one of the main documents it would be in J. It is not a mere collection of originally isolated utterances on the tribes, but was from the first put in the lips of Jacob, though expansions and alterations have, no doubt, taken place. It need hardly be said that it is not the utterance of Jacob himself. It would be inexplicable that his vision should fix just on the period here covered. The oppression of Egypt, the Exodus, the wandering are all passed over, though they lay nearer to Jacob's day, and were momentous in character. And beyond the time of David or Solomon the author's vision does not range. Why should Jacob, who can see the period of the Judges and early monarchy, see only this, especially as he claims to foretell what is to happen in the latter days? The period is so restricted because it...

O MY SOUL, COME NOT THOU, &C.— Or, _into their secret my soul entered not._ But our translation is much more emphatic. Jacob, by this pathetic exclamation, testifies the higher detestation of his sons' barbarity. _Their secret,_ means their wicked designs, which are called their secret, because such designs are commonly carried on with deep secrecy. See Psalms 64:2. He goes on, _unto their assembly, Mine honour, be not thou united. Mine honour_ answers to _my soul_ in the preceding line, and, like it, is frequently used in poetry for the pronoun of the first person, Psalms 16:9. Grotius explains this:—"I have not stained mine honour, or rather, let mine honour never be stained, by joining in their cursed assembly." The sentiment rises: in the former clause Jacob says, that he would not cho