Genesis 49 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Genesis 49

Jacob Blesses His Sons

49:1 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.

2   “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
    listen to Israel your father.
3   “Reuben, you are my firstborn,
    my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,
    preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
4   Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
    because you went up to your father’s bed;
    then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
5   “Simeon and Levi are brothers;
    weapons of violence are their swords.
6   Let my soul come not into their council;
    O my glory, be not joined to their company.
  For in their anger they killed men,
    and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
7   Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
    and their wrath, for it is cruel!
  I will divide them in Jacob
    and scatter them in Israel.
8   “Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
    your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
9   Judah is a lion’s cub;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
  He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
    and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
10   The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
  until tribute comes to him;¹
    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
11   Binding his foal to the vine
    and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
  he has washed his garments in wine
    and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
12   His eyes are darker than wine,
    and his teeth whiter than milk.
13   “Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea;
    he shall become a haven for ships,
    and his border shall be at Sidon.
14   “Issachar is a strong donkey,
    crouching between the sheepfolds.²
15   He saw that a resting place was good,
    and that the land was pleasant,
  so he bowed his shoulder to bear,
    and became a servant at forced labor.
16   “Dan shall judge his people
    as one of the tribes of Israel.
17   Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
    a viper by the path,
  that bites the horse’s heels
    so that his rider falls backward.
18   I wait for your salvation, O LORD.
19   “Raiders shall raid Gad,³
    but he shall raid at their heels.
20   “Asher’s food shall be rich,
    and he shall yield royal delicacies.
21   “Naphtali is a doe let loose
    that bears beautiful fawns.⁴
22   “Joseph is a fruitful bough,
    a fruitful bough by a spring;
    his branches run over the wall.⁵
23   The archers bitterly attacked him,
    shot at him, and harassed him severely,
24   yet his bow remained unmoved;
    his arms⁶ were made agile
  by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
    (from there is the Shepherd,⁷ the Stone of Israel),
25   by the God of your father who will help you,
    by the Almighty⁸ who will bless you
    with blessings of heaven above,
  blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
    blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26   The blessings of your father
    are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,
    up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.⁹
  May they be on the head of Joseph,
    and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
27   “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
    in the morning devouring the prey
    and at evening dividing the spoil.”

Jacob’s Death and Burial

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. 29 Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah—32 the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” 33 When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Footnotes

[1] 49:10 By a slight revocalization; a slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Targum) until he comes to whom it belongs; Hebrew until Shiloh comes, or until he comes to Shiloh
[2] 49:14 Or between its saddlebags
[3] 49:19 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for raiders and raid
[4] 49:21 Or he gives beautiful words, or that bears fawns of the fold
[5] 49:22 Or Joseph is a wild donkey, a wild donkey beside a spring, his wild colts beside the wall
[6] 49:24 Hebrew the arms of his hands
[7] 49:24 Or by the name of the Shepherd
[8] 49:25 Hebrew Shaddai
[9] 49:26 A slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint) the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills

Commentary

v1-2: Jacob, now dying, calls for his son, to give them blessings and prophecies.

v3-4: Reuben was the first born. These words are doubtless spoken with great sorrow, for he should have inherited great blessing. Might and strength, and honour and power were the inheritance of the first born. But Reuben lost that, through his sin, through defiling his father's bed, ie: he dishonoured his father (35.22). The consequences of his sin are now declared to all his brothers.

v5-7: Simeon and Levi were instruments of cruelty, having killed the Shechemites (ch34). Jacob wanted nothing to do with such actions (34.30). Their inheritance within Canaan is prophesied here; Simeon takes his inheritance within that of Judah (Josh 19.9), and Levi is scattered throughout the land (Josh 21).

v8-12: Judah is apparently rewarded for his self-sacrifice (see 43.8-10, and 44.18-34). His sin (ch 38) is set aside. His brothers will praise and honour him, as the kings of Israel come from his line. The specific prophecy in v10 relates to the coming of Jesus Christ, the King of Israel, who will reign in peace (Shiloh; NIV margin). ‘When Shiloh shall come;’ looking forward to Christ being lifted up, and drawing all to Him (John 12.32). Remarkably, in the end of history, Christ is known as the Lion of Judah, and the Lion and the Lamb. Here, 'the lion lies in wait in the line of Judah.'

v13: Zebulun takes an inheritance bordering the sea, in North West Israel.

v14-15: Issachar is the burden bearer, but the implication here is of falling under the dominion of another.

v16-17: "Dan" means judge.

v18: Jacob's prayer for deliverance.

v19: Gad also fulfils his own name. He gets involved in warfare.

v20: Asher (or "happy") will enjoy food fit for the king.

v21: Naphtali is the doe set free.

v22-26: The second long prophecy (with Judah) is for Joseph.

v22: He is the fruitful vine, bearing fruit in Egypt (over the wall). His life declares the glorious character of God. We see especially the picture of Christ.

v23: He had been attacked by his brothers, and was the target of mistreatment by the wife of Potiphar.

v24: Through the suffering and temptation, Joseph remained strong. (Christ is victorious through suffering - Acts 2.24) The Lord God remained faithful to Joseph even though men hated him and let him down.

v25: The Lord God provided not just protection from evil, but brought Joseph into great blessings.

v26: He is separate from his brothers (see Heb 7.26); he is set apart and set above his brothers (Phil 2.5-11).

v27: Benjamin was Jacobs's youngest son, but inherited an aggressive and fruitful streak.

v28: Scripture says that the blessing on each son was appropriate to each.

v29-32: After 170 years since the death of Sarah, the family owned only one field, to bury their dead. Yet God's promises to His people would not fail.

v33: Jacob dies.