1. 1. GE ESIS 49 COMME TARY Edited by Glenn Pease PREFACE I quote many authors both old and new, and if any I quote do not want their wisdom shared in this way they can let me know and I will remove it. My e-mail is glenn_p86@yahoo.com I TRODUCTIO 1. Keith Krell, Genesis 49 provides a sobering wakeup call to contemplate both our present and future life. In the first 28 verses of this chapter, we will be able to look on as Jacob gives his last words to his 12 sons.5 All 12 of Jacobs sons6 regardless of their faithfulness have a future with God and are blessed by God. But only the faithful sons will have an inheritance in the land. The lesson is clear: The actions of believers determine their future blessings in Gods program. Also, the choices believers make today will affect their descendants for generations to come.7 1. Introduction (49:1-2). Moses begins his account with these words: Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come. Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob; and listen to Israel your father.8 The expression in the days to come refers to the distant future, including the end of the age and millennium.9 The double exhortation to give attention to Jacobs words lays stress upon the importance of what he is about to say. His words are doubly important.10 In many respects, this can be seen as a picture of that Day when the believer stands before Jesus Christ. So let me ask you, Are you living for that Day to come? Are you living for your Lord and for those descendants that will come after you? A believers works during this life significantly determine the extent of divine blessing he and his descendants will receive in the future. The words that we are about to read are not the spontaneous thoughts of a dying man, but the carefully prepared words of a prophetic poet. The purposes of Jacobs prophetic words are: (1) to reveal the future; (2) to serve as a warning against sin; (3) to motivate us to godly living; and (4) to foreshadow the life and ministry of Jesus the Messiah. 2. Bob Deffinbaugh, As a student in my senior year of seminary, I was required to write a thesis. I chose to write on the themes of the Exodus as they were employed in Isaiah 40-55. During my Christmas break I was trying to put all the pieces together and complete the thesis. At one point I became totally lost in the project and, in the midst of all the particulars, lost sight of the purpose of my paper. Only after consulting with Dr. Waltke, the department chairman, did I regain my perspective and complete the thesis. I find biblical prophecy to be much the same for many Christians. There is a plethora of particulars, a mountain of minutia, which can overwhelm us and cause us to lose sight of the purpose of prophecy. Some Christians immerse themselves in the details of those things to come which comprise prophecy. They carefully chart out the future in even the most obscure and sketchy matters (so far as biblical revelation is concerned). And yet, while prophecy is a worthy matter for serious study and investigation, the details become an obsession while the weightier matters of godly living are brushed aside. In effect some Christians strain out
2. 2. eschatological gnats, while swallowing biblical camels. Few would suppose that Genesis chapter 49 has much to say to the Christian of the 20th century. The prophecies contained in this text are related to the destiny of the descendants of Jacob. There are, of course, messianic prophecies here, and that we find of interest. But in addition to these we are given insight into the purpose of all prophecy as we consider the purpose which these prophecies had for the sons of Jacob and their descendants. Jacobs sons, who were the recipients of these prophecies, would die in Egypt. Like their forefathers, they would not live to see the fulfillment of Gods promises in their lifetime. Why, then, did God predict events which were beyond their lifetime? We may be able to grant that these prophecies had meaning to those who first read them from the pen of Moses. After all, these were the descendants of Jacob, who would begin to realize the prophecies of their forefather. But of what value were the words of Jacob to Rueben, Simeon, Levi, and the rest? I would like to suggest that they were of profit to them in precisely the same way that prophecy (yet unfulfilled) is important to us. Let us first learn from the sons of Jacob, and then consider the implications for ourselves. Questions Which Provide the Key to this Passage You may not agree with the answers which I find in this text, but I am convinced that none of us will understand the passage without answering a few key questions. (1) Did every detail of Jacobs prophecy come to pass? If not, why not? (2) What purpose does this prophecy serve for the sons of Jacob, since none of them will live to see the fulfillment of them in Canaan? (3) What reasons did Moses have for recording this conversation between Jacob and his sons? (4) Why did Reuben, Simeon, and Levi receive a rebuke from their father for their sinful actions, when Judah, just as great a sinner (chapter 38), received the greatest blessing of all the sons, as he would be the forefather of the Messiah? (5) What can we learn from these prophecies? Observations Concerning the Prophecy of Jacob Regarding His Offspring Before we give our attention to some of the details of the prophecies of this passage, it would benefit us to look at the passage as a whole. Several characteristics can be identified. First of all, these are the last words of Jacob. The prophecy is literally the final word of Jacob, spoken with his dying breath. When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people (Genesis 49:33). The dying words of any man should not be taken lightly, much less those spoken by a patriarch and recorded under the superintendence of the Spirit of God. Second, this is poetry. We might tend to think that a mans last words, spoken with great effort, should be disorganized and difficult to follow. A look at this passage in the ASV reveals that we are dealing with Hebrew poetry, for the form is noticeably different from the preceding pages. There are numerous indications that these final words of Jacob were thought out carefully in
3. 3. advance. Jacobs words are ones that have been carefully planned and probably rehearsed. Third, this is more than poetry, it is prophecy. While the form is poetry, the substance is prophecy. Jacobs words reveal things to come for his descendants. As a rule,104 the prophecy is general. It is not intended to spell out the future for Jacobs sons as individuals, but as tribal leaders. The future which is foretold is the future of the nation as manifested in the twelve tribes (cf. verse 28). ormally the prophecy will not speak of a particular place,105 nor of a certain person,106 nor of a specific point in time,107 but of the character and disposition of the various tribes throughout their history. This forewarns us that we must be careful to look for fulfillment which is too specific. Fourth, the words spoken by Jacob are a blessing: All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He blessed them, every one with the blessing appropriate to him (Genesis 49:28). All the sons of Jacob were blessed in that they were to be a part of the nation Israel. All would enter into the land of Canaan and have an inheritance there. Some would certainly receive a greater blessing than others. Even those who were rebuked by Jacob and whose future was portrayed as dismal were blessed, as we shall point out later. Fifth, the future which is foretold is not independent of the past, but an extension of it. Moses told us that every one of the sons was given the blessing appropriate to him (verse 28). As we think our way through these blessings of Jacob we find that each of them was related to the past. The blessings of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, were based upon the sins which they had committed in the past. Joseph, on the other hand, had been bitterly attacked, but had remained faithful (verses 23-24). Others found their blessings related to the name they had been given at their birth. Judah, derived from the Hebrew root, to praise (cf. 29:35), is now prophesied to be praised by his brothers (49:8). Dan whose name seems to be the participle meaning to judge (cf. 30:6), is foretold that he will judge his People (49:16). Prophecy, then, is not detached from history, but an extension of it into the future. 3. H. C. Leupold, Jacob concludes his life in a manner worthy of the patriarchs, among whom he stands as one fully deserving this honour. Other saints of God are presented in the Scriptures as having spoken a blessing before their end. In this class are Isaac (Ge 27), Moses (De 33), Joshua (Jos 24), Samuel (1Sa 12). What is more natural than that a saint of God departing this life should desire to lay a blessing upon the head of those whom he leaves behind! Upon closer study this blessing of Jacob stands revealed as a piece of rare beauty. Lange has summarized the elements of poetic excellence as "rhythmical movement, a beautiful parallelism of members, a profusion of figures, a play upon the names of the sons, other instances of paronomasia, unusual modes of expression, a truly exalted spirit, as well as a heartfelt warmth." It seems but natural to us that a man of Jacobs energy of mind and character should have cast his thoughts into a mold of fine poetic beauty in order to make his utterances the more clear-cut and also the more easily remembered. They who have a mean conception of the patriarchs as being prosy and trivial characters, standing on a low level of faith and godliness, are inclined to take offense at so noble a production and to pronounce apodictically that Jacob could not have been its author. But before we reckon with the weaknesses of the critical position, we shall set forth a few other features of this blessing that contribute to a correct understanding of it. The sequence of the names is readily understood. The six children of Leah are mentioned first, though it is not clear why Zebulon, the sixth, should be mentioned before Issachar, the fifth. Then
4. 4. come the four sons of the handmaids, though the two sons of Zilpah, Asher and Gad, are inserted between the two sons of Bilhah, Dan and aphtali. Lastly come Rachels children, Joseph and Benjamin. Another observation is in order on this matter of grouping. Among the first six Judah definitely stands out by receiving a much more substantial blessing than the rest. His is the pre- eminence in point of leadership. Among the last six Joseph excels by virtue of his blessing, although his is the pre-eminence in the matter of possession. Joseph is blessed by including Ephraim and Manasseh in one. The distinction between these two sons of his was taken care of in the preceding chapter. Some question whether this poem should be designated as a blessing; they emphasize v. 1, "that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days." They would prefer to label it prediction or perhaps prophecy. Yet v. Ge 49:28, rightly construed, labels the words spoken by the patriarch a "blessing." So if the Scriptural estimate is at all normativeand for us it is absolutewe have here both blessing and prediction, or a prophetic blessing. This claim is by no means impaired by the fact that four of the sons must hear words spoken that involve a censure, in fact, in the case of the first three sons a severe word of censure. Issachar (v. Ge 49:15) gets a milder rebuke. The entire problem, however, is viewed in the wrong light if it is claimed that certain sons were cursed. Reuben is censured (v. Ge 49:4). Simeons and Levis anger is cursed (v. Ge 49:7) not they themselves. And rightly considered, these criticism are blessings in disguise, for they point out to the tribes involved the sin that the tribe as a whole is most exposed to and against which it should be particularly on its guard: Reuben against moral instability and licentiousness; Simeon and Levi against hot-headed violence; Issachar against indolence. Yet, for all that, not one of the tribes is removed from the concord of blessings laid upon the rest, for the blessings laid upon some redound to the welfare of all the rest. The blessed land is denied to none. The benefits of the covenant of the Lord in which all stood are cancelled for none. The dying father recognized that what some needed was not further gifts but restraint in the use of what they already possessed. From the human point of view another matter must be stressed. The father had long observed his sons and knew them perhaps better than they knew themselves. In a pithy final word he gives to each man the counsel that he needed most. Upon this natural foundation the Spirit of God builds up and helps Jacob to foretell in a number of instances how the tribal development tends in the future. So with a fine mixture of council and encouragement the father speaks a word that the sons from the very outset value as a divinely inspired oracle. A godly mans oracles are very potent prayers made according to Gods heart and answered by Him. We can, therefore, hardly agree with those who stress the improbability of a decrepit old mans being able to utter thoughts so clear-cut and virile. We know of two possibilities: first, mans intellect may grow feeble and decay before his end; secondly, men have been known to retain full possession of their faculties, in fact, to have their powers of mind and heart at the keenest point of development just prior to their end. Jacob happens to belong to the second class. Some have found fault with the fact that no judgment is pronounced on religious conditions in the course of these last words of Jacobkein Urteil ueber die religioesen Verhaeltnisse Dillmann. Such a criticism is rather wide of the mark. That is not what Jacob set out to offer. He says (v. 1) that he proposes to tell his sons what would befall them in the latter days. From another point of view this is also a blessing (v. Ge 49:28). A man can hardly be criticized for not having said what he did not aim to say. The critical position in regard to these words of Jacob is well known. With almost united mind and voice the critics hold that these are not words of Jacob, at least not in their present form. Instead, the words are relegated to the time of the Judges, perhaps the latter portion of that age.
5. 5. It is claimed that the whole chapter indubitably reflects this later age, and that it received its present shape and form perhaps no later than the days of David and Solomon. A few notable exceptions are still to be found: Hengstenberg, Keil, Delitzsch, Whitelaw, Koenig (with reservations), Strack still have the courage to hold that the words are Jacobs. However, it must be remembered that certain presuppositions condition the critical attitude. In the first place, actual prophecy or prediction as such is regarded as virtually impossible. In the second place, the patriarchs are without good grounds regarded incapable of so significant an utterance. Thirdly, some men are obsessed with the idea of denying outstanding productions like this poem to outstanding characters and of ascribing them to insignificant, obscure and usually unknown authorsa strange course of procedure. Then we should yet note a fatal weakness of the critical contention: Levi is spoken of in terms of an inferior position, which actually was his in the earlier days and which constituted a disadvantage and in a sense a reproof of the tribe. But this situation underwent a radical change in Moses day, when Levi rallied to the cause of the Lord (Ex 32:25-28), redeemed itself from disgrace, and advanced to a position of honourable and blessed dispersion among the tribes of Israel. Jacobs words (v. Ge 49:5-7) reflect the earlier situation and would not be the statement of the case for the Age of the Judges. When, then, some critics (Land mentioned by Skinner) "distinguish six stages in the growth of the song," that must be regarded as the type of proof that covers up deficiency of sound logic by bold assertions, none of which are susceptible of proof. Keil has very properly reminded us that the thing that actually appears in the song of blessings is "not the prediction of particular historical events" but rather a "purely ideal portraiture of the peculiarities of the different tribes." This is a point that must be borne in mind continually. Critics make of these generalized statements specific allusions to particular events or situations and so gain ground for their type of interpretation, which sees the Age of the Judges reflected again and again. One last point of view is not to be lost sight of this blessing was one of the things Israel needed to guide its course through the dark days to be encountered during the stay in Egypt. A blessing like this was a spiritual necessity. By the use of it men of Israel could look forward to the blessed time when the tribes would be safely established in the Promised Land, every tribe in its own inheritance. Without words like this and Ge 15:12-14 Israel would have been a nation sailing upon an uncharted sea. This chapter was a necessity for Israels faith during the days of the bondage in Egypt. We mention perhaps the strangest of exegetical curiosities, the interpretation of Jeremias (Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients) which makes of the twelve sons of Jacob in this blessing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. To arrive at this result he reconstrues a number of these signs, deliberately changes portions of the Hebrew text, and discovers allusions so subtle and remote that only a very few ork and Zimmern Lepsius, e. g. have ventured to follow him. But even if his construction should be correct, to what purpose would the chapter have been written? Men such as Jeremias would say: these are Israels astral myths. We cannot substitute such vague reconstructions for the sound purposeful meaning that a sober exegesis knows to be the true sense of the Scriptures. Several types of figures are found in this chapter, especially comparisons or metaphors. Judah is a lion; Issachar, an ass; Dan, a serpent; aphtali, a hind; Benjamin, a wolf. Yet not one of these comparisons of itself involves anything derogatory. Least of all have they any reference to a totemistic state of religion through which the tribes are said to have passed earlier in their history.
6. 6. There are many more minor problems relative to this blessing, but we have touched upon all that are essential to a correct understanding of it and have shown the fallacy of at least the major misconstructions that are put upon it. 4. Here are a few observations on Jacob's blessings in Gen 49. I don't know what the implications are; these are simply observations on the imagery and rhetoric of the different blessings. 1) The contrast between the rhetoric of curse and the rhetoric of blessing is striking. Reuben, Simeon, and Levi all receive curses because of their sins, and the curses are phrased in sharp, straightforward, non-imagistic and unpoetic language. There are a few metaphors (Reuben is "unstable as water"), but mainly it is simply a literal description of what they did and of what will happen to them. By contrast, the blessings drip with rich imagery. 2) In particular, the blessings often describe the sons of Israel by metaphorical comparisons to animals. "Judah is a lion's whelp" (v 9); "Issachar is a strong donkey" (v 13); "Dan shall be a serpent in the way" (v 17); " aphtali is a doe let loose" (v 21); "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf" (v 27). 3) The blessing of Joseph is unusual in a couple of respects. First, instead of animal imagery, Joseph is described in terms of vegetable imagery: "Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; its branches run over a wall" (v 22) - clearly a garden-paradise image. Second, though, much of the blessing is fairly literal; especially in vv 25-26 the description of blessings is straightforward. In other words, the rhetoric of the blessing of Joseph is in some ways closer to the rhetoric of the curses at the beginning of the chapter. (Some of the other blessings are more literal too EZebulun [v 13], Gad [v 19], and Asher [v 20].) posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, July 06, 2004 at 08:58 AM 5. Micah Gimple, When Jacob blesses all of his children before his death, he personalizes each statement according to the character of each individual son. According to the Abarbanel, a leading philosopher and scholar of Spanish Jewry at the time of the expulsion, Jacob was trying to determine the greatest potential for each son and, in particular, which of them should lead the family and nation in the future. Based on the narrative throughout G enesis, the most obvious choice and the most qualified for the job would be Joseph. It is therefore surprising to find that Judah is selected to be the leader of the nation and the progenitor of royalty. Does Judah have greater potential to lead the nation than Joseph? ot only has Jacob watched Joseph successfully rule over Egypt for the past seventeen years, Jacob also remembers Joseph's dreams which described almost prophetically Joseph's future role as leader over his entire family. Of course, Joseph exhibited certain characteristics which would hamper his ability to lead by incorrigibly inciting his brothers to jealousy. But other attributes far outshine that blemish on his rsum. Joseph's completely forgiving his brothers for having sold him into slavery should have neutralized the brothers' jealousy. Moreover, Joseph had lived in a foreign country, without any Jewish family at all, for over twenty years, yet his sterling character was not tarnished and his passion to return to the land of Israel had motivated his every decision. It seems Joseph had proved his ability to lead the family, so why did Jacob
7. 7. overlook Joseph when determining who should be the future leader of the Jewish people? Furthermore, what attribute did Jacob see in Judah that demonstrated Judah's potential in leading his brothers? After all, it was Reuben who initially suggested sparing Joseph's life at the time of the sale. Moreover, it was Judah who exercised poor judgment in his episode with Tamar several Torah portions ago. evertheless, Jacob blesses Judah and testifies, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet; so that tribute shall come to him and the homage of his peoples be his" (Genesis 49:10). The question is, therefore, two-fold: Why was Joseph not chosen to lead the nation after having proven his abilities so magnificently, and what did Jacob see in Judah that showed Judah's potential to successfully lead the nation? Although Joseph ruled Egypt perfectly, his perfection in ruling Egypt was his weakness. Joseph was too good. Having never made a mistake, he never needed nor had the opportunity to admit a fault. Every successful leader must recognize the capacity to err. To his credit, Joseph rose in stature until he was second only to Pharaoh. Joseph is even described as "a father to Pharaoh, master of his entire household, and ruler over the entire land of Egypt" (ibid. 45:8). However, an ideal ruler is someone who, upon making a mistake, admits his error and tries to correct the problem. Joseph never demonstrated this ability to err and admit his mistake. But Judah did. In the episode with Tamar, the moment Judah understood all the events of the story, he immediately confessed: "She is more righteous than I am" (ibid. 38:26). To accept responsibility for a mistake defines the capacity to lead. In fact, many years later this character trait determined who the king of Israel should be. Based on this attribute, the kingship fell from one and was retained by another. Saul, the first king of Israel, failed to obey Hashem's command to obliterate the entire nation of Amalek by sparing the life, albeit temporarily, of their king. When the prophet Samuel confronted Saul with this blatant disregard of a divine command, Saul initially challenged: "But I did obey Hashem" (I Samuel 15:20). Only subsequently, after Samuel's rebuke, did Saul accept responsibility for his error. Because Saul showed an inability to admit his guilt, Hashem retracted the kingship form Saul. However, when David, a descendant of Judah, was confronted by the prophet athan about his mistake with Uriah and Bathsheba, without hesitation David lamented, "I stand before Hashem guilty" (II Samuel 12:13). Greatness lies not in being perfect, but in the capacity to recognize not being perfect. Judah and David share this admirable trait and are, therefore, fitting to be king. Only from a person with such sensitivity and humility does Jacob hope, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah." Jacob Blesses His Sons 1. Then Jacob called for his sons and said: Gather
8. 8. around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. 1. Barnes, And Jacob called his sons - This is done by messengers going to their various dwellings and pasture-grounds, and summoning them to his presence. And he said. These words introduce his dying address. Gather yourselves together. Though there is to be a special address to each, yet it is to be in the audience of all the rest, for the instruction of the whole family. That which shall befall you in the after days. The after days are the times intervening between the speaker and the end of the human race. The beginning of man was at the sixth day of the last creation. The end of his race will be at the dissolution of the heavens and the earth then called into being, and the new creation which we are taught will be consequent thereupon. To this interval prophecy has reference in general, though it occasionally penetrates beyond the veil that separates the present from the future creation. The prophet has his mind filled with the objects and events of the present and the past, and from these he must draw his images for the future, and express them in the current language of his day. To interpret his words, therefore, we must ascend to his day, examine his usage of speech, distinguish the transient forms in which truth may appear, and hold fast by the constant essence which belongs to all ages. Hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken to Israel your father. This is a specimen of the synthetic or synonymous parallel. It affords a good example of the equivalence, and at the same time the distinction, of Jacob and Israel. They 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 Yahweh: 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 especially related to them, as the moral Governor, the Keeper of covenant, and the Performer of promise. 2. Clarke, That which shall befall you in the last days - It is evident from this, and indeed from the whole complexion of these important prophecies, that the twelve sons of Jacob had very little concern in them, personally considered, as they were to be fulfilled in the last days, i. e., in times remote from that period, and consequently to their posterity, and not to themselves, or to their immediate families. The whole of these prophetic declarations, from Genesis 49:2-27 inclusive, is delivered in strongly figurative language, and in the poetic form, which, in every translation, should be preserved as nearly as possible, rendering the version line for line with the original. This order I shall pursue in the succeeding notes, always proposing the verse first, in as literal a translation as possible, line for line with the Hebrew after the hemistich form, from which the sense will more readily appear; but to the Hebrew text and the common version the reader is ultimately referred. 2. Come together and hear, O sons of Jacob! And hearken unto Israel your father. Bishop ewton has justly observed that Jacob had received a double blessing, spiritual and temporal; the promise of being progenitor of the Messiah, and the promise of the land of Canaan. The promised land he might divide among his children as he pleased, but the other must be confined to one of his sons; he therefore assigns to each son a portion in the land of Canaan, but limits the descent of the blessed seed to the tribe of Judah. Some have put themselves to a great deal of trouble and learned labor to show that it was a general opinion of the ancients that the
9. 9. soul, a short time previous to its departure from the body, becomes endued with a certain measure of the prophetic gift or foresight; and that this was probably the case with Jacob. But it would be derogatory to the dignity of the prophecies delivered in this chapter, to suppose that they came by any other means than direct inspiration, as to their main matter, though certain circumstances appear to be left to the patriarch himself, in which he might express his own feelings both as a father and as a judge. This is strikingly evident, 1. In the case of Reuben, from whom he had received the grossest insult, however the passage relative to him may be understood; and, 2. In the case of Joseph, the tenderly beloved son of his most beloved wife Rachel, in the prophecy concerning whom he gives full vent to all those tender and affectionate emotions which, as a father and a husband, do him endless credit. 3. Reuben, my first-born art thou! My might, and the prime of my strength, Excelling in eminence, and excelling in power: 4. Pouring out like the waters: - thou shalt not excel, For thou wentest up to the bed of thy father, - Then thou didst defile: to my couch he went up! 3. Gill, And Jacob called upon his sons,.... Who either were near at hand, and within call at the time Joseph came to visit him, or if at a distance, and at another time, he sent a messenger or messengers to them to come unto him: and said, gather yourselves together; his will was, that they should attend him all together at the same time, that he might deliver what he had to say to them in the hearing of them all; for what he after declares was not said to them singly and alone, but when they were all before him: that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days; not their persons merely, but their posterity chiefly, from that time forward to the coming of the Messiah, who is spoken of in this prophecy, and the time of his coming; some things are said relating to temporals, others to spirituals; some are blessings or prophecies of good things to them, others curses, or foretell evil, but all are predictions delivered out by Jacob under a spirit of prophecy; some things had their accomplishment when the tribes of Israel were placed in the land of Canaan, others in the times of the judges, and in later times; and some in the times of the Messiah, to which this prophecy reaches, whose coming was in the last days, Heb_1:1 and achmanides says, according to the sense of all their writers, the last days here are the days of the Messiah; and in an ancient writing of the Jews it is said (x), that Jacob called his sons, because he had a mind to reveal the end of the Messiah, i.e. the time of his coming; and Abraham Seba (y) observes, that this section is the seal and key of the whole law, and of all the prophets prophesied of, unto the days of the Messiah. 4. Henry, A general idea is given of the intended discourse (Gen_49:1): That I may tell you that which shall befal you (not your persons, but your posterity) in the latter days; this prediction would be of use to those that came after them, for the confirming of their faith and the guiding of their way, on their return to Canaan, and their settlement there. We cannot tell our children what shall befal them or their families in this world; but we can tell them, from the word of God, what will befal them in the last day of all, according as they conduct themselves in this world. 3. Attention is demanded (Gen_49:2): Hearken to Israel your father; let Israel, that has prevailed
10. 10. with God, prevail with you. ote, Children must diligently hearken to what their godly parents say, particularly when they are dying. Hear, you children, the instruction of a father, which carries with it both authority and affection, Pro_4:1. 5. K&D, The Blessing. - Gen_49:1, Gen_49:2. When Jacob had adopted and blessed the two sons of Joseph, he called his twelve sons, to make known to them his spiritual bequest. In an elevated and solemn tone he said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you ( for , as in Gen_42:4, Gen_42:38) at the end of the days! Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father! The last address of Jacob-Israel to his twelve sons, which these words introduce, is designated by the historian (Gen_49:28) the blessing, with which their father blessed them, every one according to his blessing. This blessing is at the same time a prophecy. Every superior and significant life becomes prophetic at its close (Ziegler). But this was especially the case with the lives of the patriarchs, which were filled and sustained by the promises and revelations of God. As Isaac in his blessing (Gen 27) pointed out prophetically to his two sons, by virtue of divine illumination, the future history of their families; so Jacob, while blessing the twelve, pictured in grand outlines the lineamenta of the future history of the future nation (Ziegler). The groundwork of his prophecy was supplied partly by the natural character of his twelve sons, and partly by the divine promise which had been given by the Lord to him and to his fathers Abraham and Isaac, and that not merely in these two points, the numerous increase of their seed and the possession of Canaan, but in its entire scope, by which Israel had been appointed to be the recipient and medium of salvation for all nations. On this foundation the Spirit of God revealed to the dying patriarch Israel the future history of his seed, so that he discerned in the characters of his sons the future development of the tribes proceeding from them, and with prophetic clearness assigned to each of them its position and importance in the nation into which they were to expand in the promised inheritance. Thus he predicted to the sons what would happen to them in the last days, lit., at the end of the days ( , lxx), and not merely at some future time. , the opposite of , signifies the end in contrast with the beginning (Deu_11:12; Isa_46:10); hence in prophetic language denoted, not the future generally, but the last future (see Hengstenberg's History of Balaam, pp. 465-467, transl.), the Messianic age of consummation (Isa_2:2; Eze_38:8, Eze_38:16; Jer_30:24; Jer_48:47; Jer_49:39, etc.: so also um_24:14; Deu_4:30), like (2Pe_3:3; Heb_1:2), or (Act_2:17; 2Ti_3:1). But we must not restrict the end of the days to the extreme point of the time of completion of the Messianic kingdom; it embraces the whole history of the completion which underlies the present period of growth, or the future as bringing the work of God to its ultimate completion, though modified according to the particular stage to which the work of God had advanced in any particular age, the range of vision opened to that age, and the consequent horizon of the prophet, which, though not absolutely dependent upon it, was to a certain extent regulated by it (Delitzsch). For the patriarch, who, with his pilgrim-life, had been obliged in the very evening of his days to leave the soil of the promised land and seek a refuge for himself and his house in Egypt, the final future, with its realization of the promises of God, commenced as soon as the promised land was in the possession of the twelve tribes descended from his sons. He had already before his eyes, in his twelve sons with their children and children's children, the first beginnings of the multiplication of his seed into a great nation. Moreover, on his departure from Canaan he had received the promise, that the God of his fathers would make him into a great nation, and lead him up again to Canaan (Gen_46:3-4). The fulfilment of this promise his thoughts and hopes, his longings and wishes, were all directed. This constituted the firm foundation, though by no means
11. 11. the sole and exclusive purport, of his words of blessing. The fact was not, as Baumgarten and Kurtz suppose, that Jacob regarded the time of Joshua as that of the completion; that for him the end was nothing more than the possession of the promised land by his seed as the promised nation, so that all the promises pointed to this, and nothing beyond it was either affirmed or hinted at. ot a single utterance announces the capture of the promised land; not a single one points specially to the time of Joshua. On the contrary, Jacob presupposes not only the increase of his sons into powerful tribes, but also the conquest of Canaan, as already fulfilled; foretells to his sons, whom he sees in spirit as populous tribes, growth and prosperity on the soil in their possession; and dilates upon their relation to one another in Canaan and to the nations round about, even to the time of their final subjection to the peaceful sway of Him, from whom the sceptre of Judah shall never depart. The ultimate future of the patriarchal blessing, therefore, extends to the ultimate fulfilment of the divine promises-that is to say, to the completion of the kingdom of God. The enlightened seer's-eye of the patriarch surveyed, as though upon a canvas painted without perspective, the entire development of Israel from its first foundation as the nation and kingdom of God till its completion under the rule of the Prince of Peace, whom the nations would serve in willing obedience; and beheld the twelve tribes spreading themselves out, each in his inheritance, successfully resisting their enemies, and finding rest and full satisfaction in the enjoyment of the blessings of Canaan. It is in this vision of the future condition of his sons as grown into tribes that the prophetic character of the blessing consists; not in the prediction of particular historical events, all of which, on the contrary, with the exception of the prophecy of Shiloh, fall into the background behind the purely ideal portraiture of the peculiarities of the different tribes. The blessing gives, in short sayings full of bold and thoroughly original pictures, only general outlines of a prophetic character, which are to receive their definite concrete form from the historical development of the tribes in the future; and throughout it possesses both in form and substance a certain antique stamp, in which its genuineness is unmistakeably apparent. Every attack upon its genuineness has really proceeded from an a priori denial of all supernatural prophecies, and has been sustained by such misinterpretations as the introduction of special historical allusions, for the purpose of stamping it as a vaticinia ex eventu, and by other untenable assertions and assumptions; such, for example, as that people do not make poetry at so advanced an age or in the immediate prospect of death, or that the transmission of such an oration word for word down to the time of Moses is utterly inconceivable-objections the emptiness of which has been demonstrated in Hengstenberg's Christology i. p. 76 (transl.) by copious citations from the history of the early Arabic poetry. 6. Calvin, And Jacob called. In the former chapter, the blessing on Ephraim and Manasseh was related Genesis 48:1, because, before Jacob should treat of the state of the whole nation about to spring from him, it was right that these two grandsons should be inserted into the body of his sons. ow, as if carried above the heavens, he announces, not in the character of a man, but as from the mouth of God, what shall be the condition of them all, for a long time to come. And it will be proper first to remark, that as he had then thirteen sons, he sets before his view, in each of their persons, the same number of nations or tribes: in which act the admirable lustre of his faith is conspicuous. For since he had often heard from the Lord, that his seed should be increased to a multitude of people, this oracle is to him like a sublime mirror, in which he may perceive things deeply hidden from human sense. Moreover, this is not a simple confession of faith, by which Jacob testifies that he hopes for whatever had been promised him by the Lord; but he rises superior to men, at the interpreter and ambassador of God, to regulate the future state of the
12. 12. Church. ow, since some interpreters perceived this prophecy to be noble and magnificent, they have thought that it would not be adorned with its proper dignity, unless they should extract from it certain new mysteries. Thus it has happened, that in striving earnestly to elicit profound allegories, they have departed from the genuine sense of the words, and have corrupted, by their own inventions, what is here delivered for the solid edification of the pious. But lest we should depreciate the literal sense, as if it did not contain speculations sufficiently profound, let us mark the design of the holy Spirit. In the first place, the sons of Jacob are informed beforehand, of their future fortune, that they may know themselves to be objects of the special care of God; and that, although the whole world is governed by his providence, they, notwithstanding, are preferred to other nations, as members of his own household. It seems apparently a mean and contemptible thing, that a region productive of vines, which should yield abundance of choice wine, and one rich in pasturers, which should supply milk, is promised to the tribe of Judah. But if any one will consider that the Lord is hereby giving an illustrious proof of his own election, in descending, like the father of a family, to the care of food, and also showing, in minute things, that he is united by the sacred bond of a covenant to the children of Abraham, he will look for no deeper mystery. In the second place; the hope of the promised inheritance is again renewed unto them. And, therefore, Jacob, as if he would put them in possession of the land by his own hand, expounds familiarly, and as in an affair actually present, what kind of habitation should belong to each of them. Can the confirmation of a matter so serious, appear contemptible to sane and prudent readers? It is, however, the principal design of Jacob more correctly to point out from whence a king should arise among them, who should bring them complete felicity. And in this manner he explains what had been promised obscurely, concerning the blessed seed. In these things there is so great weight, that the simple treating of them, if only we were skillful interpreters, ought justly to transport us with admiration. But (omitting all things else) an advantage of no common kind consists in this single point, that the mouth of impure and profane men, who freely detract from the credibility of Moses, is shut, so that they no longer dare to contend that he did not speak by a celestial impulse. Let us imagine that Moses does not relate what Jacob had before prophesied, but speaks in his own person; whence, then, could he divine what did not happen till many ages afterwards? Such, for instance, is the prophecy concerning the kingdom of David. And there is no doubt that God commanded the land to be divided by lot, lest any suspicion should arise that Joshua had divided it among the tribes, by compact, and as he had been instructed by his master. After the Israelites had obtained possession of the land, the division of it was not made by the will of men. Whence was it that a dwelling near the sea-shore was given to the tribe of Zebulun; a fruitful plain to the tribe of Asher; and to the others, by lot, what is here recorded; except that the Lord would ratify his oracles by the result, and would show openly, that nothing then occurred which he had not, a long time before, declared should take place? I now return to the words of Moses, in which holy Jacob is introduced, relating what he had been taught by the Holy Spirit concerning events still very remote. But some, with canine rage, demand,194194 Sed oblatrant quidam protervi canes. Whence did Moses derive his knowledge of a conversation, held in an obscure hut, two hundred years before his time? I ask in return, before I give an answer, Whence had he his knowledge of the places in the land of Canaan, which he assigns, like a skillful surveyor, to each tribe? If this was a knowledge derived from heaven, (which must be granted,) why will these impious babblers deny that the things which Jacob has predicted, were divinely revealed to Moses? Besides, among many other things which the holy fathers had handed down by tradition, this prediction might then be generally known. Whence was it that the people, when tyrannically oppressed, implored the assistance of God as their deliverer? Whence was it, that at the simple hearing of a promise formerly given, they raised their minds to a good hope, unless that some remembrance of the divine adoption still flourished among them? If there was a general acquaintance with the covenant of the Lord
13. 13. among the people; what impudence will it be to deny that the heavenly servants of God more accurately investigated whatever was important to be known respecting the promised inheritance? For the Lord did not utter oracles by the mouth of Jacob which, after his death, a sudden oblivion should destroy; as if he had breathed, I know not what sounds, into the air. But rather he delivered instructions common to many ages; that his posterity might know from what source their redemption, as well as the hereditary title of the land, flowed down to them. We know how tardily, and even timidly, Moses undertook the province assigned him, when he was called to deliver his own people: because he was aware that he should have to deal with an intractable and perverse nation. It was, therefore, necessary, that he should come prepared with certain credentials which might give proof of his vocation. And, hence, he put forth these predictions, as public documents from the sacred archives of God, that no one might suppose him to have intruded rashly into his office. Gather yourselves together195195 The reader will observe, that the entire structure of these predictions is poetical. The prophecies of the Old Testament are generally delivered in this form; and God has thus chosen the most natural method of conveying prophetic intelligence, through the medium of that elevated strain of diction, which suggests itself to imaginative minds, which is peculiarly fitted to deal with sublime and invisible realities, and which best serves to stir up animated feelings, and to fix important truths in the memory of the reader. They who wish to examine more minutely the poetical character of the chapter, are referred to Dr. Adam Clarkes Commentary, and to Caunters Poetry of the Pentateuch. A few observations, in passing, will be made in the notes to such passages as derive elucidation from their poetical structure. Ed. Jacob begins with inviting their attention. For he gravely enters on his subject, and claims for himself the authority of a prophet, in order to teach his sons that he is by no means making a private testamentary disposition of his domestic affairs; but that he is expressing in words, those oracles which are deposited with him, until the event shall follow in due time. For he does not command them simply to listen to his wishes, but gathers them into an assembly by a solemn rite, that they may hear what shall occur to them in the succession of time. Moreover, I do not doubt, that he places this future period of which he speaks, in opposition to their exile in Egypt, that, when their minds were in suspense, they might look forward to that promised state. ow, from the above remarks, it may be easily inferred, that, in this prophecy is comprised the whole period from the departure out of Egypt to the reign of Christ: not that Jacob enumerates every event, but that, in the summary of things on which he briefly touches, he arranges a settled order and course, until Christ should appear. 7. Leupold, For "summoned" the Hebrew says, "he called unto" them. This is meant in the sense of dispatching messengers to gather them together. There is a definite consciousness on the old fathers part that he like other old men of God is being granted special insight in reference to his sons lives, the knowledge of which can be a substantial blessing to them. Jacob never saw more clearly and never spoke more truly. We have here more than pia desideria, "pious wishes." The solemn formal announcement on the fathers part also indicates that he is clearly aware of the fact that he is about to pronounce substantial blessings. Besides, these words are to be common property heard and known by all. Each brother is to profit by what the other hears and receives. "Befall" yikra for yikrah a common exchange of the verbs of these two classes (G. K. 75 rr). Much depends on the right evaluation of the expression "in the end of the days." So we have translated quite literally beacharth hayyamm. Koenig says very generally in der Folgezeit, "in coming days." Luther was content with the general phrase in kuenftigen Zeiten, "in future days." A. V. uses too strong an expression, "in the last days," laying itself open to the criticism that
14. 14. much of what Jacob foretells does not lie at the end of time. Literally, of course, acharth is "the latter part" (B D B). Some make the expression refer merely to the future, but that is made impossible by the literal meaning, "the latter part." Others construe in a fanciful way, contending that it runs up to the end in so far as an individual may see in the direction of that end, some seeing much farther than others. Most interpreters are ready to concede that the Messianic age is involved in some passages where this expression occurs and that it, therefore, in those passages bears a Messianic connotation. K. W. will allow this to be the case from Isa 2:2 onward. That is the attitude of the majority of expositors. But, as we hope to demonstrate, the Messianic future is very definitely in this chapter. Consequently, from the very first instance of its use as well as in all others the phrase points to the future, including the Messianic future. But it points not to this only but to any preceding part of the future as well, as long as this future is covered by Gods promises and is a part of the divine developments culminating in the days of the Messianic age. This meaning holds good also for u 24:14; De 4:30; 31:29, as well as for the later prophetic passages. Consequently Keil says correctly, on the one hand: This phrase "in prophetic language denotes not the future generally but the last future, the Messianic age of consummation"; and adds, on the other hand: "It embraces the whole history of completion which underlies the present period of growth. " ow as far as Jacob himself was concerned, the first instance of fulfilment naturally was the occupation of Canaan by the tribes descended from his sons. As far as Israel as a nation was concerned, that was the first thing to be realized. We need not wonder greatly that his blessing speaks very largely in terms dealing with this first fulfilment. To see this first word realized would serve as a pledge for the realization of all things that God might yet be pleased to reveal and to do. Perspective, as far as time is concerned, was not in evidence in prophetic words. Revelation presents all the elements of the future in its prediction without troubling to reveal the time intervals that may come between the events foretold. This explains how Jacob can see in one picture the occupation of Canaan and the Messiahs kingdom but hardly anything that lies in between. Dillmann makes an unwarranted statement in reference to this phrase: he claims that it was customary in the age of the prophets; therefore it must have been added by some narrator living in that age. Proof for such a claim is not adduced and cannot be. We must also take issue with the question whether it is Jacob who pronounces this blessing or not. For us the question is permanently settled by the statement, perfectly clear in itself "Jacob said." The statements of v. Ge 49:6,7 b and Ge 49:10 are supposed to demonstrate that it was not Jacob who spoke, for these verses seem to move in terms of the later tribes. Quite so. But it is Jacob thinking in terms of the tribes descended from himnot at all an unnatural thing, seeing he knew he was to develop into a number of tribes. But the critics claim that some writer of the Age of the Judges sought to recall the tribes that were fast disintegrating and losing their spiritual heritage, and to make his appeal more effective the writer assumed the name of the venerable Jacobthis literary assumption does not strike us as particularly effective. It is far from convincing. We fail to see how a message cast into such a form could exert any particularly salutary influence. 2. Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.
15. 15. 1. Gill, Gather yourselves together,.... This is repeated to hasten them, and to suggest that he had something of importance to make known unto them, which he chose to do, when they were together: and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken to Israel your father: these words are used and doubled to excite their attention to what he was about to say, and which is urged from the near relation there was between them 2. Henry, The preface to the prophecy, in which, 1. The congregation is called together (Gen_49:2): Gather yourselves together; let them all be sent for from their several employments, to see their father die, and to hear his dying words. It was a comfort to Jacob, now that he was dying, to see all his children about him, and none missing, though he had sometimes thought himself bereaved. It was of use to them to attend him in his last moments, that they might learn of him how to die, as well as how to live: what he said to each he said in the hearing of all the rest; for we may profit by the reproofs, counsels, and comforts, that are principally intended for others. His calling upon them once and again to gather together intimated both a precept to them to unite in love, (to keep together, not to mingle with the Egyptians, not to forsake the assembling of themselves together,) and a prediction that they should not be separated from each other, as Abraham's sons and Isaac's were, but should be incorporated, and all make one people 3. Leupold, At this point the poem proper begins, as is indicated by the parallelism of structure. In substance v. 1 is repeated, in so far as the sons are bidden to gather round their father. The added feature of the verse is the double summons to "hearken." Good sons would in any case be ready to do that. The fathers double exhortation grows out of the knowledge that his words will be doubly precious, since they voice his own best counsel as well as wisdom imparted by Gods Holy Spirit. For no man ever yet by the cleverness of his own ingenuity foretold future developments in the kingdom of God. That Jacob is thus speaking in a double capacity is further indicated by the two names he uses, "Jacob," the name of the man naturally clever and ambitious, and Israel, the name of the new man who had submitted to Gods leadings, had prevailed in prayer, and had been content to go as God led when native human ingenuity had failed. 3. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. 1. Barnes, Reuben, as the first-born by nature, has the first place in the benedictory address. My might. In times and places in which a mans right depends on his might, a large family of sons is the source of strength and safety. The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power - the rank and authority which belong to the first-born. Boiling over as water. That which boils over perishes at the same time that it is pernicious. This is here transferred in a figure to the passionate nature of Reuben. Thou shalt not excel. There is here an allusion to the excellency of dignity and power. By the boiling over of his unhallowed passions Reuben lost all the excellence that primogeniture confers. By the dispensation of Providence the double portion went to Joseph, the first-born of Rachel; the chieftainship to Judah; and the priesthood to Levi. The cause of this forfeiture is then assigned. In the last sentence the patriarch in a spirit of indignant sorrow passes
16. 16. from the direct address to the indirect narrative. To my couch he went up. The doom here pronounced upon Reuben is still a blessing, as he is not excluded from a tribes share in the promised land. But, as in the case of the others, this blessing is abated and modified by his past conduct. His tribe has its seat on the east of the Jordan, and never comes to any eminence in the commonwealth of Israel. 2. Clarke, Reuben as the first-born had a right to a double portion of all that the father had; see Deu_21:17 The eminence or dignity mentioned here may refer to the priesthood; the power, to the regal government or kingdom - In this sense it has been understood by all the ancient Targumists. The Targum of Onkelos paraphrases it thus: Thou shouldst have received three portions, the birthright, the priesthood, and the kingdom: and to this the Targums of Jonathan ben Uzziel and Jerusalem add: But because thou hast sinned, the birthright is given to Joseph, the kingdom to Judah, and the priesthood to Levi. That the birthright was given to the sons of Joseph we have the fullest proof from 1Ch_5:1. 3. Gill, Reuben, thou art my firstborn,.... Jacob addressed himself to Reuben first, in the presence of his brethren, owned him as his firstborn, as he was, Gen_29:31 did not cashier him from his family, nor disinherit him, though he had greatly disobliged him, for which the birthright, and the privileges of it, were taken from him, 1Ch_5:1. my might, and the beginning of my strength; begotten by him when in his full strength (z), as well as the first of his family, in which his strength and glory lay; so the Septuagint, "the beginning of my children"; and because he was so, of right the double portion belonged to him, had he not forfeited it, Deu_21:17. Some versions render the words, "the beginning of my grief", or "sorrow" (a), the word "Oni" sometimes so signifying, as Rachel called her youngest son "Benoni", the son of my sorrow; but this is not true of Reuben, he was not the beginning of Jacob's sorrow, for the ravishing of Dinah, and the slaughter and spoil of the Shechemites, by his sons, which gave him great sorrow and grief, were before the affair of Reuben's lying with Bilhah: the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power; that is, to him of right belonged excellent dignity, power, and authority in the family, a preeminence over his brethren, a double portion of goods, succession in government, and, as is commonly understood, the exercise of the priesthood; and so the Targums interpret it, that he should, had he not sinned, took three parts or portions above his brethren, the birthright, priesthood, and kingdom. Jacob observes this to him, that he might know what he had lost by sinning, and from what excellency and dignity, grandeur and power, he was fallen. 4. Henry, The prophecy concerning Reuben. He begins with him (Gen_49:3, Gen_49:4), for he was the firstborn; but by committing uncleanness with his father's wife, to the great reproach of the family to which he ought to have been an ornament, he forfeited the prerogatives of the birthright; and his dying father here solemnly degrades him, though he does not disown nor disinherit him: he shall have all the privileges of a son, but not of a firstborn. We have reason to think Reuben had repented of his sin, and it was pardoned; yet it was a necessary piece of justice, in detestation of the villany, and for warning to others, to put this mark of disgrace upon him. ow according to the method of degrading, 1. Jacob here puts upon him the ornaments of the
17. 17. birthright (Gen_49:3), that he and all his brethren might see what he had forfeited, and, in that, might see the evil of the sin: as the firstborn, he was his father's joy, almost his pride, being the beginning of his strength. How welcome he was to his parents his name bespeaks, Reuben, See a son. To him belonged the excellency of dignity above his brethren, and some power over them. Christ Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren, and to him, of right, belong the most excellent power and dignity: his church also, through him, is a church of firstborn. 5. K&D 3-4, Reuben, my first-born thou, my might and first-fruit of my strength; pre-eminence in dignity and pre-eminence in power. - As the first-born, the first sprout of the full virile power of Jacob, Reuben, according to natural right, was entitled to the first rank among his brethren, the leadership of the tribes, and a double share of the inheritance (Gen_27:29; Deu_21:17). ( : elevation, the dignity of the chieftainship; , the earlier mode of pronouncing , the authority of the first-born.) But Reuben had forfeited this prerogative. Effervescence like water - thou shalt have no preference; for thou didst ascend thy father's marriage-bed: then hast thou desecrated; my couch has he ascended. : lit., the boiling over of water, figuratively, the excitement of lust; hence the verb is used in Jdg_9:4; Zep_3:4, for frivolity and insolent pride. With this predicate Jacob describes the moral character of Reuben; and the noun is stronger than the verb of the Samaritan, and or efferbuisti, aestuasti of the Sam. Vers., of the lxx, and of Symm. is to be explained by : have no pre-eminence. His crime was, lying with Bilhah, his father's concubine (Gen_35:22). is used absolutely: desecrated hast thou, sc., what should have been sacred to thee (cf. Lev_18:8). From this wickedness the injured father turns away with indignation, and passes to the third person as he repeats the words, my couch he has ascended. By the withdrawal of the rank belonging to the first-born, Reuben lost the leadership in Israel; so that his tribe attained to no position of influence in the nation (compare the blessing of Moses in Deu_33:6). The leadership was transferred to Judah, the double portion to Joseph (1Ch_5:1-2), by which, so far as the inheritance was concerned, the first-born of the beloved Rachel took the place of the first-born of the slighted Leah; not, however, according to the subjective will of the father, which is condemned in Deu_21:15., but according to the leading of God, by which Joseph had been raised above his brethren, but without the chieftainship being accorded to him. 6. Keith Krell, Jacobs three oldest sons are disinherited for their unfaithfulness (49:3-7).11 In this section we learn that uncontrolled passions lead to personal and family ruin. Jacob begins with his oldest, in 49:3-4: Reuben, you are my firstborn; my might and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your fathers bed; then you defiled ithe went up to my couch. Jacob affirms that Reuben holds a special place in his heart by virtue of the fact that he was the firstborn. The firstborn son normally had two rights. First, he became the leader of the family, the new patriarch. Second, he was entitled to a double share of the inheritance. But Reuben was not to receive this blessing because he is uncontrolled as water. The Hebrew word translated uncontrolled means reckless or destructive.12 The picture is of water that floods its banks and goes wildly out of control. The metaphor, which literally means something like boiling over like water, suggests a certain seething of lust, an unbridled license. The result is an evaluation of Reuben that pointed to wildness and weakness, an undisciplined life.13 The sins of the past have disqualified him from blessing in the future. If you recall, after Rachel died Reuben slept with Rachels servantthe mother of his brothers Dan and aphtali (35:22).
18. 18. All the text tells us is that Jacob heard about it. We dont know for certain why Reuben did this.14 This incident happened 40 years ago. Reuben, the firstborn, should have received a double portion of the inheritance. He should have been the leader among his brothers. He, above all his brothers, should have been the one to defend his fathers honor, not defile it. But his one act of indulgence robbed him of his privileges as the firstborn. Like King David after him, he paid a terrible price for a night of pleasure. All the potential in the world wont benefit you if you dont develop self-control, especially in the area of sexual temptation. Satan has plenty of time to wait for you to fall. He just sets his traps and bides his time. Eventually, he knows that hes going to trip you up. You may be preeminent in dignity and power. But if youre as uncontrolled as water, its only a matter of time until your potential is swept away by the flood of lust. You may have tremendous potential in the Lord. But youve got a habit of flowing downstream with lustful thoughts. Its all in your head at this point. o one else knows and no one has gotten hurtyet. But, great gifts are worthless without godly character. I know many gifted pastors who are out of the ministry because they did not judge their lust. If you arent learning to take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ, its only a matter of time before your great potential is ruined by reckless lust.15 Reuben provides a gripping illustration that the passion of uncontrolled lust leads to ruin. True to Jacobs prophecy, the Reubenites never produced a leader of any kind for Israel. They never entered the Promised Land ( um 23). They built unauthorized places of worship (Josh 22:10-34). About no other tribe do we know so little as about Reuben. The tribe produced no significant man, no judge, no king, and no prophet. From this first oracle, the teaching is clear that the behavior of one individual affects the destiny of his descendants.16 Jacob now moves on to his next two sons 7. Calvin, Reuben, thou art my first-born He begins with the first-born, not for the sake of honor, to confirm him in his rank; but that he may the more completely cover him with shame, and humble him by just reproaches. For Reuben is here cast down from his primogeniture; because he had polluted his fathers bed by incestuous intercourse with his mother-in-law. The meaning of his words is this: Thou, indeed, by nature the first-born, oughtest to have excelled, seeing thou art my strength, and the beginning of my manly vigor; but since thou best flowed away like water, there is no more any ground for arrogating anything to thyself. For, from the day of thy incest, that dignity which thou receivedst on thy birth-day, from thy mothers womb, is gone and vanished away. The noun (), some translate seed, others grief; and turn the passage thus: Thou my strength, and the beginning of my grief or seed. They who prefer the word grief, assign as a reason, that children bring care and anxiety to their parents. But if this were the true meaning, there would rather have been an antithesis between strength and sorrow. Since, however, Jacob is reciting, in continuity, the declaration of the dignity which belongs to the first- born, I doubt not that he here mentions the beginning of his manhood. For as men, in a certain sense, live again in their children, the first-born is properly called the beginning of strength. To the same point belongs what immediately follows, that he had been the excellency of dignity and of strength, until he had deservedly deprived himself of both. For Jacob places before the eyes of his son Reuben his former honor, because it was for his profit to be made thoroughly conscious whence he had fallen. So Paul says, that he set before the Corinthians the sins by which they were defiled, in order to make them ashamed. (1 Corinthians 6:5.) For whereas we are disposed to flatter ourselves in our vices, scarcely any one of us is brought back to a sane mind, after he has fallen, unless he is touched with a sense of his vileness. Moreover, nothing is better adapted to wound us, than when a comparison is made between those favors which God bestows upon us,
19. 19. and the punishments we bring upon ourselves by our own fault. After Adam had been stripped of all good things, God reproaches him sharply, and not without ridicule, Behold Adam is as one of us. What end is this designed to answer, except that Adam, reflecting with himself how far he is changed from that man, who had lately been created according to the image of God, and had been endowed with so many excellent gifts, might be confounded and fall prostrate, deploring his present misery? We see, then, that reproofs are necessary for us, in order that we may be touched to the quick by the anger of the Lord. For so it happens, not only that we become displeased with the sins of which we are now bearing the punishment, but also, that we take greater care diligently to guard those gifts of God which dwell within us, lest they perish through our negligence. They who refer the excellency of dignity to the priesthood, and the excellency of power to the kingly office, are, in my judgment, too subtle interpreters. I take the more simple meaning of the passage to be; that if Reuben had stood firmly in his own rank, the chief place of all excellency would have belonged to him. 8. Leupold, The father cannot forget that Reuben is his "firstborn," nor all the fine hopes that attached themselves to him. The father multiplies himself and grows strong through his children. Therefore the first-born may well be regarded as a pledge of what the others yet to come may achieve together with him. He may, therefore, well be designated "my strength (koch) and the beginning of my might" (ni). This latter expression, "beginning of might," is on several other occasions used in the Scriptures in reference to the first-born: De 21:17; Ps 78:51; 105:36. For, surely, with all purity we may make the assertion that manly strength best displays itself in procreation. More dignity still may be ascribed to the first-born, for truly in a sense it was divine providence that ordained that a certain one be the first-born among the children of a man. Universal customs and the law itself to an extent at least recognize this distinction. Among the chosen people such a dignity is not lost. If anything, it is like all good things enhanced in value by being found in the kingdom, Jacob expresses this thought by designating Reuben as "the pre- eminence of dignity and the pre-eminence of power." Yther, here rendered "pre-eminence" could have been rendered equally well as "superiority, excellency" (B D B). Seeth is the construct infinitive from nasa, which means "to lift up," "to bear." From the great variety of meanings possible from this root "dignity" seems best suited to the context. Luther, following the Vulgate, arrived at a similar meaning, using the idea of nasa in so far as it is also used for offering up sacrifices; so Luther renders der Oberste im Opfer, "the leader in sacrifice." Yet the A. V.s rendering has more to commend it. In any case, Reubens dignity and honour due to his being the first-born are strongly set forth in this verse. The rendering "excessively proud and excessively fierce" is grammatically possible but conflicts with whatever else we know about Reuben. The criticism and the reproof are confined to the next verse. 4. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your fathers bed, onto my couch and defiled it.
20. 20. 1. We read of his folly in Gen. 35:22. It was a brief incident, yet it had long range consequences for himself and his family. He robbed them of a special place in God's plan for the future, and all for a quick roll in the hay. Sex is a powerful force for good or evil, and he used it for evil for a momentary pleasure with forbidden fruit. He gets the first blast rather than the first blessing. 2. Clarke, Pouring out like the waters - This is an obscure sentence because unfinished. It evidently relates to the defilement of his fathers couch; and the word pachaz, here translated pouring out, and in our Version unstable, has a bad meaning in other places of the Scripture, being applied to dissolute, debauched, and licentious conduct. See Jdg_9:4; Zep_3:4; Jer_23:14, Jer_23:32; Jer_29:23. Thou shalt not excel - This tribe never rose to any eminence in Israel; was not so numerous by one third as either Judah, Joseph, or Dan, when Moses took the sum of them in the wilderness, um_1:21; and was among the first that were carried into captivity, 1Ch_5:26. Then thou didst defile - Another unfinished sentence, similar to the former, and upon the same subject, passing over a transaction covertly, which delicacy forbade Jacob to enlarge on. For the crime of Reuben, see Clarke on Gen_35:22 (note). 5. Simeon and Levi, brethren: They have accomplished their fraudulent purposes. 6. Into their secret council my soul did not come; In their confederacy my honor was not united: For in their anger they slew a man, ( ish, a noble), And in their pleasure they murdered a prince. 7. Cursed was their anger, for it was fierce! And their excessive wrath, for it was inflexible! I will divide them out in Jacob, And I will disperse them in Israel. 3. Gill, Unstable as water,.... Which is not to be understood of the levity of his mind, and his disposition to hurt, and the impetuous force of that breaking forth like water, and carrying him into the commission of it; but rather of his fall from his excellency and dignity, like the fall of water from an high place; and of his being vile, mean, and contemptible, useless and unprofitable, like water spilled on the ground; and of his weak and strengthless condition and circumstances, being deprived of the prerogatives and privileges of his birthright, and having lost all his honour and grandeur, power and authority. The word in the Arabic language signifies (b) to be proud and haughty, to lift up one's self, to swell and rise like the turgent and swelling waters: but though he did thus lift himself, yet it follows: thou shall not excel; not have the excellency of dignity and power which belonged to him as the firstborn; the birthright and the double portion were given to Joseph, who had two tribes descending from him, when Reuben had but one; the kingdom was given to Judah, and the priesthood to Levi, as both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem observe: as he did not excel his brethren in honour and dignity, so neither in wealth and riches, nor in numbers; see Deu_33:6 where the word "not" is wrongly supplied; nor in his share in the land of Canaan, his posterity being seated on the other side of Jordan, at their request; nor did any persons of note and
21. 21. eminence spring from his tribe: because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defiledst thou it; referring to his incest with Bilhah, his father's concubine wife, Gen_35:22 which, though done forty years ago, was now remembered, and left an indelible spot on Reuben's character, and his posterity: he went up to my couch: turning himself to his other sons, to take notice of the crime, as very abominable and detestable; affirming the truth of it, and speaking of it with some vehemency, his affections being moved; and it may be could not bear to look at Reuben, but turned himself to his brethren; though he had forgiven the sin, and very probably Reuben had repented of it, and had forgiveness of God, which he might have, though in some sense vengeance was taken on this sinful invention of his, Psa_99:8. There are various senses given of this phrase; some, as Aben Ezra, "my bed departed from me"; that is, he departed from his bed; or, as Kimchi (c), "it ceased to be my bed"; he left it, he abstained from the bed of Bilhah upon its being defiled by Reuben: and others separate these words, and read , singly, "it went up" (d); either the excellency of Reuben went up, vanished and disappeared like smoke; or, as Ben Melech connects it with the beginning of the verse, "unstable as water", giving the sense, "it", the inundation of water, "ascended" and prevailed over thee; as waters ascend, meaning his lust ascended, and got the prevalence over him; but the accents will not admit of such a separation of the words; it is best to understand them in the first sense. As to the manner of the expression, of going up to a bed, it may be observed, that not only their beds in those times might be raised higher than ours, but that they were placed in an higher part of the room, and so there was an ascent to them: and Dr. Shaw (e) says this is the custom of the eastern people to this day,"at one end of each chamber there is a little gallery, raised three, four, or five feet above the floor, with a balustrade in the front of it, with a few steps likewise leading up to it, here they place their beds.'' 4. Henry, He then strips him of these ornaments (Gen_49:4), lifts him up, that he may cast him down, by that one word, Thou shalt not excel; a being thou shalt have as a tribe, but not an excellency. o judge, prophet, nor prince, is found of that tribe, nor any person of renown except Dathan and Abiram, who were noted for their impious rebellion against Moses. That tribe, as not aiming to excel, meanly chose a settlement on the other side Jordan. Reuben himself seems to have lost all that influence upon his brethren to which his birthright entitled him; for when he spoke unto them they would not hear, Gen_42:22. Those that have not understanding and spirit to support the honours and privileges of their birth will soon lose them, and retain only the name of them. The character fastened upon Reuben, for which he is laid under this mark of infamy, is that he was unstable as water. (1.) His virtue was unstable; he had not the government of himself and his own appetites: sometimes he would be very regular and orderly, but at other times he deviated into the wildest courses. ote, Instability is the ruin of men's excellency. Men do not thrive because they do not fix. (2.) His honour consequently was unstable; it departed from him, vanished into smoke, and became as water spilt upon the ground. ote, Those that throw away their virtue must not expect to save their reputation. Jacob charges him particularly with the sin for which he was thus disgraced: Thou went est up to thy father's bed. It was forty years ago that he had been guilty of this sin, yet now it is remembered against him. ote, As time will not of itself wear off the guilt of any sin from the conscience, so there are some sins whose stains it will not wipe off from the good name, especially seventh-commandment sins. Reuben's sin left an indelible mark of infamy upon his family, a dishonour that was a wound not to be healed without a scar, Pro_6:32, Pro_6:33. Let us never do evil, and then we need not fear being told of it. 5. Calvin, Unstable as water. He shows that the honor which had not a good conscience for its
22. 22. keeper, was not firm but evanescent; and thus he rejects Reuben from the primogeniture. He declares the cause, lest Reuben should complain that he was punished when innocent: for it was also of great consequence, in this affair, that he should be convinced of his fault, lest his punishment should not be attended with profit. We now see Jacob, having laid carnal affection aside, executing the office of a prophet with vigor and magnanimity. For this judgment is not to be ascribed to anger, as if the father desired to take private vengeance of his son: but it proceeded from the Spirit of God; because Jacob kept fully in mind the burden imposed upon him. The word (alach) the close of the sentence signifies to depart, or to be blown away like the ascending smoke, which is dispersed.The literal translation of Calvins version is, Thy velocity was like that of water, thou shalt not excel: because thou wentest up into thy fathers couch, then thou pollutedst my bed, he has vanished. This gives the patriarchs expression a different turn from that supposed by our translators; who understand the last word in the sentence to be a repetition of what had been said before, only putting it in the third person, as expressive of indignation; as if he had turned round from Reuben to his other children and said Yes, I declare he went up into my bed! Another view is given in the margin of our Bible, My couch is gone; which means that, by this defilement, the marriage bond was broken. To this version Calvin objects at the close of the paragraph. But both these constructions seem forced. Calvins appears the most natural. He represents Reuben as having lost all, by his criminal conduct. Honour, excellence, priority, virtue, and consequently character and influence, had all gone up as the dew from the face of the earth, and had vanished away. Ed. Therefore the sense is, that the excellency of Reuben, from the time that he had defiled his fathers bed, had flowed away and become extinct. For to expound the expression concerning the bed, to mean that it ceased to be Jacobs conjugal bed, because Bilhah had been divorced, is too frigid. 6. CRISWELL, Then he tells him why, and reminds him of a dark, unthinkable compromise in the life of Reuben, when he went to bed with one of the concubines of his father, an impossible breach of a son, of a wonderful and godly man. So when he says to him, Thou shalt not excel, this first child of Jacob and Leah, there's not anything ever that ever comes out of Reuben, nothing at all. Thou shalt not excel. There's no judge, there's no prophet, there's no prince, there's no person of renown, nothing ever develops out of the tribe of Reuben. He chose for his settlement on the other side of the Jordan and vanished altogether. This is the firstborn. This is the one who should have inherited the blessing. This is the one who should have possessed the birthright. He possesses nothing at all. What a tragedy, Reuben. 7. PI K, We shall now refer to several passages in the Old Testament which treat of Reuben, showing how the fortunes of this tribe verified the words of the dying patriarch. Let us turn first to 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2: " ow the sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel (for he was the firstborn); but, for as much as he defiled his fathers bed his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him (viz., of Judah, instead of Reuben as it ought to-have been) came the Chief Ruler (i.e., Christ); but the birthright was Josephs." In this striking passage the "birthright" refers, of course, to the position of excellency, and this, as Jacob declared it should be, was taken away from Reuben and given to the sons of Joseph (they receiving the double or "first-borns" portion); and Judah, not Reuben, becoming the royal tribe
23. 23. from which Messiah sprang, and thus "prevailing" above his brethren. Verily, then, Reuben did not "excel." Second, as we trace the fortunes of this tribe through the Old Testament it will be found that in nothing did they "excel." From this tribe came no judge, no king, and no prophet. This tribe (together with Gad) settled down on the wilderness side of the Jordan, saying, "Bring us not over Jordan" ( um. 32:5). From this same scripture it appears that the tribe of Reuben was, even then, but a cattle loving one"now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle; and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle . . . came and spoke unto Moses and Eleazar the priest saying . . . the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan" ( um. 32:1-5). With this agrees Judges 5:15, 16: "For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart. Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks. For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart." When the land was divided among the tribes in the days of Joshua, the portion allotted to Reuben served, again, to fulfill the prophecy of Jacobit was the southernmost and smallest on the east of Jordan. Third, this tribe was to be "unstable as water," it was to dry up like a stream in summer; it was, in other words, to enjoy no numerical superiority. In harmony with this was the prophecy of Moses concerning Reuben"Let Reuben live, and not die; and (or "but") let his men be few." ote, that at the first numbering of the tribes, Reuben had 46,500 men able to go forth to war ( um. 1:21), but when next they were numbered they showed a slight decrease43,730. ( um. 26:7). This is the more noteworthy because most of the other tribes registered an increase. Remark, too, that Reuben was among those who stood on Matthew Ebal to "curse," not among those who stood on Matthew Gerizim to "bless" (See Deut. 27:12, 13). In 1 Chronicles 26:31, 32, we read: "In the fortieth year of the reign of David they were sought for, and there were found among them mighty men of valor at Jazer of Gilead. And his brethren, men of valor, were two thousand and seven hundred chief fathers, whom king David made rulers over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, for every matter pertaining to God, and affairs of the king." It is also deeply significant to discover that when Jehovah commenced to inflict His judgments upon Israel we are told, "In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short; and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Arser, which is by the River Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan" (2 Kings 10:32, 33). Thus it will be found throughout; at no point did Reuben "excel"his dignity and glory completely dried up! "Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my Soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. 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" (Gen. 49:5-7). What a proof are these verses of the Divine Inspiration of the scriptures! Had Moses been left to himself he surely would have left out this portion of Jacobs prophecy, seeing that he was himself a descendant of the tribe of Levi! 8. Leupold, There was within Reubens character a certain unbridled element, a boiling-up, a "seething," which was in itself "wantonness" (B D B). For pchaz involves both these ideas, being
24. 24. derived from a root which implies "to be reckless" but used in the Scriptures in the sense of "being lascivious." Seething lust, "unbridled license," was within the man. This root fault incapacitated him for the position of leadership which would normally have been his. So the father pronounces the sentence, "thou shalt not enjoy pre-eminence" (tthar Hifil imperfect from yathar). For, apparently, all of the family knew what Reubens unbridled license had led him to do. If any did not, here the father makes specific mention of the crime of incest reported Ge 35:22. At that time Jacob did not score Reubens sin, if we are justified to argue thus from the silence of the Bible. There can be no doubt as to what his attitude was toward this foul piece of licentiousness. Here he leaves a public condemnation on record and condemns the deed in no uncertain terms at a time which serves to make his condemnation all the more impressive. This was a rebuke that none who heard it could ever forget. Jacob speaks very plainly, "for thou hast gone up upon thy fathers bed." He says nothing by way of accusing Bilhah. Of the two she may have been the less guilty party of the crime. "Then," speaking in more general terms, Jacob adds, "thou didst defile" (chillta). othing is gained by refering to sexual irregularities by terms that specifically describe them. It is enough to note "he defiled," that is, himself, the partner to his misdeed, his fathers name, the familys reputation. Then Jacob turns away from his son as from a stranger in sad reflection and speaks in the third person about him (K. S. 344 m), "my couch did he mount" a statement accompanied, as it were, by a sad shaking of the head as over an unbelievable thing. Mishkebhey, "bed," seems to be a dual (K. S. 260 h). Thi