Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Genesis-Chapter 49

Gen 49.1-33 gives us Jacob’s prophetic blessings upon his sons and what will befall Israel in the latter days; and the death of Jacob. This is a very eschatological chapter and Jacob is going to tell them what shall happen to their posterity in the “acharit yamim” or the “latter days.” This term is an eschatological term that is synonymous with “b’yamim” or “in the days” and it alludes to when the Messiah comes (Jer 23.5, 33.15, 50.4).

v 1…Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what shall befall you (your posterity) in the days to come (Hebrew “acharit yamim” or “latter days”; from that time to when the Messiah comes).

v 2…Gather yourselves and and hear (“shema” is the root meaning to hear and obey), you sons of Jacob; and listen to Israel your father.

v 3…Reuben, you are my first-born; my might and the beginning of my strength (when he was young, the beginning of the family); preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power (authority of the first-born in the family).

v 4…Uncontrolled (unstable) as water, you shall not have preeminence (as first-born) because you went up to your father’s bed (third person in Hebrew because Jacob loathed the memory of what Reuben did in Gen 35.22 with Bilhah); then you defiled it-he went up to my couch.

v 5…Simeon and Levi are brothers (in temperment and disposition), weapons of violence is in their habitations (referring to what they did in Shechem-Gen 34).

v 6…Let my soul not enter into their council (Hebrew “sowd” meaning secret confederacies); let not my glory (soul) be united with their assembly (a parallelism), because in their anger they slew a man (Hebrew “Ish”-Hamor or Shechem with all the males of Shechem), and in their self-will they uprooted a wall (to get into Hamor’s house to slay him and Shechem; some translations say “they maimed an ox” but the word for “wall” and “ox” differs only in one dot in Hebrew).

v 7…Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Simeon was dispersed in Judah’s territory, and Levi was dispersed among the tribes).

v 8…Judah, your brothers shall praise you (his name means praise), your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies (in defeating the Philistines and the Edomites). Your father’s sons shall bow down to you (kingly line).

v 9…Judah is a lion’s whelp (a young lion in strength), from the prey, my son, you have gone up (to the mountains to devour your prey). He couches, he lies among the lions (in peace-1 Kings 5.5), and as a lion, who dares rouse him up (a big mistake).

v 10…The scepter (as ruler) shall not depart from Judah, nor the rulers staff (lawgiver) from between his feet (a king sits with his staff between his knees), until Shiloh comes (Hebrew “peace bringer” or a “gift to him” and a reference to the Messiah), and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (the tribes of Israel-Deut 33.3-9).

v 11…He ties his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt (donkeys were kingly animals) to the choice vine (Israel-Isa 5.1-2); he washes in garments in wine (shows abundance of grapes in his territory, and his robes in the blood of grapes (alludes to Messiah in Isa 63.1-6).

v 12…His eyes shall be more sparkling than wine (with joy, teaching, covenant, marriage) and his teeth are whiter than milk (teaching and pure doctrine-1 Pet 2.2).

v 13…Zebulon shall dwell at the seashore (sea of Galilee); and he shall be a shore for ships (to harbor in), and his border shall be toward Sidon (the actual territory of Zebulon stretched from the sea of Galilee to Mount Carmel, close to Sidon).

v 14…Issachar is a strong donkey (able to carry burdens with strength in Torah-1 Chr 12.32), lying down between the sheepfolds (between Zebulon and Dan-Josh 19.10).

v 15…when he saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens and became a servant under task work (they paid tribute more than the rest so they could stay home and attend the fields in time of war).

v 16…Dan shall judge (avenge or defend; his name means judge) his people as one of the tribes of Israel (Samson was from Dan and fought the Philistines, etc).

v 17…Dan shall be a serpent in the way (dangerous to his foes), a horned snake in the path that bites the horses heels (by ambush and guerilla warfare, craft and genius) so that the rider falls backward (they were in the extreme north when invaders came so they needed to be crafty and tough; this also may refer spiritually to idols set up in Dan by Jeroboam that led Israel into idolatry, etc).

v 18…For they salvation I wait, O Lord (intended as part of the blessing because Dan was in the most exposed position of all the tribes in the north).

v 19…Gad shall recruit a regiment (when they crossed the Jordan to assist the other tribes, even though their territory was on the east side of the Jordan), and it will retreat in its tracks (return safely to their territory after the conquest).

v 20…As for Asher, his food shall be fat (plenty of food), and he shall yield royal dainties (fit for the table of kings).

v 21…Naphtali is a doe (swift) set loose; he gives beautiful words (a reputation for being eloquent).

v 22…Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a fountain; its branches run over the wall.

v 23…Archers (his brothers) bitterly attacked him (this alludes to Messiah Ben Joseph, the suffering servant), and shot at him and harassed him (persecuted him);

v 24…but his bow remained firm (his virtues overcame them) and the arms (literally the arms of his hands) were agile, from the hands of the mighty one of Jacob (the source of Joseph’s salvation); from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel (from the God of Jacob came Joseph who saved was sent to Egypt to save his family).

v 25…From the God of your fathers who helps you, and by the Almighty (Shaddai) who blesses you with the blessings of heaven above (rain, dew, sunshine, etc), blessings of the deep that lies beneath (subterranean fountains and reservoirs), blessings of the breasts and of the womb (fruitful family).

v 26…The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors (Abraham and Isaac) up to the utmost bound (fertility of the land of Israel extends to the top) of the everlasting hills (as long as the everlasting hills continue); may be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of the distinguished (set apart) among his brothers.

v 27…Benjamin is a ravenous wolf (warlike character of the tribe-Judges 5.14, 20.15-48). In the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening divides the spoil.”

v 28…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 (and the future will prove the prophetic nature of these blessings).

v 29…Then he charged them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite;

v 30…in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site (this description is very explicit so that there would be no mistake about the place, or that a dispute might arise by the descendants of Ephron claiming the place).

v 31…There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah,

v 32…the field and the cave that is in it, purchased from the sons of Heth.”

v 33…When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet (he is done with his earthly walk) into the bed (he had been sitting up, and now he lies down) and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people (this shows that it was not the burial of his body that is meant here, but his spirit/soul joined his fathers in Abraham’s Bosom, or “paradise”-Luke 16.22; 23.43).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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