“And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.”
When God shall bring you out of Egypt, and because that he speaketh of the Messiah, he nameth it the last days.
“Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:”
If thou hadst not lost thy birthright by thine offense. Begotten in my youth.
“Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch. thou shalt: Heb. do not thou excel he went: or, my couch is gone”
Cross references: : Gen. 32:22 ; 1 Chron. 5:1 Or, it ceased to be my bed.
“Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. instruments: or, their swords are weapons of violence”
Or, their swords were instruments of violence.
“O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. digged: or, houghed oxen”
Or, tongue: meaning that he neither consented to them in word nor thought. The Shechemites, Gen. 34:26 .
“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.”
For Levi had no part, and Simeon was under Judah, Josh. 19:1 , till God gave them the place of the Amalekites, 1 Chron. 4:43 .
“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.”
As was verified in David and Christ.
“Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?”
His enemies shall so fear him.
“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
Which is Christ the Messiah, the giver of prosperity who shall call the Gentiles to salvation. Or, Kingdom.
“Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:”
A country most abundant with vines and pastures is promised him.
“Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:”
His force shall be great, but he shall want courage to resist his enemies. Hebrew, an ass of great bones .
“Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.”
Shall have the honor of a tribe.
“I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.”
Seeing the miseries that his posterity should fall into, he bursteth out in prayer to God to remedy it.
“Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.”
He shall abound in corn and pleasant fruits.
“Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.”
Overcoming more by fair words than by force.
“Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: branches: Heb. daughters”
Hebrew, a son of increase . Hebrew, daughters .
“The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:”
As his brethren when they were his enemies, Potiphar and others.
“The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.”
Inasmuch as he was more near to the accomplishment of the promise, and it had been more often confirmed. Either in dignity, or when he was sold from his brethren.
“And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.”
Whereby is signified how quietly he died.