Genesis 49:2-27

2 Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father.

3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, principal in dignity, and the principal in power.

4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not be principal because thou didst go up to thy father’s bed; then thou became defiled, going up to my couch.

5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of injustice are their weapons.

6 Let my soul not enter into their secret; nor let my honour join their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their own will they dug down a wall.

7 Cursed be their anger, which is strong, and their wrath, which is hard; I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s sons shall bow down before thee.

9 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?

10 The sceptre shall not be taken from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

11 Binding his foal unto the vine and his ass’s colt unto the choice roots; he washed his garments in wine and his covering in the blood of grapes;

12 His eyes red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

13 Zebulun shall dwell at the port of the sea; and he shall be for a port of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.

14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens;

15 and he saw that rest was good and the land that it was pleasant and bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant unto tribute.

16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

18 I have waited for thy saving health, O LORD.

19 Gad, an army shall invade him, but he shall invade at the last.

20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield delight unto the king.

21 Naphtali is a hind let loose, who shall give forth a good word.

22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a fountain, whose daughters run over the wall.

23 The arches have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him;

24 but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty one of Jacob; from there did the stone of Israel shepherd,

25 by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the deep that lies under, with blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

26 The blessings of thy father were greater than the blessings of my progenitors; unto the borders of the eternal hills they shall be upon the head of Joseph and on the crown of the Nazarite of his brethren.

27 Benjamin, ravening wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil.

Genesis 49:2-27 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 49

This chapter contains a prophecy of future things, relating to the twelve sons of Jacob, and to the twelve tribes, as descending from them, and which he delivered to his sons on his death bed, having called them together for that purpose, Ge 49:1,2, he begins with Reuben his firstborn, whose incest he takes notice of, on which account he should not excel, Ge 49:3,4, next Simeon and Levi have a curse denounced on them for their cruelty at Shechem, Ge 49:5,6, but Judah is praised, and good things prophesied of him; and particularly that Shiloh, or the Messiah, should spring from him, the time of whose coming is pointed at, Ge 49:7-12, the predictions concerning Zebulun, Issachar, and Dan, follow, at the close of which Jacob expresses his longing expectation of God's salvation, Ge 49:13-18 and after foretelling what should befall Gad, Asher, and Naphtali, Ge 49:19-21, a large account is given of Joseph, his troubles, his trials, and his blessings, Ge 49:22-26, and Benjamin the youngest son is taken notice of last of all, all the tribes being blessed in their order according to the nature of their blessing, Ge 49:27,28, and the chapter is closed with a charge of Jacob's to his sons to bury him in Canaan, which having delivered, he died, Ge 49:29-33.