Moreover, I have given to thee one portion above
thy
brethren
The word for "portion" is "Shechem", and which some take to be,
not an appellative, as we do, but the name of a city, even
Shechem; so the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi interpret it; and
though that is not directly meant, yet there is a reference had
to it, and it seems to be enigmatically understood; for this
portion or parcel spoken of was near to Shechem, and not only
that, but the city itself, and all the adjacent country, came to
the lot of Ephraim, and were possessed by that tribe: which
I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with
my
bow;
not referring, as some think, to the taking and spoiling of the
city of Shechem by his sons, and so said to be done by him in
them; for Jacob would never make that his act and deed, which he
so much abhorred and detested, and still did, as appears by what
he says of it in the following chapter; nor was this taken from
the Amorite, but from the Hivite, and not by his sword and bow,
whether taken literally or metaphorically, and so interpreted of
his prayer and supplication, as by Onkelos; but he was so far
from assisting in that affair by supplication, that his
imprecations fell on Levi and Simeon, for that fact of theirs: if
this is to be understood of the city of Shechem, what Aben Ezra
and Ben Gersom propose seems most agreeable, that this is said by
way of anticipation, the past tense being put for the future;
Jacob, under a spirit of prophecy, foreseeing and declaring that
his sons, and he in his sons in future time, would take it out of
the hands of the Amorites, the principal of the Canaanitish
nations, and then it should be given to Joseph's seed; but the
first and special regard is to the part or parcel of ground which
lay near Shechem; and this Jacob is said to take by his sword and
bow, which some interpret of his money, which were his arms and
defence, and which he had got by much labour; and if it could be
proved that his money was marked with a sword and bow upon it, as
the Persian Darics were with an archer with his bow and arrow,
and therefore called sagittaries or archers F21, it
would countenance this sense; though even then it could not with
propriety be said that he by this means obtained it of the
Amorite, since he bought it of the children of Hamor the Hivite;
but it seems more likely, that after Jacob departed from Shechem
to Hebron, the Amorite came and seized on this parcel of ground;
which he hearing of, went with his sons and servants, and
recovered it out of their hands by his sword and bow; though this
warlike action of his is nowhere recorded in Scripture, the
Jewish writers F23 say, that Jacob and his sons had
very grievous war with the Amorites on account of the slaughter
and captivity of the Shechemites: by giving to Joseph this
portion above his brethren, it appears that the birthright was
become his, he having the double portion, and indeed all that
Jacob had of his own in the land of Canaan; and hence Joseph's
bones were buried here, it being his own ground; see ( Joshua 24:32
) ( John 4:5 )
.
F21 Vid. Heidegger. Hist. Patriarch. tom. 2. Exercit. 22. sect. 12. p. 690.
F23 Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 5. 1.