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, ( Hebrews 1:1 ) and
Nachmanides 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 F24, 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 F25 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.