I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.
]. Jacob finding his spirits faint and flag, stops and breathes
awhile before he proceeded any further in blessing the tribes;
and as he found he was a dying man, and knew not how soon he
should expire, expresses what he had been thoughtful of and
concerned about in time past, and still was; that he had been
waiting and hoping for, and expecting a state of happiness and
bliss in another world, where he should be saved from sin and
Satan, and the world, and from all his enemies, and out of all
his troubles; and this he firmly believed he should enjoy, and
hoped it would not be long ere he did; and especially he may have
a regard to the Messiah, the promised Saviour, and salvation by
him he had knowledge of, faith in, and expectation of; who may be
truly called the salvation of God, because of his contriving,
providing, and appointing, whom he had promised and spoken of by
all the prophets; and whom in the fulness of time he would send
into the world to work out salvation for his people; and to him
all the Targums apply the words, which are to this purpose:
``said our father Jacob, not for the salvation of Gideon, the son of Joash, which is a temporal salvation, do I wait; nor for the salvation of Samson the son of Manoah, which is a transitory salvation; but for the salvation of Messiah the son of David, (which is an everlasting one,) who shall bring the children of Israel to himself, and his salvation my soul desireth:''and though Jacob might be affected with the evils he foresaw would rise up in the tribe of Dan, he had last mentioned, and with the troubles that should come upon all the tribes; and had some pleasing sights of the deliverances and salvations, that should be wrought for them, by judges and saviours that should be raised up; yet his chief view was to the Messiah, and salvation by him.