49:1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves
together, that I may tell you [that] which shall befall you
in the (a) last days.
(a) When God will bring you out of Egypt, and because he
speaks of the Messiah, he calls it the last days.
49:3 Reuben, thou [art] my firstborn, my b might, and the
beginning of my strength, c the excellency of dignity,
and the excellency of power:
(b) Begotten in my youth.
(c) If you have not left your birthright by your offence.
49:6 O my soul, come not thou into their d secret; unto their
assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their
anger they slew a e man, and in their selfwill they
digged down a wall.
(d) Or, tongue: meaning that he neither consented to them
in word or thought.
(e) The Shechemites (Ge 34:26).
49:7 Cursed [be] their anger, for [it was] fierce; and their
wrath, for it was cruel: I will f divide them in Jacob,
and scatter them in Israel.
(f) For Levi had no part, and Simeon was under Judah,
(Jos 19:1) till God gave them the place of the
Amalekites, (1Ch 4:43).
49:8 Judah, thou [art he] whom thy brethren shall praise: thy
hand [shall be] in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's
children shall g bow down before thee.
(g) As was verified in David and Christ.
49:9 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; h who shall rouse him up?
(h) His enemies will so fear him.
49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
from between his feet, until i Shiloh come; and unto him
[shall] the gathering of the people [be].
(i) Which is Christ the Messiah, the giver of prosperity
who will call the Gentiles to salvation.
49:11 Binding his foal unto the k vine, and his ass's colt
unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and
his clothes in the blood of grapes:
(k) A country most abundant with vines and pastures is
promised to him.
49:14 Issachar [is] l a strong ass couching down between two
burdens:
(l) His force will be great, but he will lack courage to
resist his enemies.
49:16 Dan m shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of
Israel.
(m) Shall have the honour of a tribe.
49:18o I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
(o) Seeing the miseries that his posterity would fall
into, he bursts out in prayer to God to remedy it.
49:20 Out of Asher his p bread [shall be] fat, and he shall
yield royal dainties.
(p) He will abound in corn and pleasant fruits.
49:21 Naphtali [is] a hind let loose: he giveth q goodly
words.
(q) Overcoming more by fair words than by force.
49:23r The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot [at
him], and hated him:
(r) As his brethren when they were his enemies, Potiphar
and others.
49:24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands
were made strong by the hands of the mighty [God] of
Jacob; (from thence [is] the shepherd, the s stone of
Israel:)
(s) That is God.
49:26 The blessings of thy father have t 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 u separate
from his brethren.
(t) In as much as he was closer to the accomplishment of
the promise and it had been more often confirmed.
(u) Either in dignity, or when he was sold from his
brethren.
49:33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he
x gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the
ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
