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NOTES for Gen 49:1-33

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1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
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, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: 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 in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children 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 depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; 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 vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven 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 biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers 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 God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of thy father have 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 separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
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Today's reading is nothing other than an ancient prophecy, spoken by an unknown prophet to each of the twelve Hebrew tribes and placed by tradition on the lips of Jacob himself. Of course, in principle one cannot exclude that this prophecy was in fact spoken by Jacob himself. Still, it should be noted that the Bible portrays Jacob more as a man endowed with the gift of prophetic dreams than as a prophet in the traditional sense of the word for those times, which Jacob still did not very closely resemble. Sometimes, however, the prophetic gift manifested itself in people from whom no one expected it. In any case, one thing is clear: the historical destiny of each of the twelve Hebrew tribes is foretold here as something immutable and planned by God in advance. And then the question arises: to what extent are all historical events and turns planned in advance at all? And what, in that case, is the role of the human person in history? The question is not idle: in this case, as in any other, the measure of freedom determines the measure of responsibility. One cannot demand responsibility from a person for what is not within his power. Yet even the prophecy we find in today's passage, concerning of course not all humanity but only the people of God, already forces us to suppose that predetermination is not so simple. Certainly the role of each of the twelve tribes is described here rather strictly. But at the same time we often see indications of the tribal characteristics that condition God's choice of this or that place in the life and history of the people of God for the corresponding tribe. One cannot place at the head of the people someone who is unable to restrain his fury (vv. 5-6); power should not be left to someone who has no self-control and cannot observe elementary moral norms (vv. 3-4). Certain tribal characteristics and inclinations are also taken into account: to one falls the sea as an inheritance (v. 13), to another fertile lands (v. 20), and another will have to fight many battles (v. 19). To each his own, and in this case hardly any would want to trade places and occupations with others. But if so, then the role and place of each tribe is determined not by God's decision alone; this decision, as is clear, is made with regard to what this or that tribe has become in God's eyes. And this, naturally, depends not only on God but also on man.

Other notes

 
For Gen 49:1-33
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
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, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: 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 in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children 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 depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; 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 vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven 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 biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers 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 God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of thy father have 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 separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
Hide
We will hardly be able to understand the meaning of all these prophecies, since we know very little about the future of all the tribes; in the biblical stories the discussion will, for the most part, concern...  Read more

We will hardly be able to understand the meaning of all these prophecies, since we know very little about the future of all the tribes; in the biblical stories the discussion will, for the most part, concern the main tribes: Judah, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin.

But we can see that God, who sees the present and future of every person and every people, reveals His design, one because this world is one, and varied because of the multitude of characters who take part in this design. Before His gaze lies the history of each of us, just as the history of each of Jacob's sons lies before Him, aiming like an arrow into a future that has not yet come to pass, toward the time of meeting with the Creator and the main Actor in this history, when the One in whom the nations hope will come...

Hide
 
For Gen 49:1-33
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
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, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: 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 in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children 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 depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; 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 vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven 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 biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers 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 God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of thy father have 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 separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
Hide
Jacob's prophecy, included in the story that biblical scholars call the Joseph novella, came after it had already been written, during the final editing...  Read more

Jacob's prophecy, included in the story that biblical scholars call the Joseph novella, came after it had already been written, during the final editing of the Pentateuch. Was this accidental? Hardly: the editing was done by an author who had his own vision of all the texts he was working with and a clear design for the whole composition. If he includes an ancient prophecy in the narrative, he does not do it by chance. It is a parting charge to the people of God just coming to birth, a charge from the founder of the union of the twelve tribes as he completes his earthly journey.

A charge in which there is also foresight of each one's destiny. Still, this is not merely foresight of the kind sometimes found in people who perceive pictures of future reality. Each time, an obvious connection can be seen between particular traits or inclinations in one of Jacob's children and the destiny of his descendants. The Bible, after all, has no concept of doom, fate, or fatal destiny. There is no place for fatalism with God. The future of a person and his descendants is determined by the choice that person makes here and now.

Choices and actions form habits, habits set the main features of character, and character determines the path of life not only for the person himself; many character traits and the psychological features connected with them are even inherited, so that descendants too will have to face the results of the decisions their ancestors made and the fruits of their actions. Among the people of God there is also another factor: God's direct intervention in events.

God, of course, can intervene in them anywhere and at any time, but the history of the people of God is a special history; it is directed by God to a greater degree than the history of any other people. That is how the historical path of the people of God is determined: through God's work with specific people and whole communities, with all their features, and with all the consequences of everything once done, decided, or left undecided. To a person who does not know God, all this looks like fate: inevitable and inescapable. Here each person has his own name for it: for some, fate; for others, the will of God.

Hide
 
For Gen 49:2
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
Hide
We rarely listen to and rarely hear the voice of God. But it happens that we hear. The Lord speaks with us, and we begin to understand, what is His will for us. We meet Him, learn to rely on Him...  Read more

We rarely listen to and rarely hear the voice of God. But it happens that we hear. The Lord speaks with us, and we begin to understand, what is His will for us. We meet Him, learn to rely on Him. But if we meet Him only when we are alone and do not strain after the community, the Church, by our own will we stay in solitude, there is then a danger that at the time of temptation, in a certain difficult period of our life, we shall forget this meeting, shall stop fulfilling what God commanded us, and shall generally conclude that this Meeting appeared to us in dream.

But when we meet together in the Church, and God comes to us - His unique people and dwells within us, we can then always counsel each other, in case someone doubted: "God was among us that day". The Lord sometimes speaks with us through the sermon of the priest in our church. And if we are together, when one of us does amiss, the other one can remind him/her the words of the sermon, we heard together. The Word listened together, can strengthen more, than something which was revealed to us in solitude, although it is not always so. “Gather yourselves together, and hear”.

Hide
 
For Gen 49:2
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
Hide
We rarely listen for and rarely hear God's voice. But sometimes we do hear it. The Lord speaks with us, and we begin to understand what His will is for us. We meet Him, learn to trust Him. But if we meet Him only when we...  Read more

We rarely listen for and rarely hear God's voice. But sometimes we do hear it. The Lord speaks with us, and we begin to understand what His will is for us. We meet Him, learn to trust Him. But if we meet Him only when we are alone and do not seek the community, the Church, if by our own choice we remain alone, there is a danger that in a moment of temptation, in some difficult period of our life, we will forget that meeting, stop doing what God commanded us, or even decide that this Meeting was only a dream.

But when in the Church we gather together, and the Lord comes to us, to His one people, and remains among us, we can always bear witness to one another if someone has doubts: "The Lord was among us that day." Sometimes the Lord speaks to us through the priest's sermon in our church. And if we are together, when one of us acts badly, another can remind him of the words of the sermon we heard together. A word heard together can give more strength than something that was revealed to us in solitude, though this is not always so. "Gather together and listen."

Hide
 
For Gen 49:2
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
Hide
The blessing of the tribes of Israel is testimony to God's superhuman faithfulness to His promises...  Read more

The blessing of the tribes of Israel is testimony to God's superhuman faithfulness to His promises. Judah was promised that the Messiah would descend from him, and that is exactly what happened. Yet if we carefully read Jesus' genealogy in the Gospel according to Matthew, such faithfulness to His promises becomes anything but self-evident. These were ordinary people, like everyone else, who over the course of generations amassed every sin available to humankind. Like us, they were not restrained by the fact that they would become relatives of the Savior. And yet He still came to earth; He consented to become a blood relative of all these people, and then of all of us.

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