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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 latter days. |
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| 2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father. |
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3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength;
The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
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4 Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence;
Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed
Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch. |
Thy father's bed – Thus forfeiting the chief blessing. R1635:5
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5 Simeon and Levi are brethren;
Weapons of violence are their swords.
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6 O my soul, come not thou into their council;
Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united;
For in their anger they slew a man,
And in their self-will they hocked an ox.
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Their secret – Their scheming. HG558:1
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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. |
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8 Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise:
Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies;
Thy father’s sons shall bow down before thee.
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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 a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
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10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh come;
And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
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The sceptre – The right to rule, the title to all power. B85, B87
The ruling power went to Judah. R2124:5; CR41:2
Shall not – Although kingly power was taken away from them in the days of king Zedekiah, nevertheless the scepter of authority remained with them. HG428:3
Depart from Judah – Thus shown to be the ancestor of Christ. A42
Nor a lawgiver – The great Deliverer, Christ. B86
Between his feet – Loins. B86, HG48:3
Until Shiloh – The great peacemaker, "The Prince of Peace." B86
And unto him – At the expiration of the Times of the Gentiles. B87
God kept Israel together as a people until Christ came. R1373:2
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11 Binding his foal unto the vine,
And his ass’s colt unto the choice vine;
He hath washed his garments in wine,
And his vesture in the blood of grapes:
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12 His eyes shall be red with wine,
And his teeth white with milk. |
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13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the seas;
And he shall be for a haven of ships;
And his border shall be unto Sidon. |
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14 Issachar is a strong ass,
Couching down between the two sheepfolds:
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15 And he saw a resting-place that it was good,
And the land that it was pleasant;
And he bowed his shoulder to bear,
And became a servant under task-work. |
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16 Dan shall judge his people,
As one of the tribes of Israel.
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17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
An adder in the path,
That biteth the horse’s heels,
So that his rider falleth backward.
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| 18 I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah. |
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19 Gad, a troop shall press upon him;
But he shall press upon their heel. |
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20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,
And he shall yield royal dainties. |
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21 Naphtali is a hind let loose:
He giveth goodly words. |
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22 Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a fountain;
His branches run over the wall.
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Run over the wall – The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's descendants, took up about one-half of the land of Canaan and in addition large branches or tracts of land "over the wall," or river of Jordan, on its east bank. R2124:6
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23 The archers have sorely grieved him,
And shot at him, and persecuted him:
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Sorely grieved him – Not a prophecy, but a reference to Joseph's past experiences. R2125:1
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24 But his bow abode in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong,
By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
(From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),
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From thence Is – By the name of. R2125:1
Stone – A supernatural power, heavenly, divine -- the Messianic Kingdom. R3359:4
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25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee,
And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee,
With the blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath,
Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
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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. |
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27 Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth:
In the morning he shall devour the prey,
And in evening he shall divide the spoil. |
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| 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. |
Tribes of Israel – First so called after Jacob's death. A78; B213; HG54:3
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| 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, |
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| 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 from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. |
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| 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah |
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| 32 the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth. |
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| 33 And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the breath, and was gathered unto his people. |
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