Genesis 49

Chapter context

What is happening in Genesis 49?

creationfallcovenantpromise

Genesis 49 belongs to the late movement of the book, especially the section often described as the Joseph narrative and Israel’s descent into Egypt. Genesis opens the whole Bible with creation, fall, flood, Babel, and the long patriarchal story that carries the reader from Eden to Egypt. Read this chapter with the wider themes of creation, fall, and covenant in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.

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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Glossary

Reuben Person v. 3: Behold a son!, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah ( Gen. 29:32 ). His sinful conduct, referred to in Gen. 35:22 , brought down upon him his dying father’s malediction (48:4).
Levi Person v. 5: Adhesion. (1. ) The third son of Jacob by Leah. The origin of the name is found in Leah’s words ( Gen. 29:34 ).
Simeon Person v. 5: Hearing. (1. ) The second son of Jacob by Leah ( Gen. 29:33 ). He was associated with Levi in the terrible act of vengeance against Hamor and the Shechemites (34:25, 26).
Bow Tribe v. 8, 24: The bow was in use in early times both in war and in the chase ( Gen. 21:20 ; 27:3 ; 48:22 ). The tribe of Benjamin were famous for the use of the bow ( 1 Chr. 8:40 ; 12:2 ; 2 Chr. 14:8 ; 17:17 ); so also were the Elamites.
Shiloh Place v. 10: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Khirbet Seilun.
Sidon Place v. 13: A fishery, a town on the Mediterranean coast, about 25 miles north of Tyre. It received its name from the “first-born” of Canaan, the grandson of Noah ( Gen. 10:15 , 19). Modern identification: Sandikli archaeological site in Sidon.
Zebulun Person v. 13: Dwelling, the sixth and youngest son of Jacob and Leah ( Gen. 30:20 ). Little is known of his personal history. He had three sons (46:14).
Gad Person v. 19: Fortune; luck. (1. ) Jacob’s seventh son, by Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, and the brother of Asher ( Gen. 30:11-13 ; 46:16 , 18). In the Authorized Version of 30:11 the words, “A troop cometh: and she called,” etc.
Naphtali Person v. 21: My wrestling, the fifth son of Jacob. His mother was Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid ( Gen. 30:8 ). When Jacob went down into Egypt, Naphtali had four sons ( Gen. 46:24 ). Little is known of him as an individual.
Benjamin Person v. 27: Son of my right hand. (1. ) The younger son of Jacob by Rachel ( Gen. 35:18 ). His birth took place at Ephrath, on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem, at a short distance from the latter place.
Abraham Person v. 30-31: Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named ( Gen. 11:27 ) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises.
Canaan Place v. 30: Biblical region. Modern identification: Canaan.
Machpelah Place v. 30: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Cave of the Patriarchs.
Mamre Place v. 30: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Ramat el Khalil.
Isaac Person v. 31: Laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes ( Amos 7:9 , 16). (2. ) The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest lived of the three patriarchs ( Gen. 21:1-3 ).
Leah Person v. 31: Weary, the eldest daughter of Laban, and sister of Rachel ( Gen. 29:16 ). Jacob took her to wife through a deceit of her father ( Gen. 29:23 ). She was “tender-eyed” (17).
Rebekah Person v. 31: A noose, the daughter of Bethuel, and the wife of Isaac ( Gen. 22:23 ; 24:67 ). The circumstances under which Abraham’s “steward” found her at the “city of Nahor,” in Padan-aram, are narrated in Gen. 24-27.
Sarah Person v. 31: Princess, the wife and at the same time the half-sister of Abraham ( Gen. 11:29 ; 20:12 ). This name was given to her at the time that it was announced to Abraham that she should be the mother of the promised child.