Genesis 49
Genesis 49:1 Jacob called his sons and told them, “Collect yourselves together, that I may tell you what will happen to you in days to come.
Genesis 49:2 “Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father.
Genesis 49:3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the first of my strength, greatest in dignity and greatest in power.
Genesis 49:4 Unstable as water, you will not have supremacy, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it – he went up to my couch!
Genesis 49:5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers; vessels of violence are their swords.
Genesis 49:6 My throat, do not come into their council; O my glory, do not be joined to their company. Because in their anger they killed men, and for their amusement they hamstrung oxen.
Genesis 49:7 Cursed be their anger, because it is violent, and their wrath, because it is brutal! I will divide them up among Jacob and scatter them throughout Israel.
Genesis 49:8 “Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down before you.
Genesis 49:9 Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched like a lion and like a lioness; who dares provoke him?
Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him will be the compliance of the peoples.
Genesis 49:11 While binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes.
Genesis 49:12 His eyes are dark from wine, and his teeth white from milk.
Genesis 49:13 “Zebulun will stay at the shore of the sea; he will become a safe place for ships, and his border will be with Sidon.
Genesis 49:14 “Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching among the sheepfolds.
Genesis 49:15 He saw that an undeveloped place was good, and that the land was nice, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a slave there, doing forced labor.
Genesis 49:16 “Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
Genesis 49:17 Dan will be a snake in the road, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls off backward.
Genesis 49:18 I wait for your deliverance, O Yahveh.
Genesis 49:19 “Raiders will raid Gad, but he will also raid at their heels.
Genesis 49:20 “Asher’s food will be rich, and he will produce royal delicacies.
Genesis 49:21 “Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns.
Genesis 49:22 “Joseph is a fruitful limb, a fruitful limb by a spring; his branches run over the wall.
Genesis 49:23 The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and hassled him severely,
Genesis 49:24 but his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made nimble by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (the Shepherd is from there, the Stone of Israel),
Genesis 49:25 by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that crouches below, blessings from the breasts and from the womb.
Genesis 49:26 The blessings of your father are mightier than the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the permanent hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
Genesis 49:27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil.”
Genesis 49:28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suited for him.
Genesis 49:29 Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is located in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
Genesis 49:30 in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham purchased with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
Genesis 49:31 There they had buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they had buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah-
Genesis 49:32 the field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”
Genesis 49:33 When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and expired and was gathered to his people.
Genesis 49 quotes:
“Simeon and Levi are here depicted together as forming a secret society for organized cruelty and crime. Their swords were red from violence. It was Jehovah’s purpose that the swords of Israel should be the swords of the Lord, or justice and divine retribution. Simeon separated himself from all sense of justice. His sword had degenerated into one which was controlled by whim and mere caprice. His ‘‘hatred’’ was cruel, leading to murder. His wrath brought a curse upon all. Simeon was a bully and a coward.”
Hardinge, Leslie. The Conquerors : Studies in the Characters of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Pacific Press, 1982. p. 31.
“It would seem that the dying words of Jacob were recorded, learned by heart and passed on from generation to generation until they became incorporated into the permanent record of Israel’s history of which Genesis 49 is a crucial part. There is no doubt that this chapter contains a poem which is among the oldest surviving pieces of literature in the whole world. It is quite remarkable and we must handle it with reverence and care.”
Searle, David C. Joseph : “His Arms Were Made Strong.” Banner of Truth Trust, 2012. p. 177.
“Reuben had enjoyed all the advantages of the firstborn, and in him were centred all his father’s hopes and aspirations. But he proved a great disappointment. The expression ‘turbulent as the waters’ suggests instability, indecisiveness and weakness, making him unfit for leadership. He showed this by committing incest with one of his father’s wives (Genesis 35:22). In later history no great leader ever emerged from the tribe of Reuben.”
Williams, Peter. From Eden to Egypt : Exploring the Genesis Themes. DayOne, 2001. p. 54.
Genesis 49 links:
“all live to him!”
“To be gathered to his people”
a legacy of justice and grace
ACST 61- The Advents
building up a spiritual legacy
Excursus- “To Be Gathered”
Jacob- blessing his sons, gathered to his people
last visit to Machpelah
Machpelah and the intermediate state
The consequences of separation
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