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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 49:13 - 49:13
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Zebulun, to the shore of the ocean will he dwell, and indeed (וְהוּא isque) towards the coast of ships, and his side towards Zidon (directed up to Zidon).” This blessing on Leah's sixth son interprets the name Zebulun (i.e., dwelling) as an omen, not so much to show the tribe its dwelling-place in Canaan, as to point out the blessing which it would receive from the situation of its inheritance (compare Deu 33:19). So far as the territory allotted to the tribe of Zebulun under Joshua can be ascertained from the boundaries and towns mentioned in Jos 19:10-16, it neither reached to the Mediterranean, nor touched directly upon Zidon (see my Comm. on Joshua). It really lay between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean, near to both, but separated from the former by Naphtali, from the latter by Asher. So far was this announcement, therefore, from being a vaticinium ex eventu taken from the geographical position of the tribe, that it contains a decided testimony to the fact that Jacob's blessing was not written after the time of Joshua. יַמִּים denotes, not the two seas mentioned above, but, as Jdg 5:17 proves, the Mediterranean, as a great ocean (Gen 1:10). “The coast of ships:” i.e., where ships are unloaded, and land the treasures of the distant parts of the world for the inhabitants of the maritime and inland provinces (Deu 33:19). Zidon, as the old capital, stands for Phoenicia itself.