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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 49:22 - 49:22
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Turning to Joseph, the patriarch's heart swelled with grateful love, and in the richest words and figures he implored the greatest abundance of blessings upon his head.
Gen 49:22
“Son of a fruit-tree is Joseph, son of a fruit-tree at the well, daughters run over the wall.” Joseph is compared to the branch of a fruit-tree planted by a well (Psa 1:3), which sends it shoots over the wall, and by which, according to Ps 80, we are probably to understand a vine. בֵּן an unusual form of the construct state for בֶּן, and פֹּרָת equivalent to פֹּרִיָּה with the old feminine termination ath, like זִמְרָת, Exo 15:2. - בָּנֹות are the twigs and branches, formed by the young fruit-tree. The singular צָעֲדָה is to be regarded as distributive, describing poetically the moving forward, i.e., the rising up of the different branches above the wall (Ges. §146, 4). עֲלֵי, a poetical form, as in Gen 49:17.
Gen 49:23-24
“Archers provoke him, and shoot and hate him; but his bow abides in strength, and the arms of his hands remain pliant, from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, from thence, from the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.” From the simile of the fruit-tree Jacob passed to a warlike figure, and described the mighty and victorious unfolding of the tribe of Joseph in conflict with all its foes, describing with prophetic intuition the future as already come (vid., the perf. consec.). The words are not to be referred to the personal history of Joseph himself, to persecutions received by him from his brethren, or to his sufferings in Egypt; still less to any warlike deeds of his in Egypt (Diestel): they merely pointed to the conflicts awaiting his descendants, in which they would constantly overcome all hostile attacks. מָרַר: Piel, to embitter, provoke, lacessere. רֹבּוּ: perf. o from רָבַב to shoot. בְּאֵיתָן: “in a strong, unyielding position” (Del.). פָּזַז: to be active, flexible; only found here, and in 2Sa 6:16 of a brisk movement, skipping or jumping. זְרֹעֵי: the arms, “without whose elasticity the hands could not hold or direct the arrow.” The words which follow, “from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,” are not to be linked to what follows, in opposition to the Masoretic division of the verses; they rather form one sentence with what precedes: “pliant remain the arms of his hands from the hands of God,” i.e., through the hands of God supporting them. “The Mighty One of Jacob,” He who had proved Himself to be the Mighty One by the powerful defence afforded to Jacob; a title which is copied from this passage in Isa 1:24, etc. “From thence,” an emphatic reference to Him, from whom all perfection comes - “from the Shepherd (Gen 48:15) and Stone of Israel.” God is called “the Stone,” and elsewhere “the Rock” (Deu 32:4, Deu 32:18, etc.), as the immoveable foundation upon which Israel might trust, might stand firm and impregnably secure.
Gen 49:25-26
“From the God of thy father, may He help thee, and with the help of the Almighty, may He bless thee, (may there come) blessings of heaven from above, blessings of the deep, that lieth beneath, blessings of the breast and of the womb. The blessing of thy father surpass the blessings of my progenitors to the border of the everlasting hills, may they come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the illustrious among his brethren.” From the form of a description the blessing passes in Gen 49:25 into the form of a desire, in which the “from” of the previous clause is still retained. The words “and may He help thee,” “may He bless thee,” form parentheses, for “who will help and bless thee.” וְאֵת is neither to be altered into וְאֵל (and from God), as Ewald suggests, in accordance with the lxx, Sam., Syr., and Vulg., nor into מֵאֵת as Knobel proposes; and even the supplying of מִן before אֵת from the parallel clause (Ges. §154, 4) is scarcely allowable, since the repetition of מִן before another preposition cannot be supported by any analogous case; but אֵת may be understood here, as in Gen 4:1; Gen 5:24, in the sense of helpful communion: “and with,” i.e., with (in) the fellowship of, “the Almighty, may He bless thee, let there be (or come) blessings,” etc. The verb תִּחְיֶיןָ follows in Gen 49:26 after the whole subject, which is formed of many parallel members. The blessings were to come from heaven above and from the earth beneath. From the God of Jacob and by the help of the Almighty should the rain and dew of heaven (Gen 27:28), and fountains and brooks which spring from the great deep or the abyss of the earth, pour their fertilizing waters over Joseph's land, “so that everything that had womb and breast should become pregnant, bring forth, and suckle.”
(Note: “Thus is the whole composed in pictorial words. Whatever of man and cattle can be fruitful shall multiply and have enough. Childbearing, and the increase of cattle, and of the corn in the field, are not our affair, but the mercy and blessing of God.” - Luther.)
הֹרִים from הָרָה signifies parentes (Chald., Vulg.); and תַּאֲוָה signifies not desiderium from אָוָה, but boundary from תָּאָה, Num 34:7-8, = תָּוָה, 1Sa 21:14; Eze 9:4, to mark or bound off, as most of the Rabbins explain it. עַל גָּבַר to be strong above, i.e., to surpass. The blessings which the patriarch implored for Joseph were to surpass the blessings which his parents transmitted to him, to the boundary of the everlasting hills, i.e., surpass them as far as the primary mountains tower above the earth, or so that they should reach to the summits of the primeval mountains. There is no allusion to the lofty and magnificent mountain-ranges of Ephraim, Bashan, and Gilead, which fell to the house of Joseph, either here or in Deu 33:15. These blessings were to descend upon the head of Joseph, the נָזִיר among his brethren, i.e., “the separated one,” from נָזַר separavit. Joseph is so designated, both here and Deu 33:16, not on account of his virtue and the preservation of his chastity and piety in Egypt, but propter dignitatem, qua excellit, ab omnibus sit segregatus (Calv.), on account of the eminence to which he attained in Egypt. For this meaning see Lam 4:7; whereas no example can be found of the transference of the idea of Nasir to the sphere of morality.