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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 49:19 - 49:28
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Prophecy upon Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin
v. 19. Gad, a troop shall overcome him; but he shall overcome at the last. The picture is that of a person crowded by malicious hordes, who nevertheless manages not only to hold his own, but even to turn upon the masses and drive them away. The tribe of Gad, living on the eastern side of the Jordan, was harassed more or less by the desert hordes, but managed to hold its own very successfully, 1Ch_5:18; 1Ch_12:8-15.
v. 20. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties, shall produce pleasant foods. The fat which he would bring forth on his very fertile land in the plains toward Phenicia, would be his bread, for the country was noted for the excellence of its wheat and of its olive-oil.
v. 21. Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words. In comparing Naphtali to a gazelle, Jacob predicts that he will be both a handsome and an active warrior. The fine words probably include such poems as that sung by Deborah, Judges 4, 5.
v. 22. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. Here the prophetic song of Jacob rises to a solemn exultation. The descendants of Joseph would increase so rapidly in their territory that they would soon extend beyond their own boundaries into the neighboring tribes.
v. 23. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him;
v. 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). Here the powerful and victorious growth of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh is pictured, in consequence of which all enemies would be overcome. This result, however, would not come about by their own power, but through the help of the mighty God of Jacob, by virtue of the assisting hands of God, who is both the Shepherd and the Rock of Israel.
v. 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. Rains from heaven above and sufficient water from springs and brooks to give the necessary moisture to the soil and the greatest fertility for all his herds, that is the blessing which Jacob begs from the Lord for his beloved son.
v. 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. The blessings of Jacob upon Joseph exceeded in extent and compass those of his fathers before him, rising higher than the eternal hills and surpassing them in beauty. Such a rich outward unfolding was to come upon him who excelled his brethren in dignity and power, on account of which he was separated from them by a wide gulf.
v. 27. Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. There would be no end to the successful raids of this warlike tribe, such men as Ehud, Saul, and Jonathan being members of it. At the same time, however, there would be ever present that nobility which would be willing to divide the spoil with the others.
v. 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. Not one was omitted in the blessing, although there was a big difference in the form and in the nature of the blessings.