49:1Then Jacob called for his sons and said: "Gather round so that I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. 2Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.3"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. 4Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it.
5"Simeon and Levi are brothers--their swords are weapons of violence. 6Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. 7Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.
8"Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons will bow down to you. 9You are a lion's cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse him? 10The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. 11He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.
13"Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend towards Sidon.
14"Issachar is a scrawny donkey lying down between two saddlebags. 15When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor.
16"Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 17Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider tumbles backwards.
18"I look for your deliverance, O LORD.
19"Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels.
20"Asher's food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.
21"Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.
22"Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. 23With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. 24But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed supple, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb. 26Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
27"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder."
In this issue, we finish looking at Jacob's prophecies concerning his sons, and the tribes that will spring from them. In the previous two issues, we looked at Jacob's prophecies concerning his two adopted sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and concerning the first six of his natural sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun and Issachar. Here we look at the prophecies about the six remaining sons, and the tribes they would father:
Dan: "Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider tumbles backwards. I look for your deliverance, O LORD" (vss. 16-18). Jacob speaks first of the "justice for his people" that Dan will provide. This is a pun on the name "Dan", which means "judge". The prophecy concerning justice also, quite possibly, refers to the most famous of all the judges in Israel, Samson, who came from the tribe of Dan (see Judges 13). Next, Jacob speaks of Dan as a "serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider tumbles backwards." These are not very positive words to say about the tribe of Dan. This quite possibly refers to the fact that Dan was the first tribe that brought idolatry into the land (see Judges 18:30), causing the Danites, as well as those around them, to "tumble backwards".
It is perhaps because Dan becomes a "serpent" and "viper" that the tribe of Dan seems to get subtly slighted throughout the Bible. For instance, the tribe of Dan was the last in the procession when the tribes marched from place to place (see Num. 2:31), it was the last to receive a portion of the promised land (see Josh. 19:40-49), its genealogy is omitted from the extensive genealogy in I Chron. 1-9. Perhaps most significantly, the tribe of Dan is omitted from the list of the twelve tribes which make up the 144,000 sealed from harm in the last days (see Rev. 7:4-8). Instead, the half-tribe of Manasseh is included, even though the tribe of Joseph is also included. The omission of Dan as part of the 144,000 has led some to believe that the beast described in Revelation (popularly known as the anti-christ) will come from the tribe of Dan. Whether this will be the case or not, we do not yet know, but for some reason, the prophecy Jacob saw concerning Dan caused him to pray: "I look for your deliverance, O LORD" (vs. 18).
Gad: "Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels" (vs. 19). Gad was one of the tribes who chose to stay on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead (see Num. 32), rather than cross the Jordan and be with the other tribes within the promised land. Because of this, they were isolated from the other tribes, and thus, were subject to attacks by border raiders (see Judg. 10:8; Judg. 11:4; I Chron. 5:18ff; Jer. 49:1). The tribes east of the Jordan, including Gad, were the first to be taken into captivity (I Chron. 5:26).
Asher: "Asher's food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king" (vs. 20). Asher was allotted the coastal area in the north of the promised land, towards Tyre. This area was known for its delicacies: wheat, olive oil, wine, milk and butter (see Deut. 33:24-25; I Kings 5:11).
Naphtali: "Naphtali is a doe set free that ears beautiful fawns" (vs. 21). The "doe set free", in the Bible, is often a simile for a swift warrior (see II Sam. 2:18; I Chron. 12:8; Ps. 18:33; Hab. 3:19). The only possible fulfillment of this for Naphtali that has been recorded in the Bible was when Barak, at Deborah's request, took troops from Naphtali and Zebulun to fight against Sisera's army (see Judges 4-5).
Joseph: "Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed supple, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb. Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers" (vss. 22-26). Since Jacob has already prophesied about the sons of Joseph (see Gen. 48:15-20), and the tribes that will spring from Ephraim and Manasseh, here Jacob does not so much prophesy over Joseph as give him a traditional death-bed blessing. Jacob speaks of Joseph's perseverence and uprightness through adversity. Though Joseph was persecuted and imprisoned, he was a "fruitful vine", a blessing to those who persecuted him. The blessings he brought overflowed to all those around him, even to other nations, as "his branches climbed over a wall." Despite the fact that "archers attacked him... shot at him with hostility", through all his distress and persecution "his bow remained steady". Joseph was able to remain steady, because of the blessings of God, "because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of [his] father's God, who helped [him], because of the Almighty, who blessed [him] with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb." Joseph would be the first to agree that his steadiness was due to the faithfulness of God to him. Jacob ends by bestowing the full measure of his own blessings upon Joseph: "Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers."
Benjamin: "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunders" (vs. 27). This prophecy of Jacob concerning his beloved son Benjamin demonstrates that Jacob was speaking the truth of God, and not his own words. Jacob himself would not have desired to pronounce such a grim prophecy upon his much-loved youngest son. Yet, this is what he saw through the spirit of prophecy. And this prophecy turned out to be true. Throughout the Bible, there are many examples of the fierceness of the war-like tribe of Benjamin (see Judges 5:14; Judges 19:16ff; I Sam. 11:1ff; II Sam. 2:15,16; II Sam. 12:2; II Chron. 14:8; II Chron. 17:16). Three Benjamites noted for their fierceness were Ehud (see Judges 3:1-22), King Saul (see I Sam. 22:17-20, et. al.), and the apostle Paul (before he became a Christian, he violently persecuted the church, see Acts 9:1).
This section of the Bible, the prophecies of Jacob, are notable in that they prove very convincingly that the Bible is the word of God. Jacob, a mere man, or even Moses (who wrote the book of Genesis) could not have known so accurately the characters of the various tribes of Israel hundreds of years before Israel became a nation. Jacob was speaking by the Spirit of the only one who knows the end from the beginning, our Mighty God. May He be praised!
Father, we thank You that You have revealed Yourself in the Bible through the many astounding prophecies that are contained therein. Give us eyes to see Your wisdom, to rightly interpret what we read in Your Word, and help us, by Your Spirit, to apply what we read to our lives, and to proclaim Your greatness throughout the nations. In the name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray these things, Amen.
