Chapter 49

MSB says this about the chapter:  "...the father's blessing portrayed the future history of each son, seemingly based upon their characters up to that time.  The Cryptic nature of the poetry demands rigorous analysis for correlating tribal history with Jacob's last word and testament.  See Moses' blessing on the tribes in Dt. 33, ca 1405 BC."  I want to book mark this passage so I can come back to it in the future when I read about a certain tribe.

Jacob then goes on to bless the rest of his sons. He is very specific about their futures:

Reuben - firstborn, but will not have the preeminence because he went to his father's bed and defiled it when he slept with the mother of some of his brothers.  He had slept with one of his father's concubines.  This may be the first time Reuben learns that his father knew about it all along.  Jacob calls Reuben "unstable as water".  MSB points out that this sin against his father erased Reuben's place as the one to get the double portion.  Instead, the second son receives it.  So this is what Jacob meant by crossing his hands when he blessed Ephraim and Manasseh.  MSB says not one judge, prophet, military leader, or other important person came from this tribe.  Moses even prayed that the tribe of Reuben wouldn't die out completely.

Simeon and Levi are talked about together - Violent men.  Jacob wants nothing to do with them.  They killed men and hamstrung oxen over the rape of their sister at Shechem.  They brought down anger and bad feeling on Jacob and the whole family because of their anger.  They endangered the whole family by indulging their anger at that time.  Jacob has not forgotten what they did, and is aware of the underlying violent tendencies that prompted it.  Apparently they went far beyond justice and indulged their own violent tendencies.  Jacob curses their anger because it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel.  They are to be scattered in Israel.  Hmm...the Levites end up as keepers of the temple, but they don't really own land.  They don't inherit the way the other tribes do.  Don't know much about Simeon's share...

Per MSB, Simeon has become the smallest tribe in Israel by the time of the census in Numbers 26.  Moses did not bless this tribe in Dt. 33.  They later had to share territory with Judah.  Levi was "scattered" in the sense that they were priests all over the land.  They had no land of their own, and so were "dispersed".

Judah:  The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet.  His brothers will bow down to him.  He will bind his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine.   (Jesus entered Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey.  This is a long time before that happens! - 2020, MSB says that isn't what this means.  Letting a donkey eat from a choice grape vine is a sign of affluence and plenty.  There's enough "choice" that even the livestock get the good stuff.) 

2024 - Don't really get the whole "Shiloh" reference.  MSB says Shiloh is "the cryptogram for the Messiah".  I don't know what that means either and  he explains it no further.  I found this article - which doesn't mention cryptograms but does give some information on the interpretation of this verse:

/https://defendinginerrancy.com/bible-solutions/Genesis_49.10.php

And here's the Merriam-Webster definition:

cryptogram noun

cryp·to·gram                                                                                                                                                          1  : a communication in cipher or code                                                                           

2  : a figure or representation having a hidden significance                                                                           

2025 - This is the only place in the OT that this Hebrew word is used.  It looks like this:

שִׁילֹה

BLB says it is an epithet of the Messiah.  Maybe means peace.  Wonder how it relates to "Salem"?  Here is what that word looks like:

שָׁלֵם

Very similar if you don't have the cantillation marks.  Perhaps it is in this sense that it is a cryptogram?  Here is the Merriam Webster definition that I think applies here for epithet:  a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing.  You can see the similarity between cryptogram and code. 

Zebulun:  Will dwell at the seashore.  Perhaps his descendants are to be fishermen.  His border will be at Sidon.  Does that come out that way?  MSB says they were not in fact on the seashore, but were so placed as to benefit from the trade routes coming from there.

Issachar is a strong donkey.  He bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor.  After seeing that the land was pleasant.  Issachar's descendants become workers, and laborers for wages per MSB.

Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.  He will be a serpent in the way, a viper that bites the horses heels so the rider falls backwards.  Per MSB Dan later abandons its land allotment and moves to the extreme north of Israel.  From Beersheba to Dan is a phrase that was used to encompass all of Israel.  Dan is omitted from the list of tribes in Rev. 7:4-8.  Wow.  I didn't realize that.

Gad:  Raiders shall raid Gad and he will raid at their heels.

Asher:  His food shall be rich.

Naphtali: a doe that bears beautiful fawns.

Joseph: A fruitful bough by a spring.  Jacob recounts many blessings for Joseph, far beyond anything he's said to the others.  I don't quite get this verse:

24 yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), [Gen 49:24 ESV]

This seems to be a messianic reference.  Yet Jesus did not come from Joseph's descendants, but from Judah's. 

Benjamin:  A ravenous wolf.  Devouring prey in the morning, dividing the spoil at evening.  Saul is from this tribe.  Gibeah was inhabited by Benjamites, and they defended it in spite of the evil that occurred there.  They were warlike beyond reason, defending themselves against all comers, with no regard for justice.  The apostle Paul is also from this tribe.  Rachel died giving birth to him, and he and Joseph were Jacob's favorites.  Yet Jacob knows this about Benjamin.

So Judah and Joseph are the only ones who seem to receive a favorable outlook for their posterity.

Jacob gives last orders as to where to bury him.  Notable that in the cave where he wants to be buried are Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah.  But Rachel, his favorite, is elsewhere.  Only his first wife is buried with him.  Once he's given these orders, Jacob pulls up his feet, lays down in the bed, and breathes his last.  He knew.