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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. XLIX.
This chapter is a prophecy; the likest to it we have yet met with
was that of Noah,
&c. Jacob is here upon his death-bed,
making his will. He put it off till now, because dying men’s
words are apt to make deep impressions, and to be remembered
long: what he said here, he could not say when he would, but as
the Spirit gave him utterance, who chose this time, that divine
strength might be perfected in his weakness. The twelve sons
of Jacob were, in their day, men of renown, but the twelve tribes
of Israel, which descended and were denominated from them,
were much more renowned; we find their names upon the gates
of the New Jerusalem,
In the prospect of this their
dying father says something remarkable of each son, or of the
tribe that bore his name. Here is,
I. The preface,
II. The prediction concerning each tribe,
III. The charge
repeated concerning his burial,
IV. His death,
| Jacob’s Prophecy Concerning His Sons. | B. C. 1689. |
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1 And Jacob called unto his sons,
and said, Gather yourselves
together, that I may tell you that which
shall befal you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear,
ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto
Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou
art my firstborn, my might, and the
beginning of my strength, the excellency
of dignity, and the excellency of
power:
4 Unstable as water, thou
shalt not excel; because thou wentest
up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst
thou it: he went up to my couch.
Here is, I. The preface to the prophecy, in
which,
1. The congregation is called together
(v. 2):
Gather yourselves together; let them
all be sent for from their several employments,
to see their father die, and to hear his
dying words. It was a comfort to Jacob,
now that he was dying, to see all his children
about him, and none missing, though he had
sometimes thought himself bereaved. It was
of use to them to attend him in his last moments,
that they might learn of him how to
die, as well as how to live: what he said to
each he said in the hearing of all the rest;
for we may profit by the reproofs, counsels,
and comforts, that are principally intended
for others. His calling upon them once and
again to gather together intimated both a
precept to them to unite in love, (to keep together,
not to mingle with the Egyptians, not
to forsake the assembling of themselves together,)
and a prediction that they should not
be separated from each other, as Abraham’s
sons and Isaac’s were, but should be incorporated,
and all make one people.
2. A general
idea is given of the intended discourse
(v. 1):
That I may tell you that which shall
befal you (not your persons, but your posterity)
in the latter days; this prediction would
be of use to those that came after them, for
the confirming of their faith and the guiding
of their way, on their return to Canaan, and
their settlement there. We cannot tell our
children what shall befal them or their families
in this world; but we can tell them, from
the word of God, what will befal them in the
last day of all, according as they conduct
themselves in this world.
3. Attention is
demanded
(v. 2):
“Hearken to Israel your
father; let Israel, that has prevailed with
God, prevail with you.” Note, Children
must diligently hearken to what their godly
parents say, particularly when they are dying.
Hear, you children, the instruction of a father,
which carries with it both authority and
affection,
II. The prophecy concerning Reuben. He
begins with him
(v. 3, 4),
for he was the firstborn;
but by committing uncleanness with
his father’s wife, to the great reproach of the
family to which he ought to have been an
ornament, he forfeited the prerogatives of the
birthright; and his dying father here solemnly
degrades him, though he does not
disown nor disinherit him: he shall have all
the privileges of a son, but not of a firstborn.
We have reason to think Reuben had repented
of his sin, and it was pardoned; yet
it was a necessary piece of justice, in detestation
of the villany, and for warning to others,
to put this mark of disgrace upon him. Now
according to the method of degrading,
1. Jacob here puts upon him the ornaments of
the birthright
(v. 3),
that he and all his brethren
might see what he had forfeited, and, in
that, might see the evil of the sin: as the
firstborn, he was his father’s joy, almost his
pride, being the beginning of his strength.
How welcome he was to his parents his name
bespeaks, Reuben, See a son. To him belonged
the excellency of dignity above his
brethren, and some power over them. Christ
Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren,
and to him, of right, belong the most excellent
power and dignity: his church also,
through him, is a church of firstborn.
2. He then strips him of these ornaments
(v. 4),
lifts him up, that he may cast him down, by
that one word, “Thou shalt not excel; a
being thou shalt have as a tribe, but not an
excellency.” No judge, prophet, nor prince,
is found of that tribe, nor any person of renown
except Dathan and Abiram, who were
noted for their impious rebellion against
Moses. That tribe, as not aiming to excel,
meanly chose a settlement on the other side
Jordan. Reuben himself seems to have lost
all that influence upon his brethren to which
his birthright entitled him; for when he spoke
unto them they would not hear,
ch. xlii. 22.
Those that have not understanding and spirit
to support the honours and privileges of their
birth will soon lose them, and retain only
the name of them. The character fastened
upon Reuben, for which he is laid under this
mark of infamy, is that he was unstable as
water.
(1.) His virtue was unstable; he had
not the government of himself and his own
appetites: sometimes he would be very regular
and orderly, but at other times he deviated
into the wildest courses. Note, Instability
is the ruin of men’s excellency.
Men do not thrive because they do not fix.
(2.) His honour consequently was unstable;
it departed from him, vanished into smoke,
and became as water spilt upon the ground.
Note, Those that throw away their virtue
must not expect to save their reputation.
Jacob charges him particularly with the sin
for which he was thus disgraced: Thou wentest
up to thy father’s bed. It was forty years
ago that he had been guilty of this sin, yet
now it is remembered against him. Note,
As time will not of itself wear off the guilt of
any sin from the conscience, so there are
some sins whose stains it will not wipe off
from the good name, especially seventh-commandment
sins. Reuben’s sin left an indelible
mark of infamy upon his family, a dishonour
that was a wound not to be healed
without a scar,
Let us
never do evil, and then we need not fear being
told of it.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren;
instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not
thou into their secret; unto their assembly,
mine honour, be not thou
united: for in their anger they slew a
man, and in their selfwill they digged
down a wall.
7 Cursed be their anger,
for it was fierce; and their wrath, for
it was cruel: I will divide them in
Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
These were next in age to Reuben, and
they also had been a grief and shame to
Jacob, when they treacherously and barbarously
destroyed the Shechemites, which
he here remembers against them. Children
should be afraid of incurring their parents’
just displeasure, lest they fare the worse for
it long afterwards, and, when they would
inherit the blessing, be rejected. Observe,
1. The character of Simeon and Levi: they were
brethren in disposition; but, unlike their
father, they were passionate and revengeful,
fierce and uncontrollable; their swords, which
should have been only weapons of defence,
were (as the margin reads it,
v. 5)
weapons of violence, to do wrong to
others, not to save themselves from wrong. Note, It is
no new thing for the temper of children to
differ very much from that of their parents.
We need not think this strange: it was so in
Jacob’s family. It is not in the power of
parents, no, not by education, to form the
dispositions of their children; Jacob bred
his sons to every thing that was mild and
quiet, and yet they proved to be thus furious.
2. A proof of this is the murder of the Shechemites,
which Jacob deeply resented at the
time
and still continued to
resent. They slew a man, Shechem himself,
and many others; and, to effect that,
they digged down a wall, broke the houses,
to plunder them, and murder the inhabitants.
Note, The best governors cannot always restrain
those under their charge from committing
the worst villanies. And when two
in a family are mischievous they commonly
make one another so much the worse, and
it were wisdom to part them. Simeon and
Levi, it is probable, were most active in the
wrong done to Joseph, to which some think
Jacob has here some reference; for in their
anger they would have slain that man. Observe
what a mischievous thing self-will is
in young people: Simeon and Levi would
not be advised by their aged and experienced
father; no, they would be governed by their
own passion rather than by his prudence.
Young people would better consult their own
interests if they would less indulge their
own will.
3. Jacob’s protestation against
this barbarous act of theirs: O my soul, come
not thou into their secret. Hereby he professes
not only his abhorrence of such practices
in general, but his innocence particularly
in that matter. Perhaps he had been
suspected as, under-hand, aiding and abetting;
he therefore thus solemnly expresses
his detestation of the fact, that he might not
die under that suspicion. Note, Our soul
is our honour; by its powers and faculties
we are distinguished from, and dignified
above, the beasts that perish. Note, further,
We ought, from our hearts, to detest
and abhor all society and confederacy with
bloody and mischievous men. We must not
be ambitious of coming into their secret, or
knowing the depths of Satan.
4. His abhorrence
of those brutish lusts that led them
to this wickedness: Cursed be their anger.
He does not curse their persons, but their
lusts. Note,
(1.) Anger is the cause and original
of a great deal of sin, and exposes us
to the curse of God, and his judgment,
(2.) We ought always, in the expressions
of our zeal, carefully to distinguish
between the sinner and the sin, so as not to
love nor bless the sin for the sake of the
person, nor to hate nor curse the person
for the sake of the sin.
5. A token of displeasure
which he foretels their posterity
should lie under for this: I will divide them.
The Levites were scattered throughout all the
tribes, and Simeon’s lot lay not together,
and was so strait that many of the tribe were
forced to disperse themselves in quest of
settlements and subsistence. This curse
was afterwards turned into a blessing to the
Levites; but the Simeonites, for Zimri’s sin
(Num. xxv. 14),
had it bound on. Note,
Shameful dispersions are the just punishment
of sinful unions and confederacies.
8 Judah, thou art he whom thy
brethren shall praise: thy hand shall
be in the neck of thine enemies; thy
father’s children shall bow down before
thee.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp:
from the prey, my son, thou art gone
up: he stooped down, he couched as
a lion, and as an old lion; who shall
rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
from between his feet, until Shiloh
come; and unto him shall the gathering
of the people be.
11 Binding his
foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt
unto the choice vine; he washed his
garments in wine, and his clothes in
the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes
shall be red with wine, and his teeth
white with milk.
Glorious things are here said of Judah.
The mention of the crimes of the three elder
of his sons had not so put the dying patriarch
out of humour but that he had a blessing
ready for Judah, to whom blessings
belonged. Judah’s name signifies praise, in
allusion to which he says, Thou art he whom
thy brethren shall praise,
v. 8.
God was
praised for him
(ch. xxix. 35),
praised by
him, and praised in him; and therefore his
brethren shall praise him. Note, Those that
are to God for a praise shall be the praise
of their brethren. It is prophesied that,
1. The tribe of Judah should be victorious and
successful in war: Thy hand shall be in the
neck of thy enemies. This was fulfilled in
David,
2. It should be superior
to the rest of the tribes; not only in itself
more numerous and illustrious, but having
a dominion over them: Thy father’s children
shall bow down before thee. Judah was the
lawgiver,
Ps. lx. 7.
That tribe led the van
through the wilderness, and in the conquest
of Canaan,
The prerogatives
of the birthright which Reuben had forfeited,
the excellency of dignity and power,
were thus conferred upon Judah. Observe,
“Thy brethren shall bow down before thee,
and yet shall praise thee, reckoning themselves
happy in having so wise and bold a
commander.” Note, Honour and power
are then a blessing to those that have them
when they are not grudged and envied, but
praised and applauded, and cheerfully submitted
to.
3. It should be a strong and
courageous tribe, and so qualified for command
and conquest: Judah is a lion’s whelp,
v. 9.
The lion is the king of beasts, the
terror of the forest when he roars; when he
seizes his prey, none can resist him; when he
goes up from the prey, none dare pursue him
to revenge it. By this it is foretold that the
tribe of Judah should become very formidable,
and should not only obtain great victories,
but should peaceably and quietly enjoy
what was obtained by those victories–that
they should make war, not for the sake of
war, but for the sake of peace. Judah is
compared, not to a lion rampant, always tearing,
always raging, always ranging; but to
a lion couchant, enjoying the satisfaction of
his power and success, without creating vexation
to others: this is to be truly great.
4. It should be the royal tribe, and the tribe
from which Messiah the Prince should come:
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, till
Shiloh come,
v. 10.
Jacob here foresees and
foretels,
(1.) That the sceptre should come
into the tribe of Judah, which was fulfilled in
David, on whose family the crown was entailed.
(2.) That Shiloh should be of this tribe–his
seed, that promised seed, in whom the
earth should be blessed: that peaceable and
prosperous one, or the Saviour, so others
translate it, he shall come of Judah. Thus
dying Jacob, at a great distance, saw Christ’s
day, and it was his comfort and support on
his death-bed. (3.) That after the coming
of the sceptre into the tribe of Judah it should
continue in that tribe, at least a government
of their own, till the coming of the Messiah,
in whom, as the king of the church, and the
great high priest, it was fit that both the
priesthood and the royalty should determine.
Till the captivity, all along from David’s
time, the sceptre was in Judah, and subsequently
the governors of Judea were of that
tribe, or of the Levites that adhered to it
(which was equivalent), till Judea became
a province of the Roman empire, just at the
time of our Saviour’s birth, and was at that
time taxed as one of the provinces,
And at the time of his death the
Jews expressly owned, We have no king
but Cæsar. Hence it is undeniably inferred
against the Jews that our Lord Jesus is
he that should come, and that we are to
look for no other; for he came exactly at
the time appointed. Many excellent pens
have been admirable well employed in explaining
and illustrating this famous prophecy
of Christ.
5. It should be a very fruitful
tribe, especially that it should abound
with milk for babes, and wine to make glad
the heart of strong men
(v. 11, 12)–vines
so common in the hedge-rows and so strong
that they should tie their asses to them, and
so fruitful that they should load their asses
from them–wine as plentiful as water, so
that the men of that tribe should be very
healthful and lively, their eyes brisk and
sparkling, their teeth white. Much of what
is here said concerning Judah is to be applied
to our Lord Jesus.
(1.) He is the
ruler of all his father’s children, and the
conqueror of all his father’s enemies; and
he it is that is the praise of all the saints.
(2.) He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, as he
is called with reference to this prophecy
(Rev. v. 5),
who, having spoiled principalities and
powers, went up a conqueror, and couched
so as none can stir him up, when he sat
down on the right hand of the Father.
(3.) To him belongs the sceptre; he is the lawgiver,
and to him shall the gathering of the
people be, as the desire of all nations
(Hag. ii. 7),
who, being lifted up from the earth,
should draw all men unto him
(John xii. 32),
and in whom the children of God that
are scattered abroad should meet as the
centre of their unity,
(4.) In
him there is plenty of all that which is
nourishing and refreshing to the soul, and
which maintains and cheers the divine life
in it; in him we may have wine and milk,
the riches of Judah’s tribe, without money
and without price,
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven
of the sea; and he shall be for a
haven of ships; and his border shall
be unto Zidon.
14 Issachar is a strong
ass couching down between two burdens:
15 And he saw that rest was
good, and the land that it was pleasant;
and bowed his shoulder to bear, and
became a servant unto tribute.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of
the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be
a serpent by the way, an adder in the
path, that biteth the horse heels, so
that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O
LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome
him: but he shall overcome at
the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread
shall be fat, and he shall yield royal
dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let
loose: he giveth goodly words.
Here we have Jacob’s prophecy concerning
six of his sons.
I. Concerning Zebulun
(v. 13),
that his
posterity should have their lot upon the seacoast,
and should be merchants, and mariners,
and traders at sea. This was fulfilled
when, two or three hundred years after, the
land of Canaan was divided by lot, and the
border of Zebulun went up towards the sea,
Josh. xix. 11.
Had they chosen their lot
themselves, or Joshua appointed it, we might
have supposed it done with design to make
Jacob’s words good; but, being done by lot,
it appears that it was divinely disposed, and
Jacob divinely inspired. Note, The lot of
God’s providence exactly agrees with the
plan of God’s counsel, like a true copy with
the original. If prophecy says, Zebulun shall
be a haven of ships, Providence will so plant
him. Note,
1. God appoints the bounds of
our habitation.
2. It is our wisdom and
duty to accommodate ourselves to our lot
and to improve it. If Zebulun dwell at the
haven of the sea, let him be for a haven of
ships.
II. Concerning Issachar,
1. That the men of that tribe should be strong
and industrious, fit for labour and inclined
to labour, particularly the toil of husbandry,
like the ass, that patiently carries his burden,
and, by using himself to it, makes it the
easier. Issachar submitted to two burdens,
tillage and tribute. It was a tribe that took
pains, and, thriving thereby, was called upon
for rents and taxes.
2. That they should be
encouraged in their labour by the goodness
of the land that should fall to their lot.
(1.) He saw that rest at home was good. Note,
The labour of the husbandman is really rest,
in comparison with that of soldiers and
seamen, whose hurries and perils are such
that those who tarry at home in the most
constant service have no reason to envy
them.
(2.) He saw that the land was pleasant,
yielding not only pleasant prospects to charm
the eye of the curious, but pleasant fruits to
recompense his toils. Many are the pleasures
of a country life, abundantly sufficient
to balance the inconveniences of it, if we can
but persuade ourselves to think so, Issachar,
in prospect of advantage, bowed his shoulders
to bear: let us, with an eye of faith, see the
heavenly rest to be good, and that land of
promise to be pleasant; and this will make
our present services easy, and encourage us
to bow our shoulder to them.
III. Concerning Dan,
What
is said concerning Dan has reference either,
1. To that tribe in general, that though Dan
was one of the sons of the concubines yet he
should be a tribe governed by judges of his
own as well as other tribes, and should, by
art, and policy, and surprise, gain advantages
against his enemies, like a serpent suddenly
biting the heel of the traveller. Note, In
God’s spiritual Israel there is no distinction
made of bond or free,
Col. iii. 11.
Dan shall
be incorporated by as good a charter as any
of the other tribes. Note, also, Some, like
Dan, may excel in the subtlety of the serpent,
as others, like Judah, in the courage
of the lion; and both may do good service
to the cause of God against the Canaanites.
Or it may refer,
2. To Samson, who was of
that tribe, and judged Israel, that is, delivered
them out of the hands of the Philistines, not
as the other judges, by fighting them in the
field, but by the vexations and annoyances
he gave them underhand: when he pulled
the house down under the Philistines that
were upon the roof of it, he made the horse
throw his rider.
Thus was Jacob going on with his discourse;
but now, being almost spent with
speaking, and ready to faint and die away,
he relieves himself with those words which
come in as a parenthesis
(v. 18),
I have
waited for thy salvation, O Lord! as those
that are fainting are helped by taking a
spoonful of a cordial, or smelling at a bottle
of spirits; or, if he must break off here,
and his breath will not serve him to finish
what he intended, with these words he pours
out his soul into the bosom of his God, and
even breathes it out. Note, The pious ejaculations
of a warm and lively devotion, though
sometimes they may be incoherent, are not
therefore to be censured as impertinent; that
may be uttered affectionately which does
not come in methodically. It is no absurdity,
when we are speaking to men, to lift up our
hearts to God. The salvation he waited for
was Christ, the promised seed, whom he had
spoken of,
Now that he was going to
be gathered to his people, he breathes after
him to whom the gathering of the people
shall be. The salvation he waited for was
also heaven, the better country, which he
declared plainly that he sought
and continued seeking, now that he was
in Egypt. Now that he is going to enjoy
the salvation he comforts himself with this,
that he had waited for the salvation. Note,
It is the character of a living saint that he
waits for the salvation of the Lord. Christ,
as our way to heaven, is to be waited on;
and heaven, as our rest in Christ, is to be
waited for. Again, It is the comfort of a dying
saint thus to have waited for the salvation of
the Lord; for then he shall have what he has
been waiting for: long-looked-for will come.
IV. Concerning Gad,
He alludes
to his name, which signifies a troop, foresees
the character of that tribe, that it should be
a warlike tribe, and so we find
the Gadites were men of war fit for the
battle. He foresees that the situation of that
tribe on the other side Jordan would expose
it to the incursions of its neighbours, the
Moabites and Ammonites; and, that they
might not be proud of their strength and
valour, he foretels that the troops of their
enemies should, in many skirmishes, overcome
them; yet, that they might not be discouraged
by their defeats, he assures them
that they should overcome at the last, which
was fulfilled when, in Saul’s time and David’s,
the Moabites and Ammonites were
wholly subdued: see
&c.
Note, The cause of God and his people,
though it may seem for a time to be baffled
and run down, will yet be victorious at
last. Vincimur in prælio, sed non in bello–We
are foiled in a battle, but not in a campaign.
Grace in the soul is often foiled in
its conflicts, troops of corruption overcome
it, but the cause is God’s, and grace will in
the issue come off conqueror, yea, more than
conqueror,
Rom. viii. 37.
V. Concerning Asher
(v. 20),
that it should
be a very rich tribe, replenished not only
with bread for necessity, but with fatness,
with dainties, royal dainties (for the king
himself is served of the field,
Eccl. v. 9),
and
these exported out of Asher to other tribes,
perhaps to other lands. Note, The God of
nature has provided for us not only necessaries
but dainties, that we might call him a
bountiful benefactor; yet, whereas all places
are competently furnished with necessaries,
only some places afford dainties. Corn is
more common than spices. Were the supports
of luxury as universal as the supports
of life, the world would be worse than it is,
and that it needs not be.
VI. Concerning Naphtali
(v. 21),
a tribe
that carries struggles in its name; it signifies
wrestling, and the blessing entailed upon it
signifies prevailing; it is a hind let loose.
Though we find not this prediction so fully
answered in the event as some of the rest,
yet, no doubt, it proved true that those of
this tribe were,
1. As the loving hind (for
that is her epithet,
friendly and
obliging to one another and to other tribes;
their converse remarkably kind and endearing.
2. As the loosened hind, zealous for
their liberty.
3. As the swift hind
quick in despatch of business; and perhaps,
4. As the trembling, timorous in
times of public danger. It is rare that those
that are most amiable to their friends are
most formidable to their enemies.
5. That
they should be affable and courteous, their
language refined, and they complaisant, giving
goodly words. Note, Among God’s Israel
there is to be found a great variety of dispositions,
contrary to each other, yet all contributing
to the beauty and strength of the
body, Judah like a lion, Issachar like an ass,
Dan like a serpent, Naphtali like a hind. Let
not those of different tempers and gifts censure
one another, nor envy one another, any
more than those of different statures and
complexions.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a
fruitful bough by a well; whose branches
run over the wall:
23 The archers
have sorely grieved him, and shot at
him, and hated him:
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:)
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:
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.
27 Benjamin
shall ravin as a wolf: in the
morning he shall devour the prey, and
at night he shall divide the spoil.
He closes with the blessings of his best
beloved sons, Joseph and Benjamin; with
these he will breathe his last.
I. The blessing of Joseph, which is very
large and full. He is compared
(v. 22)
to a
fruitful bough, or young tree; for God had
made him fruitful in the land of his affliction;
he owned it,
His two sons
were as branches of a vine, or other spreading
plant, running over the wall. Note, God
can make those fruitful, great comforts to
themselves and others, who have been looked
upon as dry and withered. More is recorded
in the history concerning Joseph than concerning
any other of Jacob’s sons; and
therefore what Jacob says of him is historical
as well as prophetical. Observe,
1. The providences of God concerning Joseph,
These are mentioned to
the glory of God, and for the encouragement
of Jacob’s faith and hope, that God had
blessings in store for his seed. Here observe
(1.) Joseph’s straits and troubles,
Though he now lived at ease and in honour,
Jacob reminds him of the difficulties he had
formerly waded through. He had had many
enemies, here called archers, being skilful to
do mischief, masters of their art of persecution.
They hated him: there persecution
begins. They shot their poisonous darts at
him, and thus they sorely grieved him. His
brethren, in his father’s house, were very
spiteful towards him, mocked him, stripped
him, threatened him, sold him, thought they
had been the death of him. His mistress, in
the house of Potiphar, sorely grieved him,
and shot at him, when she impudently assaulted
his chastity (temptations are fiery
darts, thorns in the flesh, sorely grievous to
gracious souls); when she prevailed not in
this, she hated him, and shot at him by her
false accusations, arrows against which there
is little fence but the hold God has in the
consciences of the worst of men. Doubtless
he had enemies in the court of Pharaoh, that
envied his preferment, and sought to undermine
him.
(2.) Joseph’s strength and support
under all these troubles
(v. 24):
His bow
abode in strength, that is, his faith did not
fail, but he kept his ground, and came off a
conqueror. The arms of his hands were made
strong, that is, his other graces did their part,
his wisdom, courage, and patience, which are
better than weapons of war. In short, he
maintained both his integrity and his comfort
through all his trials; he bore all his
burdens with an invincible resolution, and
did not sink under them, nor do any thing
unbecoming him.
(3.) The spring and fountain
of this strength; it was by the hands of
the mighty God, who was therefore able to
strengthen him, and the God of Jacob, a God
in covenant with him, and therefore engaged
to help him. All our strength for the resisting
of temptations, and the bearing of afflictions,
comes from God: his grace is sufficient,
and his strength is perfected in our weakness.
(4.) The state of honour and usefulness to
which he was subsequently advanced: Thence
(from this strange method of providence) he
became the shepherd and stone, the feeder
and supporter, of God’s Israel, Jacob and his
family. Herein Joseph was a type,
[1.] Of Christ; he was shot at and hated, but borne
up under his sufferings
(Isa. l. 7-9),
and
was afterwards advanced to be the shepherd
and stone.
[2.] Of the church in general,
and particular believers; hell shoots its arrows
against the saints, but Heaven protects
and strengthens them, and will crown them.
2. The promises of God to Joseph. See
how these are connected with the former:
Even by the God of thy father Jacob, who
shall help thee,
v. 25.
Note, Our experiences
of God’s power and goodness in strengthening
us hitherto are our encouragements still
to hope for help from him; he that has helped
us will help: we may build much upon our
Eben-ezers. See what Joseph may expect
from the Almighty, even the God of his father.
(1.) He shall help thee in difficulties and dangers
which may yet be before thee, help thy
seed in their wars. Joshua came from him,
who commanded in chief in the wars of Canaan.
(2.) He shall bless thee; and he only
blesses indeed. Jacob prays for a blessing
upon Joseph, but the God of Jacob commands
the blessing. Observe the blessings
conferred on Joseph.
[1.] Various and abundant
blessings: Blessings of heaven above
(rain in its season, and fair weather in its
season, and the benign influences of the heavenly
bodies); blessings of the deep that lieth
under this earth, which, compared with the
upper world, is but a great deep, with subterraneous
mines and springs. Spiritual
blessings are blessings of heaven above, which
we ought to desire and seek for in the first
place, and to which we must give the preference;
while temporal blessings, those of this
earth, must lie under in our account and
esteem. Blessings of the womb and the breasts
are given when children are safely born and
comfortably nursed. In the word of God,
by which we are born again, and nourished
up
there are to the new
man blessings both of the womb and the
breasts.
[2.] Eminent and transcendent
blessings, which prevail above the blessings
of my progenitors,
v. 26.
His father Isaac
had but one blessing, and, when he had given
that to Jacob, he was at a loss for a blessing
to bestow upon Esau; but Jacob had a blessing
for each of his twelve sons, and now, at
the latter end, a copious one for Joseph. The
great blessing entailed upon that family was
increase, which did not so immediately and
so signally follow the blessings which Abraham
and Isaac gave to their sons as it followed
the blessing which Jacob gave to his;
for, soon after his death, they multiplied
exceedingly.
[3.] Durable and extensive
blessings: Unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting
hills, including all the productions of
the most fruitful hills, and lasting as long as
they last,
Note, the blessings of
the everlasting God include the riches of the
everlasting hills, and much more. Well, of
these blessings it is here said, They shall be,
so it is a promise, or, Let them be, so it is a
prayer, on the head of Joseph, to which let
them be as a crown to adorn it and a helmet
to protect it. Joseph was separated from his
brethren (so we read it) for a time; yet, as
others read it, he was a Nazarite among his
brethren, better and more excellent than they.
Note, It is no new thing for the best men to
meet with the worst usage, for Nazarites
among their brethren to be cast out and separated
from their brethren; but the blessing
of God will make it up to them.
II. The blessing of Benjamin
(v. 27):
He
shall raven as a wolf; it is plain by this that
Jacob was guided in what he said by a spirit
of prophecy, and not by natural affection;
else he would have spoken with more tenderness
of his beloved son Benjamin, concerning
whom he only foresees and foretels this, that
his posterity should be a warlike tribe, strong
and daring, and that they should enrich
themselves with the spoils of their enemies–that
they should be active and busy in the
world, and a tribe as much feared by their
neighbours as any other: In the morning, he
shall devour the prey, which he seized and
divided over night. Or, in the first times of
Israel, they shall be noted for activity, though
many of them left-handed,
Ehud the second judge, and Saul the
first king, were of this tribe; and so also in
the last times Esther and Mordecai, by whom
the enemies of the Jews were destroyed,
were of this tribe. The Benjamites ravened
like wolves when they desperately espoused
the cause of the men of Gibeah, those men
of Belial,
Blessed Paul was of
this tribe
and he did,
in the morning of his day, devour the prey
as a persecutor, but, in the evening, divided
the spoil as a preacher. Note, God can serve
his own purposes by the different tempers of
men; the deceived and the deceiver are his.
| Death of Jacob. | B. C. 1689. |
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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.
29 And he
charged them, and said unto them, I
am to be gathered unto my people:
bury me with my fathers in the cave
that is in the field of Ephron the
Hittite,
30 In the cave that is in the
field of Machpelah, which is before
Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which
Abraham bought with the field of
Ephron the Hittite for a possession of
a buryingplace.
31 There they buried
Abraham and Sarah his wife; there
they buried Isaac and Rebekah his
wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and of the
cave that is therein was from the
children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob
had made an end of commanding
his sons, he gathered up his feet into
the bed, and yielded up the ghost,
and was gathered unto his people.
Here is, I. The summing up of the blessings
of Jacob’s sons,
Though Reuben,
Simeon, and Levi were put under the marks
of their father’s displeasure, yet he is said to
bless them every one according to his blessing;
for none of them were rejected as Esau was.
Note, Whatever rebukes of God’s word or
providence we are under at any time, yet, as
long as we have an interest in God’s covenant,
a place and a name among his people,
and good hopes of a share in the heavenly
Canaan, we must account ourselves blessed.
II. The solemn charge Jacob gave them
concerning his burial, which is a repetition
of what he had before given to Joseph. See
how he speaks of death, now that he is dying:
I am to be gathered unto my people,
v. 29.
Note, It is good to represent death to
ourselves under the most desirable images,
that the terror of it may be taken off. Though
it separates us from our children and our
people in this world, it gathers us to our
fathers and to our people in the other world.
Perhaps Jacob uses this expression concerning
death as a reason why his sons should
bury him in Canaan; for, says he, “I am to
be gathered unto my people, my soul must go
to the spirits of just men made perfect: and
therefore bury me with my fathers, Abraham
and Isaac, and their wives,”
Observe,
1. His heart was very much upon it, not so
much from a natural affection to his native
soil as from a principle of faith in the promise
of God, that Canaan should be the inheritance
of his seed in due time. Thus he
would keep up in his sons a remembrance of
the promised land, and not only would have
their acquaintance with it renewed by a journey
thither on that occasion, but their desire
towards it and their expectation of it preserved.
2. He is very particular in describing
the place both by the situation of it
and by the purchase Abraham had made of
it for a burying-place,
He was
afraid lest his sons, after seventeen years’
sojourning in Egypt, had forgotten Canaan,
and even the burying-place of their ancestors
there, or lest the Canaanites should dispute
his title to it; and therefore he specifies it
thus largely, and the purchase of it, even
when he lies a-dying, not only to prevent
mistakes, but to show how mindful he was
of that country. Note, It is, and should be,
a great pleasure to dying saints to fix their
thoughts upon the heavenly Canaan, and the rest
they hope for there after death.
III. The death of Jacob,
When he
had finished both his blessing and his charge
(both which are included in the commanding
of his sons), and so had finished his testimony,
he addressed himself to his dying
work.
1. He put himself into a posture
for dying; having before seated himself upon
the bed-side, to bless his sons (the spirit of
prophecy bringing fresh oil to his expiring
lamp,
when that work was done,
he gathered up his feet into the bed, that he
might lie along, not only as one patiently
submitting to the stroke, but as one cheerfully
composing himself to rest, now that he
was weary. I will lay me down, and sleep.
2. He freely resigned his spirit into the hand
of God, the Father of spirits: He yielded up
the ghost.
3. His separated soul went to
the assembly of the souls of the faithful,
which, after they are delivered from the burden
of the flesh, are in joy and felicity: he
was gathered to his people. Note, If God’s people
be our people, death will gather us to them.
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