Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons
My might and the beginning of my strength,
The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
Because you awent up to your father’s bed;
Then you defiled it—
He went up to my couch.
Let not my honor be united bto their assembly;
cFor in their anger they slew a man,
And in their self-will they1 hamstrung an ox.
And their wrath, for it is cruel!
aI will divide them in Jacob
And scatter them in Israel.
bYour hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
cYour father’s children shall bow down before you.
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
bHe bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
Nor ba lawgiver from between his feet,
cUntil Shiloh comes;
dAnd to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.
He shall become a haven for ships,
And his border shall badjoin Sidon.
And that the land was pleasant;
He bowed ahis shoulder to bear a burden,
And became a band of slaves.
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse’s heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
And the arms of his hands were1 made strong
By the hands of bthe Mighty God of Jacob
c(From there dis the Shepherd, ethe Stone of Israel),
bAnd by the Almighty cwho will bless you
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,
aUp to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
bThey shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
In the morning he shall devour the prey,
bAnd at night he shall divide the spoil.”
Jacob’s Death and Burial
Genesis
GENESIS, the book of the origin or production of all things, consists of two parts: the first, comprehended in the first through eleventh chapters, gives a general history; the second, contained in the subsequent chapters, gives a special history. The two parts are essentially connected; the one, which sets out with an account of the descent of the human race from a single pair, the introduction of sin into the world, and the announcement of the scheme of divine mercy for repairing the ruins of the fall, was necessary to pave the way for relating the other, namely, the call of Abraham, and the selection of his posterity for carrying out the gracious purpose of God. An evident unity of method, therefore, pervades this book, and the information contained in it was of the greatest importance to the Hebrew people, as without it they could not have understood the frequent references made in their law to the purposes and promises of God regarding themselves. The arguments that have been already adduced as establishing the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch prove of course that Moses was the author of Genesis. The few passages on which the rationalists grounded their assertions that it was the composition of a later age have been successfully shown to warrant no such conclusion; the use of Egyptian words and the minute acquaintance with Egyptian life and manners, displayed in the history of Joseph, harmonize with the education of Moses, and whether he received his information by immediate revelation, from tradition, or from written documents, it comes to us as the authentic work of an author who wrote as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost (II Peter 1:21).
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