65 JACOB BLESSES HIS SONS

GENESIS 48:22 – 49:28

48:22 “And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow. 49:1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. 2 “Assemble 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. 4 Turbulent 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. 6 Let 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. 7 Cursed 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. 9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. 11 He 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. 12 His 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 toward Sidon. 14 “Issachar is a rawboned donkey lying down among the sheep pens. 15 When 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. 17 Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward. 18 “I look for your deliverance, 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.

In Bible times the first-born were traditionally given twice as much as the others. Jacob followed this pattern and gave Joseph one portion more than he gave his brothers as recorded in Genesis 48:22, “And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.” The lands given here to Joseph, Jacob says he took out of the hand of the Amorites with his sword, and with his bow. They are also described in Joshua 24:32. “And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.” Putting Joshua 24:32 (Jacob bought the land), together with Genesis 48:22, (I took . . . with my sword and my bow), we get a picture of Jacob first buying the land at Shechem, and then, after evidently loosing it, wining it back by sword and bow. Jacob had to use force by aggressive military claim to recover his rightful purchase. Eventually Joseph was buried there. This ridge of land which Jacob gave to Joseph, interestingly is mentioned again in John 4:5 which says, “So he (Jesus) came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.” This parcel of ground was evidently given to the tribe of Ephraim as their right and the lot was never cast on it. This additional ridge of land indicates that Joseph was considered the first born though he was the eleventh son. Jacob was fair in giving Joseph an extra allotment. We will see more details about Jacob’s blessings for Joseph in the next lesson.


Moses wrote a preface to the prophecies given to each of Jacob’s sons. In it he briefly describes the congregation being called together in verse 2 “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.” Let all his sons be sent for from their various tasks to see their father die and to hear his dying words. It would have been 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 also of use to them to hear from him in his last moments, so that they might learn from him how to die, as well as how to live. What he said to each, he said in the hearing of all the rest. We too may profit by reproofs, counsels, and comforts even if they are principally intended for others. His calling them once and again to gather together suggests a policy for them to unite in love, that is to keep together, not to mingle with the Egyptians and not to forsake the assembling of themselves together. Jacob’s address to all of them also indicates a prediction that they should not be separated from each other, as Abraham’s many sons and Isaac’s two sons were, but should be incorporated, and all make one people; one nation of twelve tribes.


A general idea is given of the intended discourse in verse one, “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.” This was not meant so much for the twelve of them as it was for their descendants “in days to come.” 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 and settlement in Canaan. We cannot tell our children what will happen to them or their families in this world, but we can tell them from the Word of God what will happen to them in the last days of all, according to how they conduct themselves in this world. The twelve were told to “assemble and listen.” Children, even adult children, should diligently listen to what their godly parents say, particularly when they are dying. Each was to receive an individual message. God has a plan for each of us, not the same plan but a plan that fits us. He created us and He plans our activities. The skills he give to us at birth and the assignments He later gives to us fit each other.

Jacob begins with Reuben; he was the firstborn. “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.” By committing uncleanness with his father’s wife, to the great reproach of the family of which he ought to have been an ornament, he forfeited the prerogatives of the birthright. His dying father here solemnly criticizes him, though he does not disown or disinherit him. Reuben will still have all the privileges of a son, but not of a firstborn. Reuben may have repented of his sin, and it was pardoned; yet it was a necessary piece of justice to put this mark of disgrace on him by criticizing the sin and let the criticism be a warning to others. Jacob mentions in verse three, the birthright Ruben forfeited, “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.” This way 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 had been his father’s joy, almost his pride, being “the first sign of my strength.” How welcome he was to his parents! His name indicates, Reuben, See a son. To him belonged the excellency of dignity above his brethren, and some power over them. Jacob, however, then strips him of these ornaments; Jacob lifts him up, that he may cast him down by that one word in verse four, “Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.” No judge, prophet, nor prince, is found in the tribe of Reuben, nor any person of renown except Dathan and Abiram, who were noted for their evil rebellion against Moses. That tribe chose a settlement on the other side Jordan. Was that a sign of their not excelling? Reuben himself seems to have lost all that influence on his brethren to which his birthright entitled him. Earlier he had spoken, even correctly, but the brothers would not hear. He did not excel. “Reuben replied, ‘Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood.’” (Genesis 42:22). Those who have no understanding and spirit to support the honors and privileges of their birth will soon lose them, and retain only their name. He became unstable as water. His virtue was unstable; he had no self-control. Sometimes he would be very regular and orderly, but at other times he deviated into the wildest courses. Instability is the ruin of men’s excellency. Men do not thrive because they do not fix. His honor consequently was unstable; it departed from him, vanished into smoke, and became as water spilt on the ground. Persons that throw away their virtue must not expect to save their reputation. Jacob charges him particularly with the sin for which he was disgraced: “you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.” It was forty years before that he had been guilty of this sin, yet now it is still remembered against him. Time will not of itself wear off the guilt of any sin from the conscience. Reuben’s sin left an indelible moral blemish on his family; a dishonor that was a wound not to be healed without a scar. If we avoid sins like this, then we need not fear being told of it.

Simion and Levi 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. Jacob remembers this sin 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. Simeon and Levi were brothers in disposition, but, unlike their father, they were passionate and revengeful, fierce and uncontrollable. Verse five says, “Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence.” Swords in the hands of godly persons can be used for defense. Their swords, however, were used, not to save themselves from wrong, but to do wrong to others. 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 the best of efforts, to perfectly form the dispositions of their children. Jacob bred his sons to every thing that was mild and quiet, and yet some of them proved to be rascals. A proof of this is the murder of the Shechemites, which Jacob deeply resented at the time and still continued to resent. They slew Shechem himself, and many others; and, to do that, probably broke down walls and houses to plunder and murder the inhabitants. The best governors cannot always restrain those under their charge from committing the worst villainies. And when two in a family are mischievous they commonly make one another so much the worse, and it was wisdom to part from them. Jacob, our good example, did not want to have anything to do with such a violent temperament. He says in verses 6 and 7, “Let 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. Cursed be their anger, so fierce and their fury, so cruel!


Next, glorious things, however, are said of Judah. The mention of the crimes of the three elder of his sons had not so put the dying patriarch out of humor but that he still had a blessing ready for Judah, to whom blessings belonged. Judah’s name signifies praise. Verse eight says, “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.” God was praised for him, praised by him, and praised in him; and therefore his brethren will praise him. Those who are to God for a praise shall be the praise of their brothers. Jacob prophesied that the tribe of Judah would be victorious and successful in war: “your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;” “You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes” (Psalm 18:40). Also Judah would be superior to the other tribes, “your father’s sons will bow down to you,” not only in itself more numerous and illustrious, but having a dominion over them, which is fulfilled in Psalm 60:7 “Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is my scepter.” The prerogatives of the birthright which Reuben had forfeited, the excellency of dignity and power, seem to have been here passed on to Judah. 


The objective of this series of studies of the patriarchs is to see the leadership qualities they demonstrate so that we may attempt to duplicate them in our own lives as Christian leaders in our generation. Seeing what happens to every person in their stories is outside the perimeters of this study. So we will not look in detail at each of the blessings Jacob pronounced on his twelve sons, but rather make several important observation that help us understand why Jacob, himself, was such a good, great and exemplary man. He rightly identified the failures of Reuben, Simeon and Levi as we have just seen. He also gave credit to Judah for the good things that were seen in him. (Jacob does not, however, address the sin of Judah in failing to give his younger son, Shelah, to his daughter-in-law, Tamar, as he should have done even though Shelah had grown up.) Jacob identified the great qualities of Joseph as we will see in the next lesson. But let us not miss the important fact that Jacob was eager to bless and hesitant to curse. So Reuben, Simeon and Levi come up short while all the rest receive appropriate blessings, with Joseph and Judah receiving particularly noble rewards. Let us follow Jacob’s example in justice to withhold blessings when that is appropriate and to pray for blessings as our preferred position in the matter. We will bless unless we cannot bless. Blessings cannot be earned, but they certainly can be canceled if an individual disqualifies him or herself. How each of Jacob’s sons was blessed is not as important to us in this study as to notice that they were blessed by their father. Let’s do that.

A Zebulun was to have his lot on the seacoast and during Joshua’s day that happened. B Issachar was to be strong and industrious and that happened during David’s days as the men of Issachar “understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:22) and came to David’s side. C Dan would be a champion of justice and would, by art, policy and surprise, gain advantages against his enemies, like a serpent suddenly biting the heel of the traveller. Sampson was from Dan. D Gad, Jacob alludes to the meaning of his name, which means a “troop.” The day came when they were men of war fit for battle. E Asher would become a very rich tribe, replenished not only with bread for necessity, but with delicacies fit for a king. F Naphtali would become a doe, strong and able to leap and, in Naphtali’s case, “set free” whether by her ability to leap or by some other means. There may be a hint that as a loosened doe Naphtali has struggled for and was zealous for liberty. G Benjamin was to be strong, yet share the plunder of his spoils. In this way Jacob blessed his sons.


Now let us return to verse eighteen. As Jacob is going on with his prophesies and blessings, he spontaneously bursts out with something that seems to be out of place. It is a sudden prayer or confession of his personal dependance on God: “I look for your deliverance, Lord.” Jacob is blessing his sons and conducting an important bit of family business before he dies as we see in all of this chapter. But before he reaches that point of death, with perhaps his strength failing, he breaks the pattern and out spills a desperate yet indicative plea. It may not have made much sense for this to appear without introduction or explanation about why Jacob would suddenly turn his attention from blessing his boys to expressing his reliance on God, but Scripture tells it like it is. Jacob was not as interested in presenting a nicely packaged, outline of perfect prose, as he was expressing what he was feeling. Moses, in relaying this story preserves the spontaneity and irregularity of this utterance which in itself serves to emphasize the importance of what Jacob said. He needed God. And just then he suddenly blurted out something about his need for God’s help; God’s salvation. “I look for your deliverance, Lord.” So do we. It is the character of a living saint that he waits for the salvation of the Lord. Jesus, as our way to heaven, is to be waited on and waited for. Heaven, as our rest in Christ, is to be waited for. It is the comfort of a dying saint after having waited for the salvation of the Lord to then have what he or she has been waiting for. What is longed for, anticipated and expected will come at last. Every influential Christian leader should keep his or her eyes on that. In this world we have challenges, but anticipating that will help us with this.