Jacob’s prophetical blessings of his twelve sons: his death.

¹ Then Jacob called his sons, and he said to them: “Gather together, so that I may announce what will happen to you in the last days.¹

1. 49:1This passage is the eschatological discourse of Jacob. It describes the state of the twelve parts of the one Catholic Church prior to the Return of Christ. Currently, the Church as two parts, east and west. After the unification of all the Christian Churches in one Catholic Church, there will be seven parts within the one Church. Much later, these seven will become twelve parts of one Church, like the twelve tribes of Israel. It is these twelve tribes of the future Church that Jacob describes on his death bed.(Conte)

² Gather together and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father.

³ Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my sorrow: first in gifts, greater in authority.¹

1. 49:3My strength, etc: He calls him his strength, as being born whilst his father was in his full strength and vigour: he calls him the beginning of his sorrow, because cares and sorrows usually come on with the birth of children. Excelling in gifts, etc., because the firstborn had a title to a double portion, and to have the command over his brethren, which Ruben forfeited by his sin; being poured out as water, that is, spilt and lost.(Challoner)

⁴ You are being poured out like water, may you not increase. For you climbed onto your father’s bed, and you defiled his resting place.¹

1. 49:4may you not increase: This was not meant by way of a curse or imprecation; but by way of a prophecy foretelling that the tribe of Ruben should not inherit the pre-eminences usually annexed to the first birthright, viz., the double portion, the being prince or lord over the other brethren, and the priesthood: of which the double portion was given to Joseph, the princely office to Juda, and the priesthood to Levi.(Challoner)

⁵ The brothers Simeon and Levi: vessels of iniquity waging war.

⁶ Let not my soul go by their counsel, nor my glory be within their meeting. For in their fury they killed a man, and in their self-will they undermined a wall.¹

1. 49:6Slew a man: viz., Sichem the son of Hemor, with all his people, Gen. 34.; mystically and prophetically it alludes to Christ, whom their posterity, viz., the priests and the scribes, put to death.(Challoner)

⁷ Cursed be their fury, because it was obstinate, and their indignation, because it was harsh. I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel.

⁸ Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be at the necks of your enemies; the sons of your father will reverence you.

⁹ Judah is a lion’s young. You have gone up to the prey, my son. While resting, you have lain like a lion. And just like a lioness, who would rouse him?¹

1. 49:9A lion’s whelp, etc: This blessing of Juda foretells the strength of his tribe, the fertility of his inheritance; and principally that the sceptre and legislative power should not be utterly taken away from his race till about the time of the coming of Christ: as in effect it never was: which is a demonstration against the modern Jews, that the Messiah is long since come; for the sceptre has long since been utterly taken away from Juda.(Challoner)

¹⁰ The scepter from Judah and the leader from his thigh will not be taken away, until he who will be sent arrives, and he will be the expectation of Gentiles.

¹¹ Tying his young colt to the vineyard, and his donkey, O my son, to the vine, he will wash his robe in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape.

¹² His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³ Zebulun will live at the seashore and by the outpost of ships, reaching as far as Sidon.

¹⁴ Issachar will be a strong donkey, reclining between the borders.

¹⁵ He saw that rest would be good, and that the land was excellent. And so he bent his shoulder to carry, and he became a servant under tribute.

¹⁶ Dan will judge his people just like any other tribe in Israel.¹

1. 49:16Dan shall judge, etc: This was verified in Samson, who was of the tribe of Dan, and began to deliver Israel. Judges 13.5. But as this deliverance was but temporal and very imperfect, the holy patriarch (ver. 18) aspires after another kind of deliverer, saying: I will look for thy salvation, O Lord.(Challoner)

¹⁷ Let Dan be a snake in the way, a viper in the path, biting the hooves of horses, so that his rider may fall backward.¹

1. 49:17A ‘cerastes’ is a type of viper found in Africa, very poisonous and with a horn-like protuberance above each eye.(Conte)

¹⁸ I will wait for your salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹ Gad, being girded, will fight before him. And he himself will be girded backward.¹

1. 49:19Gad being girded, etc: It seems to allude to the tribe of Gad; when after they had received for their lot the land of Galaad, they marched in arms before the rest of the Israelites, to the conquest of the land of Chanaan: from whence they afterwards returned loaded with spoils. See Jos. 4. and 12.(Challoner)

²⁰ Asher: his bread will be fat, and he will provide delicacies to the kings.

²¹ Naphtali is a stag sent forth, offering words of eloquent beauty.

²² Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and stately to behold; the daughters run back and forth on the wall.¹

1. 49:22Run to and fro, etc: To behold his beauty; whilst his envious brethren turned their darts against him, etc.(Challoner)

²³ But those who held darts, provoked him, and they contend with him, and they envied him.

²⁴ His bow sits in strength, and the bands of his arms and hands have been let loose by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there he went forth as a pastor, the stone of Israel.¹

1. 49:24His bow rested upon the strong, etc: That is, upon God, who was his strength: who also loosed his bands, and brought him out of prison to be the pastor, that is, the feeder and ruler of Egypt, and the stone, that is, the rock and support of Israel.(Challoner)

²⁵ The God of your father will be your helper, and the Almighty will bless you with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the abyss that lies beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶ The blessings of your father are strengthened by the blessings of his fathers, until the desire of the hills of eternity shall arrive. May they be at the head of Joseph, and at the summit of the Nazarite, among his brothers.¹²³

1. 49:26The blessings of thy father, etc: That is, thy father’s blessings are made more prevalent and effectual in thy regard, by the additional strength they receive from his inheriting the blessings of his progenitors Abraham and Isaac.(Challoner)
2. 49:26The desire of the everlasting hills, etc: These blessings all looked forward towards Christ, called the desire of the everlasting hills, as being longed for, as it were, by the whole creation. Mystically, the patriarchs and prophets are called the everlasting hills, by reason of the eminence of their wisdom and holiness.(Challoner)
3. 49:26The Nazarite: This word signifies one separated; and agrees to Joseph, as being separated from, and more eminent than, his brethren. As the ancient Nazarites were so called from their being set aside for God, and vowed to him.(Challoner)

²⁷ Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning he will eat the prey, and in the evening he will divide the spoil.”

²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. These things their father spoke to them, and he blessed each one with their proper blessings.

²⁹ And he instructed them, saying: “I am being gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,¹

1. 49:29To be gathered to my people: That is, I am going to die, and so to follow my ancestors that are gone before me, and to join their company in another world.(Challoner)

³⁰ opposite Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought, along with its field, from Ephron the Hittite, as a possession for burial.

³¹ There they buried him, with his wife Sarah.” And there Isaac was buried with his wife Rebekah. There also Leah lies preserved.

³² And having finished these commands by which he instructed his sons, he drew his feet onto the bed, and he passed away. And he was gathered to his people.