Asher

 

(Gen 49:20) "Bread from Asher shall be rich, And he shall yield royal dainties.

 

This seems to be a prophecy of the very rich soil that became his portion of the land

 

Naphtali

 

(Gen 49:21) "Naphtali is a deer let loose; He uses beautiful words.

 

The meaning and allusion are obscure, since nothing further is known of the history of the tribe of Naphtali, than that Naphtali obtained a great victory under Barak in association with Zebulun over the Canaanitish king Jabin, which the prophetess Deborah commemorated in her celebrated song (Judg 4 and 5). – K & D

 

We turn to the conclusion of Chapter 49:  The blessing of Rachel’s sons:

(Gen 49:22-33 NKJV)  "Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a well; His branches run over the wall.

 

Clarke takes this as Jacob using Joseph’s name as a name for himself, and thinks in terms of how rapidly the nation of Israel grew.

 

Barnes takes it to be a statement about Joseph, and describes the thought this way:  Joseph had been fruitful in that through his leadership and oversight, life had been preserved.  God only knows how many lives he saved from starvation.

“A fruitful bough by a well:”—with an abundant supply of water to continue to produce.

“His branches run over the wall.”  He isn’t stopped by normal boundaries.

When we reflect on the text, we remember that: he was in prison one day, and became the second ruler of Egypt on the same day.

 

(Gen 49:23) The archers have bitterly grieved him, Shot at him and hated him.

This is probably a reference to the “war of words” by his brothers.  “But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.” (Gen 37:4 NKJV)  Of course, it was more thatn just words.

 

(Gen 49:24) But his bow remained in strength, And the arms of his hands were made strong By the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),

 

“But his bow remained in strength--”  Figurative language, but he kept his moral strength even when faced with temptation in a foreign land.

 

“And the arms of his hands were made strong By the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob.”  Obviously God is the One Who made everything happen:

 

1.          Joseph being cast into prison

2.          The butler and baker dreaming dreams that Joseph was given the power to interpret.

3.          Pharaoh’s dream and Joseph given the opportunity to interpret them.

4.          The wisdom God gave Joseph to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and to lay out a plan of action.

 

(Gen 49:25) By the God of your father who will help you, And by the Almighty who will bless you With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lies beneath, Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

 

(Gen 49:26) The blessings of your father Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

 

“The blessings of your father Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,”  Jacob is, in effect, blessing Joseph beyond how he was blessed by his father.

 

Jacob has poured all these blessings on Joseph for the following reasons:

 

He was his favorite son because he was Rachel’s son, but now we must add this:

 

1.            He had endured the hardships of life that were cause by being sold by his brothers.

2.            With God’s blessings, he had been promoted to be one of the most important men in the world at the time.

3.            Joseph had provided a good life for his father in his old age.

“And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.”  He was separate from his brothers in at least three ways:

 

1.            He was separated physically from them because they sold him into slavery.

2.            He was separated because of the rank and power that Pharaoh conferred upon him.

3.             He was separated by his spirit.  They were hateful and mean.  He was forgiving.

 

(Gen 49:27) "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; In the morning he shall devour the prey, And at night he shall divide the spoil."

 

“This tribe in its early history spent its energies in petty or inglorious warfare and especially in the violent and unjust contest (Judges 19:1-20:48), in which it engaged with the other tribes, when, notwithstanding two victories, it was almost exterminated.” – JFB

 

When the kingdom divided, it was Benjamin and Judah that became known as Judah – the southern tribe.

 

(Gen 49:28) All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each one according to his own blessing.

 

 

(Gen 49:29) Then he charged them and said to them: "I am to be gathered to 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 as a possession for a burial place.

 

(Gen 23:3-16 NKJV)  Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, {4} "I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight." {5} And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, {6} "Hear us, my lord: You are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead." {7} Then Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. {8} And he spoke with them, saying, "If it is your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and meet with Ephron the son of Zohar for me, {9} "that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he has, which is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me at the full price, as property for a burial place among you." {10} Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Heth, all who entered at the gate of his city, saying,

(Gen 23:11) "No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and the cave that is in it; I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people. I give it to you. Bury your dead!" {12} Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land; {13} and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, "If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there." {14} And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, {15} "My lord, listen to me; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead." {16} And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out the silver for Ephron which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency of the merchants.

 

(Acts 7:4-5 NKJV)  "Then he [Abraham] came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. {5} "And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.

 

 

(Gen 49:31) "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. {32} "The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth." {33} And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

 

 

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