Read Genesis 49:1-26 at Bible Gateway.
the teaching tools of scripture
Hebrew paragraph divisions
Gen 49:1-4 {p} Reuben’s blessing (of Leah)
Gen 49:5-7 {p} Simeon and Levi’s blessing (of Leah)
Gen 49:8-12 {p} Judah’s blessing (of Leah)
Gen 49:13 {p} Zebulun’s blessing (of Leah)
Gen 49:14-15 {s} Issachar’s blessing (of Leah)
Gen 49:16-17 {s} Dan’s blessing (of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid)
Gen 49:18 {s} “I have waited for your salvation, O YHVH!”
Gen 49:19 {s} Gad’s blessing (of Zilpah, Leah’s maid)
Gen 49:20 {s} Asher’s blessing (of Zilpah, Leah’s maid)
Gen 49:21 {s} Naphtali’s blessing (of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid)
Gen 49:22-26 {p} Joseph’s blessing (of Rachel)
Gen 49:1-26 chiastic structure
1a.1) Gen 49:1-2 And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days: Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father;
1a.2) Gen 49:3-4 {p} Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength/ The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it— he went up to my couch;
1b) Gen 49:5-13 {px3} Jacob confers the birthright to Judah;
1a) Gen 49:5-7 {p} Simeon + Levi: cruelty, anger, self-will in their dwelling/ scattered in Israel;
1b) Gen 49:8-9 The praiseworthy, victorious Lion of Judah;
1c) Gen 49:10a The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet;
central axis) Gen 49:10b Until Shiloh comes;
2c) Gen 49:10c And to Him shall be the obedience of the people;
2b) Gen 49:11-12 {p} His garments dipped in the blood of grapes (Rev 19:13);
2a) Gen 49:13 {p} Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea;
1c) Gen 49:14-16 {s+s} The blessing on Issachar + Dan: work, judgment;
central axis) Gen 49:18 {s} I have waited for your salvation (Yeshua) O YHVH!
2c) Gen 49: 19-21 {sx3} The blessing on Gad + Asher + Naphtali: victory, prosperity, beauty;
2b) Gen 49:22-25 Jacob confers the blessing to Joseph;
1a) Gen 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall;
1b) Gen 49:23-24a The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him. But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob;
central axis) Gen 49:24b From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel;
2b) Gen 49:25a By the God of your father who will help you, and by the Almighty;
2a) Gen 49:25b Who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb;
2a.1) Gen 49:26a The blessings of your father;
2a.2) Gen 49:26b {p} 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.
A1 pair: Jacob gathered together his sons to hear the blessing that he would confer upon them.
A2 pair: Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn, and the firstborn is normally the head of the sons of the family. But the blessing on Joseph, the firstborn of Rachel, highlighted what would be poured out on his head, and the crown of his head, crowns being symbolic of headship status. Reuben had an opportunity to continue in the excellency of his father, but squandered it. Therefore the excellency of the blessings of Jacob’s ancestors fell to Joseph.
B pair: The inheritance of fathers conferred upon the firstborn was normally a dual inheritance of right to rule the family along with a double portion of wealth. Jacob split the inheritance of his fathers into two parts, and conferred the birthright, or the right of rule, to Judah, and the blessing to Joseph. Judah and Joseph and the tribal fathers of the two witnesses found throughout Scripture.
Each of the smaller structures in the B pair, interestingly enough, have a prophecy of Messiah as their central axis. Shiloh means, the peaceable one, as in Isa 9:6, the Prince of Peace, and Luk 2:14, He whose birth brings peace on earth. The Shepherd, the Stone of Israel is fulfilled in Joh 10:11, Yeshua as the Good Shepherd, and is found in Isa 28:16, Messiah the foundation stone which the builders rejected.
C pair: I see 1C, work and judgment, as a contrast to 2C, victory, prosperity, and beauty. I will be going into these paragraphs in detail when I get to them in my daily Genesis study. But that Dan is compared to a serpent striking the heel brings to mind Gen 3:15 and the prophecy of the Promised Seed. What I am seeing is a gospel of salvation by works in the 1C pair, contrasted to a gospel of salvation by faith through grace in the 2C pair. More on that in the weeks to come.
Central axis: The Hebrew word, salvation, is literally the meaning of the name, Yeshua. He is the salvation for which Israel waits. And He is coming!
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