On Genesis, Part 58: Premonitions

On Genesis, Part 58: Premonitions

As we have already discussed at length where Jacob had first blessed the sons of Joseph in Genesis chapter 48, thereby leaving his favorite son with the inheritance of The Double Portion, Jacob was ill and he knew that he was about to die, at the age of a hundred and forty-seven years, which was some time around 1648 BC. While Abraham had lived to be a hundred and seventy-five years old, and Isaac lived even longer, having attained a hundred and eighty years, the typical lifespans of men in general seem to have been gradually getting shorter over the many centuries which followed the Flood of Noah, and now at this point it has been fifteen hundred and thirty-eight years since that event had occurred. Following the death of his father, at which time he was about fifty-seven years old, Joseph would live to be only a hundred and ten, although Levi lived for a hundred and thirty-seven years and his son Kohath for a hundred and thirty-three (Exodus 6:16-18).

Perhaps Joseph’s shorter lifespan could be seen as an act of mercy by Yahweh God, rather than as a curse, as life gets more difficult for men as they advance in age. It certainly is evident that Jacob did not want to live as long as he did, and when he had first arrived in Egypt, at the age of a hundred and thirty, and he was reunited with Joseph, he is recorded in Genesis chapter 46 as having said to him: “30... Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.” But perhaps Yahweh kept Jacob alive for another seventeen years so that Ephraim and Manasseh could receive his blessing as young men, rather than as young boys. The fact that Joseph and his two sons were blessed first by Jacob, and apart from the others, is quite significant, since they were the recipients not only of the double-portion of the inheritance, but they had also explicitly received the greater promises which were made to Abraham, and passed on to Jacob.

While all twelve of the tribes of Israel are heirs of Jacob, and therefore they all shall share in the promises to Abraham, out of them all Jacob had only blessed Manasseh and Ephraim with the promise of becoming a great nation and a company of nations. The other sons of Jacob were not given such blessings. So Manasseh and Ephraim were the primary recipients of the promises to Abraham which had been elaborated upon in Genesis chapter 17, where we read in words attributed to Yahweh that: “4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. 5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.” Later, in Genesis chapter 35, Yahweh repeated this to Jacob where we read: “9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. 10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; 12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.”

So when Jacob had blessed Ephraim and Manasseh in Genesis chapter 48, in reference to them he told Joseph that “16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” Jacob did not say these things of his other sons, but only bestowed these promises upon Ephraim and Manasseh, and its significance cannot be overlooked. According to Jacob, his name belongs to Ephraim and Manasseh, as he explicitly left it to them, and not to the other tribes. Then speaking in reference first to the elder of Joseph’s sons, he said: “19… he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. 20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.”

Not even Judah could call himself Israel, without Ephraim and Manasseh. However as we shall see here, one important element of these promises to Abraham was left aside for Judah, and after him the remaining sons were blessed only with lesser promises, or with none at all. For many of them, these blessings are mere premonitions, and some of them are foreboding. These things we shall discuss at greater length as we read Jacob’s blessings for his sons, proceeding with Genesis chapter 49. Where Genesis chapter 48 had ended, Jacob was still speaking to Joseph, so it may well be that where this chapter continues, these events happened immediately thereafter, since there is no break in the context:

1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

The phrase “last days” is unfortunate here, at best. It was translated from a Hebrew phrase,באחרית הימים or acharith yomim. The word אחרית or acharith (# 319) is defined by Strong’s as “the last or end, hence the future” but its root word, אחר or achar (# 310) is defined as “properly the hind part; generally used as an adverb or conjunction, after (in various senses)”. So the phrase describes days which follow after, but which do not necessarily come last. The word ימים or yomim is a plural form of יום or yowm, which is a day but which also may be used figuratively of some other longer period of time, such as an era or an epoch.

Unfortunately, the Septuagint translators also have “the last days”, as Brenton translated the corresponding Greek (ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν). But the New American Standard Bible did well to translate the Hebrew phrase here as “the days to come”. So the phrase translated as “the last days” simply refers to what would happen in the future, and not in connection to much later Christian eschatology. The promises which follow begin to be fulfilled in the formative years of Israel as a nation, which is sufficient proof of the veracity of our interpretation.

2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

Without elaboration, Jacob now begins to bless his sons, but not all of his sons are blessed. His words also represent his final statements to them, and his own judgement of their individual characters and deeds, while making premonitions foreboding their futures. Jacob’s first four sons are named in the order of their births:

3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: 4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

So on account of his incontinence and fornication, Jacob had nothing for Reuben, and while Reuben had a tribe in Israel, it had been granted only a small territory east of the River Jordan, on the northeast banks of the Dead Sea, where it was evidently not very notable. Later, when Moses had blessed the tribes after the Exodus, he made an appeal for Reuben which is recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 33: “6 Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.” Not having given Reuben any particular blessing, Jacob only described aspects of his personality and the inevitable result of his behavior.

The Septuagint has an interpretation of this verse which may more accurately reflect Jacob’s assessment of his son, since the words translated as excellency and dignity may also be interpreted in a negative manner: “Genesis 49:3 Ruben, thou art my first-born, thou my strength, and the first of my children, hard to be endured, hard and self-willed.”

Now Jacob once again expresses his disappointment, or even anger, with Simeon and Levi for what he thought of their actions at Shechem after the rape of Dinah:

5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. 6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

The Septuagint has the last half of verse 6 to read: “… for in their wrath they slew men, and in their passion they houghed a bull.”

Just as there was no blessing for Reuben, neither is there any blessing in these words of Jacob for either Simeon or Levi. Instead, they were given this premonition that they were to be scattered in Israel, and they both had been scattered, although it was fulfilled in somewhat different ways. The fate of these three sons and their descendants would be in the hands of God, and it should be held without doubt that these latter two would be scattered in Israel, the name which Jacob had already left to Ephraim and Manasseh, so we cannot expect to identify either of them as distinct tribes or nations today.

In the later occupation of Canaan, when Simeon is granted his inheritance in the land of Israel, it is entirely within the borders of Judah. In the time of David, the tribe of Simeon is described as having contributed significant numbers to his army, in 1 Chronicles chapter 12, and Simeon is also mentioned along with other tribes of Israel in the accounts of the reforms of both Asa (2 Chronicles 15) and Josiah (2 Chronicles 34), kings of Judah who lived and ruled over two centuries apart from one another, but who had both also taken an interest in the affairs of Israel as well as Judah. From this it is evident that throughout the history of the Old Kingdom, Simeon remained distinct in spite of being within the borders of Judah.

Therefore, in spite of the fact that ten tribes were said to have joined Jeroboam in the northern Kingdom, which must have included Simeon and which counted only Judah and Benjamin as part of the kingdom of Judah, there were still a number of Simeonites in their land in Judah in the time of Josiah, which is decades after the Assyrian deportations of Israel had ended. That in itself is not an indication that all of Simeon had remained, because sixty years before Josiah became king, a portion of Simeon must also have been taken captive by the Assyrian king Sennacherib along with the captivity of a large part of Judah in the days of Hezekiah. While after the time of Josiah, a portion of a remnant of Simeon must have also been taken by the Babylonians, who had taken most of the balance of Judah into captivity, that would also only help to fulfill Jacob’s words, because none of the tribe of Simeon were said to have returned to Judaea with Zerubbabel, Nehemiah or Ezra, and they are not mentioned again in Scripture.

Therefore it seems that in that manner, Simeon was ultimately scattered in Israel, but not in the period of the Old Kingdom. One fault of many denominational commentators in interpreting these verses, is to tie these premonitions to the lot of each tribe as it was in Canaan, and the premonitions themselves have little or even no relationship to the land which had been consigned to the tribes in Canaan.

Now here Jacob had nothing for Simeon, and in his own later blessing of the tribes in Deuteronomy chapter 33, Moses did not bless Simeon. Moses had blessed all of the tribes of Israel, having been appointed by God as the judge of them all, but he evidently neglected to have even mentioned Simeon. Neither did Jacob have anything for Levi, however Yahweh God had another plan, and Yahweh must have known much more about the events at Shechem, or the worthiness of any of his sons, than Jacob could have known.

All of Jacob’s words were upheld by Yahweh, however while Simeon’s lot seems to have remained diminished, Levi was augmented. Levi was scattered in Israel, but for good, and having rewarded Levi with a priesthood, Yahweh nevertheless upheld Jacob’s words here because as a family of priests, they were indeed scattered throughout Israel, even much earlier than Simeon. While Moses may be considered a biased witness, because he himself was of the tribe of Levi, he had praised Levi in his blessing where we read, in Deuteronomy chapter 33: “8 And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; 9 Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant. 10 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. 11 Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again.”

Now Jacob addresses his fourth son, and leaves to him an exalted status which he must have intentionally held back from Joseph:

8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. 9 Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

The gathering of the people won’t be to Judah, but to Shiloh, which is a prophesy of the Messiah.

When we discussed the blessings given to the sons of Joseph, we had also described the tensions between the tribes of Joseph and Judah which would evidently stem from these blessings. Jacob’s blessing of Joseph desired him to be the most fruitful among the tribes, but his blessing of Judah is a premonition that Judah would be the ruling tribe. So there would be envy between these two tribes, Ephraim and Judah, which would last for the ages, and which is prophesied not to come to an ultimate end until the time of the fulfillment of a Messianic prophecy which is found in Isaiah chapter 11.

The prophecy of the sceptre of Judah which Jacob utters here begins to be fulfilled through the descendants of his son Pharez in the person of David when he became king of Israel, although it seems to have materialized even earlier, in the descendants of his son Zarah, some of whom were mentioned among the rulers of some of the “nations round about” to whom Solomon was compared in wisdom, in 1 Kings chapter 4 (4:31).

Here we also have a Messianic prophecy, where Jacob asked “who shall rouse him up?” and also said that he would retain the sceptre “until Shiloh come, and unto him [Shiloh] shall the gathering of the people be.” That same Messianic prophecy of Isaiah chapter 11 describes such a gathering, where we read in part: “10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the [Nations] seek: and his rest shall be glorious. 11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.” Paul had related that root of Jesse to Christ in Romans chapter 15, and Christ identified Himself as that root, where He declared Himself to be “the root and the offspring of David” in Revelation chapter 22. Moreover, Judah is described as a lion’s whelp, so Jacob is actually referring to himself as a lion. Later Yahshua Christ declared that He is “the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David”, in Revelation chapter 5.

The meaning of the word שׁילה or shiloh (# 7886) is debated. The original Strong’s Concordance defines it simply as tranquil, deriving it from a verb, שלה or שלו, shalah or shalu, which means “to be tranquil; i.e. secure or successful.” The Gesenius lexicon defines it similarly and derives it from the same root, but adds that in a concrete sense it could describe “the peacable one, peace-maker; either understanding the Messiah (compare שר שלום Isaiah 9:5) or Solomon (compare שלמה [in] 1 Chronicles 22:9)…” [1] In that last passage, in words spoken to David the king is told by Yahweh that he would have a son and “his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.” The word for peace there is שׁלום or shalowm, and the Hebrew form of the name Solomon also means peace, from a related form of the same word. In Isaiah 9:5, or 9:6 in the King James Version, the phrase שר שלום or shar shalowm is appropriately translated as Prince of Peace.

However contrary to these two lexicons, the Brown, Driver, Briggs lexicon tentatively attributes the word שׁילה or shiloh to the same root from which Strong and Gesenius had derived it, where it has “probably = שלו ", but then they strangely define it to mean “he whose it is or that which belongs to him”, accompanied with several other speculative definitions. [2] The word from which they derive the term is spelled the same as the verb which means to be tranquil, but it has different rabbinical vowel points, which only causes confusion because they have no matching entry on the expected pages, and therefore they seem to leave us without authority for their speculation. The reading of the meaning of Shiloh in the Brown, Driver, Briggs lexicon does seem to be corroborated in the Septuagint, however, where verse 10 reads: “10 A ruler shall not fail from Juda, nor a prince from his loins, until there come the things stored up for him; and he is the expectation of nations.”

In any event, we would indeed see these words of Jacob as a Messianic prophecy relating to the tribe of Judah, and we would indeed reference them to Isaiah chapter 9 where we read: “6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” The critics protest that those words are prophetic only of Hezekiah, however his kingdom certainly did come to an end, and he fulfilled only parts of this prophecy for a short time. In truth, the words of the prophets have both immediate and transcendental, far-reaching meanings, and many of Isaiah’s far-reaching prophecies have come true with remarkable accuracy. It would also have been blasphemy if anyone in Israel had ever applied most of those labels to Hezekiah. Furthermore, while the Septuagint has a very different reading in Isaiah 9:6, the passage as it was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls fully supports the reading which is in the Masoretic Text.

Later, Moses had blessed Judah only briefly, and in a prayer, where, as it is recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 33, he said: “7 And this is the blessing of Juda; Hear, Lord, the voice of Juda, and do thou visit his people: his hands shall contend for him, and thou shalt be a help from his enemies.”

There are many Identity Christians today, especially of the British Israel variety, who imagine that on account of this and other prophecies, the sceptre of Judah and the throne of David must be ruling over Christians today. While it is plausible that at least some of the rulers in Christendom may now or may have in the past represented either or both of these entities, the truth is that the tabernacle of David is said to have fallen, in Amos chapter 9. But Yahshua Christ, in the Revelation, has asserted that He holds the Key of David, in Revelation chapter 3, and that He is our King. His purpose, as it is described in Amos chapter 9 and in Acts chapter 15, is to “build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down”.

In 1 Samuel chapter 8, the children of Israel had rejected Yahweh as King, and demanded an earthly king. But now Christ has inherited the sceptre of Judah, and the children of Israel are once again, and for the last two thousand years, in that same ancient predicament. They can look to Christ as King, or they can continue to pursue earthly kings, in whom there is no hope.

Jacob continues in reference to Judah:

11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: 12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

In spite of Judah’s actions in Dothan, where he desired to sell his brother Joseph into slavery, Jacob must have had very high esteem for his fourth son. However it is evident that the perspective of man is limited, and it is very likely that Jacob had never even heard a detailed account of Judah’s role in that event, since Judah’s plan had failed, and Reuben actually had much better intentions.

These words are a continuation of the Messianic prophecy of verses 9 and 10. While we do not know if a vine is involved, the ass in the account from Matthew chapter 21 must have been tied to something, so Christ had given his disciples these instructions: “2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. 3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. 4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.”

The grapes of the winepress are later used as an allegory in another Messianic prophecy, found in Isaiah chapter 63: “3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” So this allegory is repeated again in Revelation chapter 14: “19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” Finally, it is found once again in Revelation chapter 19: “11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.”

This verse in Genesis reads somewhat differently in the Septuagint, where Brenton has: “11 Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his ass to the branch of it, he shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.” But whether the ass is bound to the choice vine, or to a branch of the vine, the text seems to evoke the words of Christ to His apostles where He said “I am the vine, you are the branches”, and that in turn seems to be symbolic of the ties between the Messiah, who rode into Jerusalem on an ass and was proclaimed to be King, and Israel, for whom He came and over whom He shall ultimately rule. So Judah would bind his foal unto that vine.

So these premonitions of Jacob in reference to Judah certainly do seem to bind his fate to that of the Messiah of Israel, indicating that the Messiah would be of Judah, and that is why Jacob had also assigned to Judah the sceptre, so it would ultimately be inherited by Christ, and he would be King over Israel once again.

13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.

The first four sons of Jacob were named in the order of their births, but here the order is broken. Zebulun was the sixth son of Jacob by his wife Leah, mentioned here before Issachar, who was his fifth son with Leah. The four sons of the bondmaids were all born before Zebulun and Issachar, the youngest sons of Leah, but it is evident that having been the sons of slaves, they would not have the same precedence. So Zebulun was actually Jacob’s tenth son, as Rachel had not yet had any children at the time when he was born.

At least most of the Bible maps of the division of the land of Canaan among the tribes of Israel seem to be unreliable in one way or another. On one map, the borders of Zebulun stretch to the Sea of Chinneroth, which was never known as the Sea of Galilee in the Old Testament, and also to the Mediterranean [3]. But that is not at all accurate according to the account of Zebulun’s inheritance as it is described in Joshua chapter 19, where the land of Zebulun was apparently landlocked. Most Bible maps do show the inheritance of Zebulun as having been landlocked. So once again it is apparent that these premonitions have nothing to do with the division of the land of Canaan. Rather, the blessings which Jacob bestowed on each of his sons transcend their future experience in Canaan. Otherwise, neither Reuben nor Simeon should have had any land at all in Canaan, because they were promised nothing here, and Jacob said that Simeon would be scattered in Israel.

Neither did Zebulun have his border near the ancient city of Sidon, or Zidon. But the Hebrew word translated as Zidon here, צִידוֹן or צִידֹן, tsidown or tsidon (# 6721), is defined by Strong’s as a fishery, and although the Brown Driver Briggs lexicon fails to define the word [4], Gesenius has “fishing”. In Gesenius, the word צידה or tsidah (# 6720) is defined as food, and the root word ציד or tsid (#’s 6718-19) is defined as a hunter, hunting, or the prey taken in hunting, where Genesis 25:28 is offered as an example. [5] That the words can also refer to a fisher or fishing is evident where a shorter word צי or tsi (# 6716) is commonly a ship, and that accords with the context provided here. Perhaps Jacob meant צִידוֹן or tsidown literally, and not as a reference to the city of Sidon, which the border of Zebulun had never reached.

But another aspect of these blessings which we must discuss here are the frequent attempts to identify specific tribes of Israel with specific Christian nations. For example, a book which was once quite popular with adherents of the early variant of Christian Identity which is called British-Israel had declared that modern Holland must represent Zebulun, because of its location and its fame for shipping.

All such attempts are folly, because the vast majority of the people of the tribes of Israel had lost their entire sense of identity in the period subsequent to the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, and in the migratory period which followed those captivities. Moreover, they were destined to lose the insignia and the emblems of their nationhood as Israel, where as a part of their punishment in the captivity we read in Hosea chapter 3: “4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.” That this describes the period leading up to the coming of Christ is then evident where it continues and says: “5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.”

So for an extended period of time in their migrations, having had no images, no teraphim, no kings and no priests, who are represented here by the ephods which they had worn, all of the modern symbols of the families and nations of Christendom were only developed at a much later time, and have no substantial connections to their ancient history as Israel. Only a certain few of the nations of the West retained historical symbols which are connected to the ancient world, because those nations had developed in the early centuries during which the children of Israel had been migrating to the west by sea.

But even those nations suffered subsequent waves of migration at various times. For an example, Ireland, England, and especially Wales, seem to have first been settled by Phoenicians, who may have found even earlier inhabitants in various places. Some of the national symbols used by those nations have evidently been used since long before the time of Christ. But a few centuries before Christ there was an influx of Kimmerians, called Cymry in Britain, and after that, the Romans. Then later, after the fall of Rome, the Jutes, Angles and Saxons of the Medieval period invaded England. Even later, there were Danes, and finally the Normans. There were also the Picts, who had apparently migrated from Germany to Scotland some time before the Romans invaded Britain. During the medieval period, many Slavs were imported into Britain as slaves. Elements of all of these tribes are found in the populations of England and Wales today.

Now Jacob offers a foreboding premonition concerning Issachar, his fifth son from Leah, but his ninth son overall:

14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: 15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.

These two burdens cannot reflect the situation of the land of Issachar in Canaan, which bordered on three tribes according to some maps, and four according to others. But one map, sold as a print by an organization called St. Mary’s Press, quite creatively has the land of Issachar bordering on only two tribes, Naphtali and Manasseh, where they seem to be trying to force the premonitions of Jacob into the land of Canaan, except that they also fail, having left the land of Zebulun landlocked. [6]

All of Israel had become slaves in Egypt, and at diverse times, all or most of Israel were under tribute to various nations during the period of the Judges. Yet this premonition seems to assign Issachar to a unique position as a servant under tribute, apart from and beyond the experiences of the other tribes. Historically, many of the nations descended from Israel have been under tribute at various times, and while it is not entirely apparent in the modern world, some of them still are. But it would still be difficult to single any one of them out as Issachar, and the words may just as fully come to fruition if the people of the tribe of Issachar exist under tribute within the nations of Manasseh and Ephraim.

However, the Septuagint version of the blessing of Issachar is quite different, where we read: “14 Issachar has desired that which is good; resting between the inheritances. 15 And having seen the resting place that it was good, and the land that it was fertile, he subjected his shoulder to labour, and became a husbandman. ” I do not think that the Septuagint version of these promises is accurate, and I am even persuaded that the Septuagint translators had been trying to interpret Jacob’s premonitions to make them fit into the context of the allotments of land to the tribes of Israel in Canaan.

Here we must remark, that there must have been personal circumstances between Jacob and his sons in their daily lives, as well as certain characteristics which each of them may have typically displayed, which led him to make these premonitions, as they are his final blessings for each of them, and they are clearly not all blessings. Thus far, after having blessed all six of the sons of Leah, only Judah and Zebulun seem to have actually been blessed.

In Deuteronomy chapter 33, Moses had blessed Zebulun and Issachar together where he said: “18 And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents. 19 They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand.” So this seems to augment Jacob’s premonition in relation to Zebulun, that he would live off the sea in the proximity of a fishery. Moses has blessed Issachar likewise, in spite of the fact that Jacob had said that he would remain under tribute, unless we would rather accept the Septuagint’s version of the blessing of Issachar which forebodes better for him, but it is nevertheless contrary to the blessing of Moses. But here we must say, that the blessings of Moses upon the twelve tribes cannot be interpreted as a revocation or a contradiction of Jacob’s blessings, but rather, those of Moses could only add to and augment those of Jacob.

Next is Dan, who was Jacob’s fifth son overall, and the firstborn from Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid.

16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

The tribe of Dan was one of the first seagoing tribes of Israel, which is evident of both Dan and Asher in the song of Deborah as it is recorded in Judges chapter 5 where she celebrated the victory of Barak over the Canaanites and said in part: “17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.” In the next verse, she lauded Naphtali and Zebulon for their parts in the battle, but evidently Dan and Asher were too busy playing at sea, and Gad, whose territory included ancient Gilead, had stayed at home.

As a seagoing tribe, which is also evident from Greek myths which reflect the history of Dan in the captivity of Egypt, Dan had left his name in various places in Europe, so it seems that his lying in the path to await his adversaries, as a serpent would await its prey, certainly does have a transcendental meaning. Of all the nations of Europe the connection of Dan to the Danes, as well as the ancients Danaans of the accounts of the Greeks and the Irish, are the most plausible.

Moses blessed Dan briefly in Deuteronomy chapter 33: “22 And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan.”

Now Jacob makes an exclamation which is seemingly unrelated to what precedes or follows:

18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

The Septuagint has this verse as a continuation of the sentence in verse 17, in relation to Dan, where it says “waiting for the salvation of the Lord.” The verb translated as wait here, קות or qavah (# 6960), has a letter י or yodh affixed to the end as a suffix, which indicates that it is used in the first person, where Jacob is describing himself and not any of his sons. Neither is he speaking directly to his sons, but only seems to be making a prayer as an exclamation in the midst of his address to his sons. As we have seen throughout the account of his life in Genesis, this was a significant aspect of Jacob’s own character, even to the point where he had not married until he was seventy years old, and only after his father Isaac sent him to Haran to find a wife. For that same reason, he was angry with Simeon and Levi for having taken the vengeance for the rape of Dinah into their own hands.

Now Gad is the first son of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, and the seventh son of Jacob:

19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.

This premonition is also foreboding, but Gad, a name which means troop, would overcome those who overcome him. Later, where Moses blessed Gad, he seems to have been much more generous, and described him in a role which Jacob had already assigned to Judah and to Dan: “20 And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head. 21 And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with Israel.”

Next is Asher, the second son of Zilpah and Jacob’s eighth son overall:

20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.

The blessing of Moses for Asher seems to agree with this, in Deuteronomy chapter 33, where he prayed: “24 And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. 25 Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.” It is most likely that Moses had olive oil in mind, which is an expensive commodity, so it represents the same luxury which Asher seems to have been promised here.

In Canaan, the territory of the seagoing tribe of Asher included the famous mercantile city of Tyre, which certainly came to belong to the children of Israel, and from which many colonies had been founded along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea as well as the European coasts of the Atlantic Ocean. There is archaeological evidence that the Phoenicians, which was a later Greek name for the inhabitants of the coasts of Israel and parts of Syria, from the time of the Old Testament kingdom period, had brought and planted olive trees wherever they settled in Europe and northern Africa. Those Phoenicians certainly were the northern tribes of Israel.

However, as we shall see, Naphtali may also have had a significant hand in the mercantile and colonizing activities of ancient Tyre:

The younger brother of Dan, Naphtali is the second son of Bilhah the handmaid of Rachel, and the sixth son of Jacob in the order of their births as they are recorded in Genesis:

21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.

Naphtali is a hind let loose: Since Israel was in captivity, this seems to be a premonition of the tribe of Naphtali once Israel is let out of captivity, as a hind let loose would certainly run away. The Septuagint has a similar implication in very different words, where it says “21 Nephthalim is a spreading stem, bestowing beauty on its fruit.”

On the popular Bible maps, the eastern border of the territory of Naphtali occupies most of the shore of the western half of the Sea of Chinneroth, but the territory is landlocked to its west, where it borders the land of Asher. But in the Septuagint, where the inheritance of the land is described in Joshua chapter 19, there is some significant language which is wanting in the Masoretic Text. There we read in part: “35 And the walled cities of the Tyrians, Tyre, and Omathadaketh, and Kenereth.” Evidently, Kenereth or Chinnereth was a walled city which the more ancient Tyrians had on the Sea of Chinneroth. The city Omathadaketh, or in some interpretations, Omatha and Daketh, is the reading found in the Codex Vaticanus, and the places are otherwise unknown. But the reading in the Codex Alexandrinus is Rekkath, or the Biblical Rakkath of the Hebrew for that same passage, and that city later became the site of the Roman-era city Tiberias, which appears in the Gospel accounts.

But Tyre was on the coast of Asher, and there was a rock rather close off the coast upon which a city was later built, also called Tyre, and according to Flavius Josephus, Tyre was built two hundred and forty years before Solomon had built the temple in Jerusalem. In any event, Tyre was not one of the places where the children of Israel had let the Canaanites remain, so by the time of the Judges period it was an entirely Israelite city. Therefore when David became king in Israel, Hiram the king of Tyre subjected himself to him.

In Deuteronomy chapter 33, Moses blessed Naphtali generously where we read: “23 And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the LORD: possess thou the west and the south.” This makes the passages concerning Tyre in the allotment of land to Naphtali even more significant, so the tribe would be able to reach the west and the south.

Now while Jacob has already blessed Joseph and his sons with the double portion, here he blesses Joseph once again, before all of his sons, in a manner which is consistent with his earlier blessings:

22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

The Septuagint has an odd version of this verse, which actually compels me to discredit the differences it has in this chapter, because it reflects something which is not true where Brenton has: “22 Joseph is a son increased; my dearly loved son is increased; my youngest son, turn to me.” Of course, Joseph is not Jacob’s youngest son, and he would not have been addressed in that manner, especially in the presence of Benjamin. There are other differences in the interpretation of this blessing of Joseph which also seem to be quite odd, but we shall neglect them because overall, they are rather trivial.

Continuing the blessing of Joseph:

23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob;

All of Israel had used the bow, and when they later migrated into Europe as the Germanic tribes, they were renowned for their use of the bow. But where Jacob said that Joseph would be fruitful, he alludes to the meaning of the name of Ephraim, and where it says that his branches run over the wall, it means that he will not be contained by borders, but would rather outgrow them. Now at the end of this verse there is a parenthetical remark:

(from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)

This statement should not be interpreted as if it had referred to Joseph. To the contrary, “from thence” is a direct reference to the mighty God of Jacob, who was mentioned immediately preceding these words. From the God of Jacob is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. Yahshua Christ describes Himself as the Good Shepherd, a reference to certain prophecies that Yahweh would be the shepherd of Israel, for example in Ezekiel chapter 34 where we read, in part: “11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. ”

Elsewhere, Yahshua Christ had also proclaimed Himself to be the Stone of Israel, in His assertion of a prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 28 where we read in Matthew chapter 21: “42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?” The apostles accepted this as a prophecy of Christ, and knew that saying those things, He was referring to Himself, for example where Paul had written in Ephesians chapter 2 that “19… ye are … fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. The apostle Peter explained this in greater detail, where we read in chapter 2 of his first epistle: “5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.”

So here we would assert that Jacob has prophesied the coming of Christ as both the Good Shepherd and the chief corner stone of the children of Israel. But the Septuagint has a quite different reading, where Brenton translated the corresponding Greek as: “24 But their bow and arrows were mightily consumed, and the sinews of their arms were slackened by the hand of the mighty one of Jacob; thence is he that strengthened Israel from the God of thy father”. The last few words of that passage from Brenton are found in the opening clause of verse 25. The King James Version is translated correctly from the Hebrew, but the passage is lost, along with most of the final two chapters of Genesis, in the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Latin of the Vulgate agrees with the Masoretic Text.

Now Jacob continues his blessing of Joseph:

25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: 26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

Here, before all of his sons, and over and above all of his sons, Jacob blessed Joseph, once again confirming that the promises which Yahweh God had made to him and to his fathers would be passed on to Joseph. None of his other sons received similar blessings, with the exception of Judah, yet even Judah’s blessing seems to pale in comparison. Furthermore, it may very well be that Jacob had remembered the dreams of Joseph, in which his parents and brethren had been portrayed as having subjected themselves to him, when he was only seventeen years old, and when they were fulfilled in Egypt, took them to heart as an indication that Joseph was indeed worthy of these blessings and premonitions.

Moses had also blessed Joseph abundantly, and in a manner consistent with Jacob’s blessings for his favorite son, where we read in Deuteronomy chapter 33: “13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, 14 And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, 15 And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, 16 And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. 17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

The last line, prophesying that Joseph would push the people to the ends of the earth, like a bullock with his horns, is indicative of the great nation and company of nations promised by Jacob in his blessings for Ephraim and Manasseh.

Joseph was Jacob’s eleventh son, and now there is a premonition for Benjamin, his twelfth and final son:

27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.

To ravin is to plunder or pillage, which is an interpretation of the Hebrew word טרף or taraph (# 2963), which means to tear in pieces. Here Benjamin is foreseen as a bandit, a marauder, and historically there have been such marauders from many European nations, and especially the Saxons and the Norsemen. But once again, the tribe of Benjamin cannot be positively identified from that characteristic alone. Neither does it seem that Benjamin ever fulfilled this premonition in the land of Canaan.

In Deuteronomy chapter 33, Moses had blessed Benjamin even before Joseph, and said: “12 And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.” So while Jacob described Benjamin as a marauder, Moses prayed that Benjamin would serve as a protector, and also that he would be protected by Yahweh.

Now Moses comments on the conclusion of the blessings of Jacob:

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

Until the Exodus, Israel was in captivity and the pharaoh was their king. Once they were released from captivity, Yahweh God was King in Israel until Israel had demanded an earthly king, in 1 Samuel chapter 8. So in spite of the wonders of the Exodus, the government which He ordained for His people lasted only about four hundred and fifty years, a figure which is inclusive of the life of Samuel, and therefore also of the time of the reign of Saul. Then, with the succession of David, Judah held the sceptre over Israel, but that only lasted for eighty years, which is the apparent combined lengths of the rules of David and Solomon, after which the kingdom was divided.

Then with the divided kingdom, the first king, Jeroboam I, the son of Nebat, was of the tribe of Ephraim, and his son Nadab ruled after him. But not all of the kings of Israel were of Ephraim. Only two years after Nadab succeeded his father, Baasha killed him and ruled after him, and he was said to have been of the tribe of Issachar (1 Kings 15:27). He ruled Israel at Tirzah in the land of Manasseh for twenty-four years. Later, Baasha died and his son Elah succeeded him, but Elah ruled only two years and was slain by Zimri, who himself had been overthrown within a week. For the next four years Israel was divided, and Omri would compete with the leader of another faction named Tibni, until he died and Omri became king of Israel. The Scripture is silent concerning the tribe from which either of these men had originated, but it is later made evident that Omri must have been of Ephraim, where it is described in 1 Kings chapter 16 where we read: “28 So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria: and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.”

The prophet Elijah was told by Yahweh to anoint Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi as king over Israel(1 Kings 19:16), but his tribe is not identified until his death, where it is recorded in 2 Kings chapter 10 that “35… Jehu slept with his fathers: and they buried him in Samaria.” So Jehu, who destroyed the house of Ahab, and the three sons which succeeded him, must have also been of the tribe of Ephraim.

During the period of the last five kings of Israel, whose backgrounds are all mostly obscure, the Assyrian deportations of Israel had begun, and their combined rule was only for about twenty years. The Assyrian documents of the period describe Israel as the Bit Khumri, or House of Omri. That name must have stood out from earlier diplomatic relations, as the Assyrian Empire had begun expanding into the Levant at the time of Omri, and the name of Ahab the son of Omri has survived in at least one notable Assyrian inscription, where he was said to have sent 2,000 chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers against Assyria as part of a defensive army, in league with the king of Damascus and other Syrian rulers. The inscription is from the early years of the rule of Assyrian king Shalmaneser III who ruled from about 858 to 824 BC. [7]

In the prophecy of Isaiah, the name of Ephraim was synonymous with Israel, for example in chapter 7 where we read “2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.” The analogy continues throughout Isaiah. Throughout the entire the prophecy of Hosea, all the northern kingdom, which consisted of the ten tribes, is identified with Ephraim, in fulfillment of Jacob’s words in Genesis chapter 48 where he said “bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac” and “In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.” In Jeremiah chapter 31 we read in words attributed to Yahweh “9 … for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.”

In the Assyrian deportations, the tribes of Israel were all confounded together, they had lost their distinct identities even as Israelites, and developed new identities in their migrations to new lands. While some analogies found in names or in national symbols seem to be indicative of tribal identity, or while some aspects of history seem to indicate an identity, contrary examples can always be found. England may have had wars with Germany, but at least as many, and probably even more, Angles, Saxon and Jutes had stayed behind in Germany rather than crossing the channel into Britain with Hengist and Horsa some time after the fall of Rome. England had also had wars with Scotland, and even many more wars with the Franks, with whom they fought one particular war for a hundred years.

So it is folly to imagine that any one European nation could possibly be associated with any single and particular tribe of ancient Israel, especially Simeon or Levi, who were deprived nationhood by their father. But attempts to do this have been popular among Identity Christians for some centuries, ever since the earliest archaeological discoveries had been made which inform us of the more general identities of the Germanic, Celtic and related tribes. Those same Christians often turn to heraldry seeking symbols and assuming that they may provide clues as to the identities of certain tribes. But while Roman legions had standards, heraldry as we know it in Europe did not begin to emerge until the 12th century AD. [8] Many coats of arms have symbols related to the Crusades against Islam, and many were created for the knights who participated in the medieval tournaments in which they competed. In Christian nations, it is only natural that Biblical symbols would have frequently been used in their designs. But there is no direct connection to any ancient tribal identity which by then had been lost for at least fifteen hundred years.

It is certain, on account of the premonitions in these blessings as well as the history of Israel in captivity, that all White Christian nations contain elements of each of the tribes of Israel.

Yahweh willing, we shall conclude Genesis chapter 49 along with chapter 50, in the very near future.

Footnotes

1 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Baker Books, 1979, p. 818.

2 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, p. 1010.

3 Map of the Twelve Tribes of Israel: 1400 BC, https://www.bible.ca/maps/bible-maps-master-index-borders-twelve-12-tribes-israel-promised-land-joshua13-22-conquest-1400BC.htm, accessed June 7th, 2024.

4 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, pp. 850-851.

5 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, p. 708.

6 Map of the Tribes of Israel Saint Mary's Press, https://freeredar.shop/product_details/50925499.html, accessed June 7th, 2024.

7 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Related to the Old Testament 3rd edition, James Pritchard, editor, 1969, Harvard University Press, pp. 276-279.]

8 See, for example, A Brief History of Heraldry, https://www.fleurdelis.com/briefhistory.htm accessed June 7th, 2024.