Genesis 49

בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים is "in the after-part of the days." The phrase recurs in Balaam's oracle (Num 24:14), in Moses' warnings (Deut 4:30; 31:29), and in the prophets for the time when the nations stream to Zion (Isa 2:2; Mic 4:1; Hos 3:5; Dan 10:14). The LXX has ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν "at the last of the days," and from it comes the eschatological reading. The RSV's "in days to come" makes it only the future. The rabbis took Jacob to be about to reveal the end and to have been stopped. Genesis Rabbah 98:2 and Targum Neofiti say the Presence departed from him; b. Pesahim 56a says his sons answered him with the Shema, "Hear, Israel," as v. 2 invites. "Latter end" keeps the noun (אַחֲרִית, from אַחַר "after") and decides neither way. "Meet" is קָרָא II, "what shall meet you" (42:4, 38; 44:29).

יֶתֶר is "excess, what is over," and שְׂאֵת is "a lifting," the bare infinitive of 4:7, filed apart by Strong's. The firstborn's lifting is his rank and the double share, and Reuben is twice "in excess." עָז is pointed as the adjective "fierce" (v. 7) but stands here as a noun, so it is printed "fierceness," a split by construction declared in its row. "The beginning of my vigor" (רֵאשִׁית אוֹנִי) is the firstborn in Deut 21:17 and Ps 78:51; Rachel's dying name for Benjamin, Ben-oni (35:18), may be heard in אוֹן. Reuben is the first son of the chapter, and the lifting he has in excess is what he loses in v. 4.

פַּחַז is found only here. Its verb is "reckless" in Judg 9:4 ("reckless men") and Zeph 3:4 ("her prophets are reckless"), and the noun פַּחֲזוּת is "recklessness" in Jer 23:32. Aramaic and Syriac use the root for wantonness and lust, which fits Reuben's deed (35:22). The versions take the water figure: the LXX ἐξύβρισας ὡς ὕδωρ "you burst out insolently like water," the Vulgate effusus es sicut aqua "you were poured out like water," Targum Onkelos "you went your own way like water." "Boiling over" keeps the water and the loss of control together. The KJV's "unstable" names only the second.

תּוֹתַר is the hiphil of יָתַר, whose row has only the niphal "remain." The hiphil is "make abound, have excess" (Deut 28:11; 30:9), and here it answers יֶתֶר "excess" in v. 3: Reuben had excess twice over, and he shall not have excess. The packet shows no earlier printing of this stem (unknown); the split is ruled (136). The pun is kept by printing the verb with the noun's English (17).

מְכֵרֹתֵיהֶם is found only here, and its meaning is not recovered, so it is transliterated (133d). The readings: (a) "their swords," from Greek μάχαιρα (Genesis Rabbah 99:6 and Rashi, citing the Greek; the RSV); (b) "their origins, habitations," from מְכוּרָה "origin" (Ezek 16:3; 21:35; the KJV after Kimhi); (c) "their counsels, plots," from כָּרָה "plan" (2 Kgs 6:23); the LXX συνετέλεσαν ἀδικίαν ἐξ αἱρέσεως αὐτῶν "they accomplished injustice out of their choosing" and the Vulgate vasa iniquitatis bellantia go their own ways; (d) "their bargains," from מָכַר "sell," the sale of Joseph (37:27–28), in which Simeon and Levi are held to have led (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan). "Articles of violence" are כְּלֵי חָמָס, and the deed is the slaughter at Shechem (34:25–31). The WPRB prints "swords," the reading the parallel "articles" supports.

כְּבֹדִי is "my glory" (31:1, H3519), parallel to נַפְשִׁי "my soul." The LXX τὰ ἥπατά μου "my livers" reads כְּבֵדִי "my liver," the organ of feeling, and modern versions follow it here and at Ps 16:9; 30:13; 57:9; 108:2, where "my glory" also stands beside the heart or soul. The Masoretic text is printed. כָּבוֹד is "glory" in every book (129k), and the person's weight and honour is a sense it has (45:13). "Secret" is סוֹד, the circle of the confided (Jer 23:18; Amos 3:7).

The Masoretic text has שׁוֹר "ox," and עִקֵּר is "hamstring," the cutting of a beast's tendons (Josh 11:6, 9; 2 Sam 8:4). The KJV follows a reading שׁוּר "wall": Targum Onkelos "they tore down the wall of their enemy," the Vulgate suffoderunt murum. No ketiv stands behind it. At Shechem the brothers took the oxen alive (34:28), so the hamstrung ox is a figure for wanton harm, as the parallel "they killed a man" makes it. "In their nose" is "in their anger" (39). רָצוֹן is "will" (Ps 40:9; Esth 1:8), what they pleased.

שֵׁבֶט is the rod: a shepherd's (Ps 23:4; Lev 27:32), a rod for striking (Exod 21:20; Prov 13:24), and the rod of rule, the sceptre (Num 24:17; Ps 2:9; 45:7). The same word names the tribes that carry it (vv. 16, 28), a split by construction declared in its row (20). "Rod" keeps the material word (39). Num 24:17 joins it to the star of Jacob, and the two verses were read together, in the Targums and in Christian writers, as the promise of a king.

מְחֹקֵק is the participle of חָקַק "inscribe, decree": the one who decrees (Prov 8:15 "rulers decree justice"; Isa 10:1; Judg 5:9, 14), or, in parallel with שֵׁבֶט, the staff of the one who decrees (Num 21:18, "with the decreer, with their staffs"; Ps 60:9). "From between his feet" fits a staff resting between the feet of a seated ruler, and also offspring, as in Deut 28:57; Targum Onkelos has "nor the scribe from his children's children." "One decreeing" keeps the participle and holds the person and his office; the staff is in this note.

The ketiv is שילה, the qere שִׁילוֹ; the sense is not changed. The word is not recovered, and it is transliterated (133d). The readings divide as follows. (a) שֶׁלּוֹ "he whose it is," with the old relative שֶׁ: the LXX ἕως ἂν ἔλθῃ τὰ ἀποκείμενα αὐτῷ "until the things laid up for him come" (other Greek witnesses ᾧ ἀπόκειται "he for whom it is laid up"), Ezek 21:32 ("until he comes whose is the judgment"), the Peshitta, the RSV. (b) A name of the Anointed: Targum Onkelos "until the anointed one comes, whose is the kingdom," Targum Neofiti "until the time when the king, the anointed one, comes"; b. Sanhedrin 98b, "Shiloh is his name"; Genesis Rabbah 98:8; Rashi. Christian interpreters from Justin Martyr (First Apology 32) took it of Christ, and the Vulgate translated donec veniat qui mittendus est "until he comes who is to be sent," reading שָׁלוּחַ. (c) The town: "until he comes to Shiloh," where the ark stood (Josh 18:1; 1 Sam 4:12, which has the same verb and form). (d) שַׁי לֹה "tribute to him," with a repointing (Isa 18:7; Ps 76:12), followed by NJPS, "so that tribute shall come to him," which also suits the next colon. The Masoretic syntax is printed, with Shiloh as the subject of "comes" and its meaning left in the Hebrew letters.

יִקְּהַת occurs again only at Prov 30:17, "the eye that… despises obedience to a mother," where the parallel is "mocks a father." The KJV's "gathering" takes it from קָהַל "assemble," and the LXX προσδοκία "expectation" from קָוָה. The verse is verbless and stays so (13).

חַכְלִילִי occurs only here; the noun חַכְלִלוּת at Prov 23:29 is the drunkard's "dimness of eyes." The colour is dark or dull rather than red, which is אָדֹם (25:30). The LXX χαροποιοὶ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ οἴνου "his eyes gladdening from wine" takes it as sparkle. The two מִן may be causal, "from wine… from milk," or comparative, "darker than wine… whiter than milk," which Targum Onkelos and Rashi read: the hills red with vineyards, the valleys white with flocks. English "from" holds the cause; the comparison is in this note.

יַרְכָה is the far or hind part: the rear of the tabernacle (Exod 26:22, 27), "the recesses of your house" (Ps 128:3), "the far reaches of the north" (Isa 14:13). It is of the root of יָרֵךְ "thigh" (24:2; 32:26), and "border" is גְּבוּל's. Zebulun's lot did not touch the sea in Josh 19:10–16; Deut 33:18–19 gives him "the abundance of the seas," and Isa 8:23 (Matt 4:15) "the way of the sea."

גֶּרֶם is "bone" (Prov 17:22; Job 40:18): "a donkey of bone," a big-framed beast of burden. "Bone" is עֶצֶם's, so the adjective is printed. מִשְׁפְּתַיִם is a dual found again only in Judg 5:16, where Reuben sits "among the folds" to hear the piping for the flocks; the sense is two pens or two loads, saddlebags on either side (the KJV's "burdens"). Issachar lies down under the load he ought to carry.

The cry interrupts the tribes and is the only time Jacob names ADONAI in the poem. קִוִּיתִי is the piel of קָוָה, whose niphal is "be pooled" (1:9; the waters gathered). The piel is to wait for, to hope (Ps 25:5; 40:2; Isa 40:31). "Wait" is יָחַל's, so the piel is printed "hope," a split by stem; the packet shows no earlier printing of the piel (unknown). The qatal is a perfect (15). יְשׁוּעָה is fixed here as "rescue." It is the help that brings someone out of danger: from Pharaoh's army (Exod 14:13), in battle (1 Sam 14:45; 2 Sam 23:10), and from enemies (Ps 3:3, 9). The English tradition's "salvation" turns a concrete act into a doctrine, and the WPRB keeps "rescue." The names יְהוֹשֻׁעַ "Joshua," יֵשׁוּעַ "Jeshua" and Ἰησοῦς "Jesus" (Matt 1:21, "for he will rescue his people") are of this root. Targum Neofiti and Pseudo-Jonathan put Jacob's words thus: "not for the rescue of Gideon, nor for the rescue of Samson, but for your rescue I wait," after the Danite Samson of v. 17. Both the gloss and the split are ruled (136).

אַיָּלָה שְׁלֻחָה is "a hind sent forth," the passive participle of שָׁלַח "send": a deer let go to run free. אִמְרֵי שָׁפֶר is "sayings of comeliness," with אֵמֶר from אָמַר "say" and שֶׁפֶר "beauty" (Aramaic שְׁפַר "be fair"). The RSV repoints אִמְּרֵי as "lambs, young" (Aramaic אִמְּרָא) and reads "fawns." The LXX reads the first noun as אֵלָה "terebinth": στέλεχος ἀνειμένον, ἐπιδιδοὺς ἐν τῷ γενήματι κάλλος "a stem let loose, putting forth beauty in its fruit." The participle הַנֹּתֵן "the one giving" is masculine, so the giver is Naphtali, not the hind. The Masoretic text is printed. Barak of Naphtali and Deborah's song (Judg 4–5) were read into it by the Targums.

בֵּן פֹּרָת is "son of a bearing-fruit": פֹּרָת is the feminine participle of פָּרָה "bear fruit," the verb of Ephraim's name (41:52; 48:4). "Son" is a shoot of a plant, as the "bough" of the versions takes it, and בָּנוֹת "daughters" in the third line are then its branches; the singular verb צָעֲדָה "she strides" with the plural "daughters" is a distributive singular, each of them. The second reading takes פֹּרָת as פֶּרֶא "wild ass" (16:12) and the daughters as wild she-asses on a ridge (Speiser; NJPS margin). The rabbis read the daughters as the women of Egypt climbing the wall to see Joseph's beauty (Targum Neofiti; Genesis Rabbah 98:18; Rashi). "A fruit-bearing son" keeps the home gloss and leaves plant and person open. עַיִן is "eye," also a spring (16:7, 125m); the WPRB has "spring."

אֵיתָן is "permanence," what does not fail: the perennial stream (Deut 21:4; Amos 5:24), the sea returning to its steady flow (Exod 14:27). The bow "dwelt in permanence," held without slackening; יָשַׁב takes "dwell" where the line names where (135n). פָּזַז is "be nimble," to be quick and agile, as David "leaping" (2 Sam 6:16); the KJV "made strong" follows the Targum. Some hear פָּז "fine gold" and read "his arms were gilded." Genesis Rabbah 98:20 and b. Sotah 36b read the verse of Joseph's restraint before Potiphar's wife: the bow is his manhood, and the hands of the Valiant One of Jacob held it firm.

אֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב is a title of Elohim found again at Ps 132:2, 5 and Isa 49:26; 60:16 (Isa 1:24 "of Israel"). The Masoretic pointing sets it apart from אַבִּיר "valiant one, stallion, bull" (Judg 5:22; Ps 22:13; 50:13), and some readers hear the bull-image of Elohim behind it (Exod 32; 1 Kgs 12:28). "Mighty one" is גִּבּוֹר's (6:4), so the title is printed "the Valiant One," which keeps the root sense and the title; the gloss is ruled (136c). מִשָּׁם "from there" is the Masoretic pointing; the Peshitta and Targum Onkelos and the RSV read מִשֵּׁם "by the name of." "The Shepherd" takes up 48:15, and "the Stone of Israel" the stone Jacob set up at Bethel (28:18–22; 35:14). Isa 28:16 and Ps 118:22 later speak of a stone that Adonai lays, and 1 Pet 2:4–8 reads them of Christ. "Rock" is left for צוּר.

The Masoretic text has וְאֵת שַׁדַּי "and with Shaddai," the preposition אֵת as in "with Adonai" (4:1). The Samaritan Pentateuch, the LXX (ὁ θεὸς ὁ ἐμός), the Peshitta and Targum Onkelos have וְאֵל שַׁדַּי "and El Shaddai," the name of 17:1; 35:11; 48:3. The Masoretic text is printed, so the line begins "from the El of your father… and with Shaddai." Shaddai stands alone as a name here and in Job (9).

שָׁדַיִם "breasts" sounds after Shaddai, who blesses: shaddai… shadayim. English cannot carry the sound with the home glosses, so it stays in this note (17). וָרָחַם is the singular רֶחֶם "womb" (20:18; 29:31; 30:22), in pause. The source tags it H7356, the plural רַחֲמִים "mercy," and the tag is kept and "womb" printed as a logged departure (127d), as the singular's sense requires. The three pairs run from top to bottom: skies above, Abyss below, breasts and womb, the blessings of rain, springs and birth. Deut 33:13 repeats the first two. The Abyss "crouching" (רֹבֶצֶת) is the verb of the beast at the door in 4:7 and of Judah in v. 9.

הוֹרַי is the participle of הָרָה "conceive," "those who conceived me," Jacob's parents; Song 3:4 uses הוֹרָתִי "the one who conceived me" of a mother. The LXX reads הַרְרֵי עַד "mountains of perpetuity," and with Deut 33:15 ("the hills of the age") the RSV follows it. תַּאֲוַת is "the limit of," from the root of Num 34:7–10 "mark out a border," a homograph of תַּאֲוָה "craving" (3:6), which the RSV's "bounties" takes. The Masoretic text is printed: the father's blessings outstrip his parents' and reach to the edge of the ancient hills. The qatal גָּבְרוּ is a perfect (15).

נְזִיר is the Nazirite, one set apart by vow (Num 6:2–21; Judg 13:5–7; Amos 2:11–12). The word is also used of a prince set apart for rule (Lam 4:7; Deut 33:16, which repeats this line), and of the vine left untrimmed in the sabbath year (Lev 25:5, 11). The KJV and RSV give the root's sense, "separate," but "separate" is פָּרַד's. "Nazirite" is the Hebrew word already in English (5), and keeps the consecration with the separation. Joseph was set apart from his brothers by their act (37) and by his rank (41:40–44). The rabbis add that he kept himself from wine in the years of separation (b. Shabbat 139a; Genesis Rabbah 98:20).

מִקְנֵה here is the purchase, the sense of מִקְנָה "acquisition" (H4736; 23:18; 17:12–13). The source tags it H4735, whose home gloss is "livestock." Both are nouns of קָנָה "acquire." The tag is kept and "acquisition" printed as a logged departure (127d).