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Genesis 49

Genesis book home•Chapter 49 of 50•33 verses

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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Genesis 49 Overview

Genesis 49 gathers Jacob’s sons around him to hear what will befall them in the latter days. The chapter is not a series of equal personal blessings: Reuben loses preeminence, Simeon and Levi are judged for violence, Judah receives royal and lion imagery, Zebulun and Issachar receive territorial/service descriptions, Dan, Gad, Asher, and Naphtali receive shorter sayings, Joseph receives an extended blessing, and Benjamin is compared to a ravening wolf. Jacob then commands burial at Machpelah and dies.

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Before you read Genesis 49

Coming from

Genesis 48 blesses Ephraim and Manasseh and deliberately gives greater prominence to Ephraim.

In this chapter

Jacob prophetically interprets the character and future of his sons as tribes, with Judah and Joseph receiving especially significant promises.

Leads into

Genesis 50 records Jacob’s burial in Canaan, the brothers’ fear after his death, Joseph’s forgiveness, and Joseph’s own death in Egypt under hope of future exodus.

Key understanding

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Past character can have long-term consequences, as seen with Reuben, Simeon, and Levi.

Truth 2

Judah receives leadership and royal imagery.

Truth 3

The tribal future is diverse rather than uniform.

Truth 4

Joseph’s suffering and fruitfulness are interpreted under God’s blessing.

Truth 5

Jacob’s burial command keeps the promised land central at death.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Numbers, Deuteronomy 33, Joshua, and Judges show later tribal developments that illuminate these sayings.

Connection 2

Genesis 34 explains Simeon and Levi’s violence.

Connection 3

Genesis 38 and 44 show Judah’s development before the royal blessing.

Connection 4

Revelation 5 calls Christ the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Connection 5

The Gospels trace Jesus through Judah’s line.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The phrase “latter days” should first be read within Jacob’s prophetic view of tribal futures; some sayings have larger messianic significance developed by later Scripture.

Keep this clear 2

Genesis 49:10’s “Shiloh” has been interpreted in several ways; its royal/Judah context is clear even where details are debated.

Keep this clear 3

Levi’s scattering later becomes transformed in Israel’s history through priestly service; Genesis 49 itself announces scattering because of violence.

Keep this clear 4

Not every tribal saying is a moral evaluation of the individual son.

Read Genesis 49 watching for…Explore deeper

The link between past actions and future consequences.

Royal language in Judah’s saying.

Geographical/economic images associated with tribes.

The length and richness of Joseph’s section.

Jacob’s final burial instructions and death posture.

Chapter outline8 sections

1-2Jacob gathers his sons 3-4Reuben 5-7Simeon and Levi 8-12Judah 13-21Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, and Naphtali 22-26Joseph 27Benjamin 28-33Jacob gives final instructions and dies

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.

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

Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

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.

Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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:

His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

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.

Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:

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.

Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

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.

I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

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

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

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

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

The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:

But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)

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:

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.

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

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.

And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

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 for a possession of a buryingplace.

There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.

The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.

And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

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Genesis 49:3

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