Genesis: 1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 2c 2d 3 4a 4b 4c/5 6a 6b 7 8 9 10 11a 11b 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25a 25b 26a 26b 27 28a 28b 29 30a 30b 31a 31b/32a 32b 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44a 44b 45 46 47a 47b 48 49 50
YA'AKOV's BLESSINGS (or perhaps YA'AKOV'S ORACLES, ZODIACAL PRONOUNCEMENTS, TAROT READINGS, INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CIRCLES ON THE TREE OF LIFE...)
Throughout this chapter, I will be making comparisons between Ya'akov's oracles/blessings and those ascribed to Mosheh in Deuteronomy 33. Note that Mosheh's list has Re'u-Ven first, then Yehudah pushed up to second, no Shim'on, Levi third, and then Bin-Yamin, the other tribe to survive, incorporated within Yehudah, when the ten disappeared - which helps us date that text. After Bin-Yamin a lengthy piece on Yoseph, which includes Ephrayim and Menasheh, and only then the other tribes, Zevulun first, as in Ya'akov's list, twinned here with Yisaschar, though by order of birth Yisaschar should come before Zevulun; then Gad as a lioness, before Dan (now the lion's whelp, which is Yehudah here) where Ya'akov places him after Dan; then Naphtali, and finally Asher, where Ya'kov's list has Asher penultimate and Naphtali last. Both of these are, thus, out of birth-order, are also different from the list of the tribal descent into Egypt when Yoseph summoned them, and different again from the list of the division of the land under Yehoshu'a - a full table of comparisons can be found here.
This chapter represents the first truly major exercise in poetry in the Tanach so far. It is probably a very ancient text; though probably, also, a slightly modified text at the hands of the Ezraic School of Literary and Historical Propaganda, circa 430 BCE, when the Tanach as we know it was redacted. The principal literary form used here is called "parallelism", which would become the classic mode of Beney Yisra-El poetry (in much the same way that the sonnet did in Europe, and the Tenka and Haiku in Japan), most obviously remarkable in the Psalms; a technique by which two halves of a couplet echo the thought of the other half ("and he saved them from the hand of him who hated them; and he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy", in Psalm 106:10, is a randomly chosen example).
Once again two texts appear to have been conjoined, one early Ephrayimite, the other later Yehudahite (Judean), which adds a level of complexity to our interpretation of the given words.
To what degree is this entire "poem" some kind of "code" - not military intelligence code, but the esoteric code of cults and sects? Drummond in "Oedipus Judaicus" reckons it is primarily allegorical of the journeys and relationships of the constellations, the tribal map charting their positions in the heavens, these blessings reflecting their astrological significances. He is probably not far wrong, and we know that the Biblical map of Yisra-El, especially the one described in the myths of Yehoshu'a (Joshua), with the division into twelve tribes, each with its own jewel, colour, heraldry etc, was intended to provide an earthly mirror or parallel of the arrangements of the cosmos, in exactly the same way as the Arthurian Round Table, the Jesuitic Last Supper table, the Greek Amphictyonic structure, and many other comparables among the ancient civilisations. What survives of these today, other than some fairy tales, and some courtly romances pretending to be historical narratives, are the astrological superstitions of the horoscope and the Tarot cards, and some residual aspects of the Catholic and Hindu faiths.
49:1 VA YIKRA YA'AKOV EL BANAV VA YOMER HE'ASPHU VE AGIYDAH LACHEM ET ASHER YIKRA ET'CHEM BE ACHARIT HA YAMIM
וַיִּקְרָא יַעֲקֹב אֶל בָּנָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הֵאָסְפוּ וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָא אֶתְכֶם בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים
KJ (King James translation): 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.
BN (BibleNet translation): And Ya'akov called his sons and said, "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you at the end of days.
Of course this isn't really a blessing at all, though historically these verses have come to be known as "The Blessings of Ya'akov", or as "The Hikavtsu" from its opening word (verse 2). As the text clearly indicates, it is a series of prophetic oracles, which underscores Drummond's view considerably, but also suggests that Yoseph's ability to interpret dreams may have been learned from his father. Indeed, it is not unreasonable to wonder when and where Ya'akov acquired his own coat of many colours (at Penu-El perhaps?), and whether he put it on for this occasion.
Soothsaying is not a common Jewish practice, which leaves some thoughts to be had over this; including the most obvious: I have used the word "Jewish" here, deliberately; because it would appear, from too many examples in the Tanach to list, that it was a very common Beney Yisra-El practice, up to and very much including the epoch of the Prophets, its ultimate specialists.
How did Ya'akov do the soothsaying? Perhaps with the teraphim that Rachel stole from Lavan (Genesis 31:19), and left Ya'akov when she died? Probably not in fact; the superstitions of the time would have buried the teraphim with her. Or perhaps with the gevi'a, Yoseph's devining cup which he planted in Bin-Yamin's sack (Genesis 44:2). Or with some early version of the Urim and Tumim, the jewels that lit up on the breastplate of the Mosaic High Priest. And if not, then by sheep's entrails, by tea-leaves, with the help of a Ba'alat Ov or a Yidoni, a Menachesh or a Mechasheph (Deuteronomy 18:10-11)? And would Ya'akov have done the soothsaying himself, or was a priest or priestess involved, and wearing a serpent mask, or through the mouth of a dead serpent - the Edenic Nachash/snake is central to all acts of soothsaying across the ancient world, from west Africa to Meso-America, from China to the Middle East, and among both the Druids and their cultural namesakes, the Dravidians? And remember, the only person in the tale known to have this prowess up till now has been Yoseph?
At the very beginning of Ya'akov's tale, at Beit-El (Genesis 28:10), he lay on his stone pillow and gazed at the Milky Way, reckoning the light from its stars to be the messengers of the gods, which we would now call "angels"; and from then on we have been witnessing his tale as a mythological account of the cosmos. Now, in these blessings, the final picture of the mazalim, the constellations, is given to us.⭐
⭐ - in Yehudit a single star is a Kochav (כוכב), each group of stars, i.e. a constellation, is a Mazal (מזל); so, when you wish someone Mazal Tov, you are really hoping that their next horoscope reading will be a good one.
49:2 HIKAVTSU VE SHIM'U BENEY YA'AKOV VE SHIM'U EL YISRA-EL AVIYCHEM
הִקָּבְצוּ וְשִׁמְעוּ בְּנֵי יַעֲקֹב וְשִׁמְעוּ אֶל יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲבִיכֶם
KJ: Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
BN:"Assemble yourselves and listen, you sons of Ya'akov, and hearken to Yisra-El your father.
When was it written? At the time of Ya'akov, in the epoch of the Prophets, even later, somewhere in between? Textual evidence in the verses below will be commented on as we reach them. The one thing we can state for absolute certain is that the text, as we have it now, cannot have been written in Ya'akov's time, and not only because this form of writing had not yet been invented.
Note that, once again, the two names, Ya'akov and Yisra-El, appear together in the same verse, reiterating the probability that Ya'akov served his tribe as priest-king, and that the wrestling match at Penu-El (Genesis 32) was indeed his coronation ritual.
49:3 RE'U-VEN BECHORI ATAH KOCHI VE RE'SHIT ONI YETER SE'ET VE YETER AZ
רְאוּבֵן בְּכֹרִי אַתָּה כֹּחִי וְרֵאשִׁית אוֹנִי יֶתֶר שְׂאֵת וְיֶתֶר עָז
KJ: Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
BN: "Re'u-Ven, you are my first-born, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, the excellence of dignity and the excellence of power.
KOCHI: "Strength" in the sense of sexual power, the biological ability to produce offspring.
Note the order in which the sons will be placed in the following verses; it will also merit the task of contrasting the tribal trees and jewels, of looking at the constellations, of noting the connections of each son with either flora or fauna, and all the other number twelves, including the birth-order of the sons, in order to deduce the deepest intention of these verses.
Note the order in which the sons will be placed in the following verses; it will also merit the task of contrasting the tribal trees and jewels, of looking at the constellations, of noting the connections of each son with either flora or fauna, and all the other number twelves, including the birth-order of the sons, in order to deduce the deepest intention of these verses.
Re'u-Ven is the first-born, yet he has already forfeited his birthright, as a consequence of sleeping with Bilhah (see verse 4); as well as being superseded by Shim'on and Yehudah at different parts of the tale; but more formally now by the blessing of Ephrayim and Menasheh. He is depicted as a man of birth, dignity and opportunity, but no character ("unstable as water" in the next verse); given the chance to show what he is made of, he fails; in seeking to save Yoseph he prevents the murder but not the Midyanite sale. In Judges 5:15 Devorah will call for independence and the tribes will rally round; Re'u-Ven will be the one tribe whose mighty deliberations fail to end in action, and after the revolt of Devorah (and Barak) Re'u-Ven effectively disappeared from history. His tribal area was east of the Dead Sea, outside Kena'an, in an area of land that covered northern Mo-Av and southern Amon. The Mosheh version, as noted below, makes a very similar statement about him.
Onkelos suggests that he had three facets to his original birthright, (which are worth noting for Esav too): the right of the first-born, given to Yoseph's sons in 1 Chronicles 5:1, and to Yoseph himself in 1 Chronicles 5:2; the priesthood, given to Levi in Numbers 3:41; and the kingship, given to Yehudah (also in 1 Chronicles 5:2). In fact no Re'u-Venite that we know of ever became a Judge, a Prophet or a Leader.
Nonetheless he remains BECHOR (first-born) by chronology of nativity, so there was clearly a distinction made among the ancient Beney Yisra-El between physical order of birth and actual status.
49:4 PACHAZ KA MAYIM AL TOTAR KI ALIYTA MISHKEVEY AVIYCHA AZ CHILALTA YETSU'I ALAH
KJ: 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.
BN: "Lascivious as water, you shall not be the head. Because you went up to your father's bed, you defiled it - he went up to my couch.
AL TOTAR: Is the first clause a question, as most translations render it, though there is nothing in the Yehudit to indicate a question (AL means "Do not"; it would be HA which provides the Yehudit equivalent of est-ce que)? If it is a question, then it requires an interrogation mark, which the translations generally do not add. I also believe they are misunderstanding the statement, which the Chronicles verses given above make very clear: this is Ya'akov telling Re'u-Ven, in no uncertain terms, at will-reading time, in front of his brothers, still furious with him over the Bilhah incident: "I can't change the chronology that makes you first-born, but you are not going to be the godfather of this casa". "Do you not have the excellency?", which is the standard translation, doesn't actually mean anything meaningful anyway.
MISHKEVEY AVIYCHA: And here is the proof, the clear and direct reference to Bilhah, who Re'u-Ven bedded in Genesis 35:22. Thus does he lose his birthright - though under the laws of ultimogeniture, he would lose them anyway. Cf Av-Shalom taking David's harem (2 Samuel 16:21-22) and also note the incest laws later in the Torah (Leviticus 18:6 ff).
"Unstable" in Yehudit is indeed PACHAZ (פחז), as used here, but it isn't Re'u-Ven's stability that Ya'akov is challenging; it's precisely the fact that he bedded his half-step-mother. And in Aramaic - the language rather better known by the Redactor than was Yehudit - PACHAZ (פחז) does not mean "unstable", it means "lascivious"! Does this help us date the text? Does it alter the meaning of the riddle? The only outstanding issue is how water gets to be lascivious. Maybe it's the algae and the tadpoles and the endless fertility of the fishes.
Why the sudden use of the 3rd person for the final phrase? It feels as though Ya'akov is turning away from Re'u-Ven, who he has addressed up until this point, and is now looking at the other sons, pointing at Re'u-Ven, accusing him openly - "he went up to my couch" (in which case, we can assume that this is the editor purifying for the reader what he likely said in reality!)
Mosheh's final words in Deuteronomy 33:6 are "YECHI RE'U-VEN VE AL YAMOT VIY'CHI METAV MISPAR - יְחִי רְאוּבֵן וְאַל יָמֹת וִיהִי מְתָיו מִסְפָּר - Let Re'u-Ven live, and not die, in that his men become few", which sentiment is merely banal and sentimental in Mosheh's mouth, but turns into an extraordinary prophesy at any point of history after the conquest, because - as noted above in the comment on verse 3 - the tribe of Re'u-Ven diminished very quickly, and then became absorbed into northern Mo-Av (see the map further down this page), before disappearing, in truth, long before it became counted as one of the ten to vanish under Sennacherib - as, incidentally, had Shim'on, who is, as we shall see shortly, simply absent from the Mosheh list.
Pey break.
49:5 SHIM'ON VE LEVI ACHIM KELEY CHAMAM MECHEROTEYHEM
KJ: Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
BN: "Shimon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence their kinship.
ACHIM: But surely they are all brothers, so this must mean something different; and specifically it is an allusion to at Shechem they are twins in the sense of "partners in crime", because they perpetrated the atrocity together (Genesis 34). Is there a suggestion (we have made it previously) that they were actually twins, like the Gemini; if so, is primogeniture at work on this occasion, and is that why Levi got no land for his inheritance?
The "weapons" certainly appear to recall Shechem, and the next verse endorses this. What makes the oracle curious, though, is what actually happened to Levi: that he would ancestor Mosheh and Aharon's tribe, that it would foster the Yisra-Eli priesthood and Temple administration; i.e. that it would replace the descendants of Yoseph, the Priest of On, formally given the priesthood in 48:22, but the Levites instead the actual inheritors of the mantle of Yisra-El.
49:6 BE SODAM AL TAVO NAPHSHI BIK'HALAM AL TECHAD KEVODI KI VE APAM HARGU ISH U VIR'TSONAM IKRU SHUR
KJ: 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.
BN: "Let my soul not come into their council; to their assembly let my glory not be united; for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they houghed oxen.
So Re'u-Ven is rejected for sleeping with Bilhah; and now Shim'on and Levi for slaughtering Shechem; we can be confident that he won't reject Yehudah though, despite Tamar! And why not? Because this history is being written in Yehudah, the one and only surviving tribe bythe time of the Redaction (Bin-Yamin and Shim'on have been absorbed, the others are long gone), and here, in Ya'akov's oracle, here is the proof that it was always the intention of the gods that Yehudah should prevail, that Yehudah should predominate - so worship the gods, Yehudim, because they...
What he actually accuses them of doing goes far beyond what we were told in the original story. Go back and compare, and then make sense of the differences.
IKRU SHUR: The houghing of oxen would have been for the purposes of a sacrifical feast to celebrate the successful outcome of what can best be described as an act of ethnic cleansing.
49:7 ARUR APAM KI AZ VE EVRATAM KI KASHATA ACHALKEM BE YA'AKOV VA APHITSEM BE YISRA-EL
KJ: 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.
BN: "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Ya'akov, and scatter them in Yisra-El.
ARUR: The word takes us back to the Garden of Eden, where it is used for both Adam (Genesis 3:17) and the snake (Genesis 3:14) - but not for Chavah (Eve), despite the Christian patriarchal ideology of Original Sin (though, interestingly, the New Advent branch of Catholicism, in its Encyclopedia, breaks with Catholic tradition and states explicitly that the sin was only Adam's - click here).
ACHALKEM: "Divide them", like Siamese twins? If their twinship was acknowledged, could we expect them to have received tribal lands together? We have no literary or archaeological testimony from which to answer this question, but it appears to be the insinuation. Joshua 19:1 has the territory of the Beney Shim'on inside Yehudah, and Levi dispersed among all the tribes, which further diminishes him in favour of Yehudah, and further exalts Yehudah against him: more political propaganda no doubt from the Ezraic Redactor. Shim'on's original territory was precisely that area of the Negev of which Be'er Sheva, where Ya'akov grew up, is the centre, though it was regarded as part of Gerar at that time, and Kena'an started immediately to its north.
APHITSEM: "Scatter them": Shim'on will receive the whole of the southern Negev; Levi will receive no geographical inheritance at all (Numbers 18:24, Deuteronomy 10:9, Joshua 18:7), other than refuge cities in each tribal area and a certain amount of land close to the walls of those cities (Numbers 35); but Levi also receives the key temporal role in the temple and with it immense political power.
The Samaritan text has "ADIR APHAM" (אדיר אפם) instead of "ARUR APHAM" (ארור אפם), "splendid" in place of "cursed"! This matters. These are supposed to be blessings, yet this has turned into its opposite, and an old man on his death-bed saying this to his sons is psychologically immensely powerful. One can hardly imagine the later priesthood, descendants of Levi, wanting to record curses against their ancestor; so there has to be more to it than meets the eye. On the other hand, look at 1 Kings 2, where David dictates a will that takes his revenge on everyone he can.
Note that the names Yisra-El and Ya'akov once again appear together, but treated as if they are two, not one.
In Mosheh's version, in Deuteronomy 33, Shim'on does not even get mentioned; Levi, not surprisingly since he is Mosheh's tribal ancestor, gets three verses - though Yehudah is pushed up the list before him:
49:4 PACHAZ KA MAYIM AL TOTAR KI ALIYTA MISHKEVEY AVIYCHA AZ CHILALTA YETSU'I ALAH
פַּחַז כַּמַּיִם אַל תּוֹתַר כִּי עָלִיתָ מִשְׁכְּבֵי אָבִיךָ אָז חִלַּלְתָּ יְצוּעִי עָלָה
KJ: 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.
BN: "Lascivious as water, you shall not be the head. Because you went up to your father's bed, you defiled it - he went up to my couch.
AL TOTAR: Is the first clause a question, as most translations render it, though there is nothing in the Yehudit to indicate a question (AL means "Do not"; it would be HA which provides the Yehudit equivalent of est-ce que)? If it is a question, then it requires an interrogation mark, which the translations generally do not add. I also believe they are misunderstanding the statement, which the Chronicles verses given above make very clear: this is Ya'akov telling Re'u-Ven, in no uncertain terms, at will-reading time, in front of his brothers, still furious with him over the Bilhah incident: "I can't change the chronology that makes you first-born, but you are not going to be the godfather of this casa". "Do you not have the excellency?", which is the standard translation, doesn't actually mean anything meaningful anyway.
MISHKEVEY AVIYCHA: And here is the proof, the clear and direct reference to Bilhah, who Re'u-Ven bedded in Genesis 35:22. Thus does he lose his birthright - though under the laws of ultimogeniture, he would lose them anyway. Cf Av-Shalom taking David's harem (2 Samuel 16:21-22) and also note the incest laws later in the Torah (Leviticus 18:6 ff).
"Unstable" in Yehudit is indeed PACHAZ (פחז), as used here, but it isn't Re'u-Ven's stability that Ya'akov is challenging; it's precisely the fact that he bedded his half-step-mother. And in Aramaic - the language rather better known by the Redactor than was Yehudit - PACHAZ (פחז) does not mean "unstable", it means "lascivious"! Does this help us date the text? Does it alter the meaning of the riddle? The only outstanding issue is how water gets to be lascivious. Maybe it's the algae and the tadpoles and the endless fertility of the fishes.
Why the sudden use of the 3rd person for the final phrase? It feels as though Ya'akov is turning away from Re'u-Ven, who he has addressed up until this point, and is now looking at the other sons, pointing at Re'u-Ven, accusing him openly - "he went up to my couch" (in which case, we can assume that this is the editor purifying for the reader what he likely said in reality!)
Mosheh's final words in Deuteronomy 33:6 are "YECHI RE'U-VEN VE AL YAMOT VIY'CHI METAV MISPAR - יְחִי רְאוּבֵן וְאַל יָמֹת וִיהִי מְתָיו מִסְפָּר - Let Re'u-Ven live, and not die, in that his men become few", which sentiment is merely banal and sentimental in Mosheh's mouth, but turns into an extraordinary prophesy at any point of history after the conquest, because - as noted above in the comment on verse 3 - the tribe of Re'u-Ven diminished very quickly, and then became absorbed into northern Mo-Av (see the map further down this page), before disappearing, in truth, long before it became counted as one of the ten to vanish under Sennacherib - as, incidentally, had Shim'on, who is, as we shall see shortly, simply absent from the Mosheh list.
Pey break.
49:5 SHIM'ON VE LEVI ACHIM KELEY CHAMAM MECHEROTEYHEM
שִׁמְעוֹן וְלֵוִי אַחִים כְּלֵי חָמָס מְכֵרֹתֵיהֶם
KJ: Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
BN: "Shimon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence their kinship.
ACHIM: But surely they are all brothers, so this must mean something different; and specifically it is an allusion to at Shechem they are twins in the sense of "partners in crime", because they perpetrated the atrocity together (Genesis 34). Is there a suggestion (we have made it previously) that they were actually twins, like the Gemini; if so, is primogeniture at work on this occasion, and is that why Levi got no land for his inheritance?
The "weapons" certainly appear to recall Shechem, and the next verse endorses this. What makes the oracle curious, though, is what actually happened to Levi: that he would ancestor Mosheh and Aharon's tribe, that it would foster the Yisra-Eli priesthood and Temple administration; i.e. that it would replace the descendants of Yoseph, the Priest of On, formally given the priesthood in 48:22, but the Levites instead the actual inheritors of the mantle of Yisra-El.
49:6 BE SODAM AL TAVO NAPHSHI BIK'HALAM AL TECHAD KEVODI KI VE APAM HARGU ISH U VIR'TSONAM IKRU SHUR
בְּסֹדָם אַל תָּבֹא נַפְשִׁי בִּקְהָלָם אַל תֵּחַד כְּבֹדִי כִּי בְאַפָּם הָרְגוּ אִישׁ וּבִרְצֹנָם עִקְּרוּ שׁוֹר
KJ: 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.
BN: "Let my soul not come into their council; to their assembly let my glory not be united; for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they houghed oxen.
So Re'u-Ven is rejected for sleeping with Bilhah; and now Shim'on and Levi for slaughtering Shechem; we can be confident that he won't reject Yehudah though, despite Tamar! And why not? Because this history is being written in Yehudah, the one and only surviving tribe bythe time of the Redaction (Bin-Yamin and Shim'on have been absorbed, the others are long gone), and here, in Ya'akov's oracle, here is the proof that it was always the intention of the gods that Yehudah should prevail, that Yehudah should predominate - so worship the gods, Yehudim, because they...
What he actually accuses them of doing goes far beyond what we were told in the original story. Go back and compare, and then make sense of the differences.
IKRU SHUR: The houghing of oxen would have been for the purposes of a sacrifical feast to celebrate the successful outcome of what can best be described as an act of ethnic cleansing.
49:7 ARUR APAM KI AZ VE EVRATAM KI KASHATA ACHALKEM BE YA'AKOV VA APHITSEM BE YISRA-EL
אָרוּר אַפָּם כִּי עָז וְעֶבְרָתָם כִּי קָשָׁתָה אֲחַלְּקֵם בְּיַעֲקֹב וַאֲפִיצֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ: 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.
BN: "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Ya'akov, and scatter them in Yisra-El.
ARUR: The word takes us back to the Garden of Eden, where it is used for both Adam (Genesis 3:17) and the snake (Genesis 3:14) - but not for Chavah (Eve), despite the Christian patriarchal ideology of Original Sin (though, interestingly, the New Advent branch of Catholicism, in its Encyclopedia, breaks with Catholic tradition and states explicitly that the sin was only Adam's - click here).
ACHALKEM: "Divide them", like Siamese twins? If their twinship was acknowledged, could we expect them to have received tribal lands together? We have no literary or archaeological testimony from which to answer this question, but it appears to be the insinuation. Joshua 19:1 has the territory of the Beney Shim'on inside Yehudah, and Levi dispersed among all the tribes, which further diminishes him in favour of Yehudah, and further exalts Yehudah against him: more political propaganda no doubt from the Ezraic Redactor. Shim'on's original territory was precisely that area of the Negev of which Be'er Sheva, where Ya'akov grew up, is the centre, though it was regarded as part of Gerar at that time, and Kena'an started immediately to its north.
APHITSEM: "Scatter them": Shim'on will receive the whole of the southern Negev; Levi will receive no geographical inheritance at all (Numbers 18:24, Deuteronomy 10:9, Joshua 18:7), other than refuge cities in each tribal area and a certain amount of land close to the walls of those cities (Numbers 35); but Levi also receives the key temporal role in the temple and with it immense political power.
The Samaritan text has "ADIR APHAM" (אדיר אפם) instead of "ARUR APHAM" (ארור אפם), "splendid" in place of "cursed"! This matters. These are supposed to be blessings, yet this has turned into its opposite, and an old man on his death-bed saying this to his sons is psychologically immensely powerful. One can hardly imagine the later priesthood, descendants of Levi, wanting to record curses against their ancestor; so there has to be more to it than meets the eye. On the other hand, look at 1 Kings 2, where David dictates a will that takes his revenge on everyone he can.
Note that the names Yisra-El and Ya'akov once again appear together, but treated as if they are two, not one.
In Mosheh's version, in Deuteronomy 33, Shim'on does not even get mentioned; Levi, not surprisingly since he is Mosheh's tribal ancestor, gets three verses - though Yehudah is pushed up the list before him:
Deuteronomy 33:8 U LE LEVI AMAR TUMEYCHA VE UREYCHA LE ISH CHASIYDECHA ASHER NISIYTO BE MASAH TERIVEYHU AL MEY MERIVAH
וּלְלֵוִי אָמַר תֻּמֶּיךָ וְאוּרֶיךָ לְאִישׁ חֲסִידֶךָ אֲשֶׁר נִסִּיתוֹ בְּמַסָּה תְּרִיבֵהוּ עַל מֵי מְרִיבָה
And of Levi he said: Your Tumim and your Urim are with your holy one, whom you proved at Masah, with whom you strove at the waters of Merivah.
33:9 HA OMER LE AVIV U LE IMO LO RE'IYTIV VE ET ECHAV LO HIKIYR VE ET BANAV LO YADA KI SHAMRU IMRATHA U VERIYT'CHA YINTSORU
הָאֹמֵר לְאָבִיו וּלְאִמּוֹ לֹא רְאִיתִיו וְאֶת אֶחָיו לֹא הִכִּיר וְאֶת בָּנָו לֹא יָדָע כִּי שָׁמְרוּ אִמְרָתֶךָ וּבְרִיתְךָ יִנְצֹרוּ
Who said of his father, and of his mother: 'I have not seen him'; neither did he acknowledge his kinsmen, nor knew his own children; for they have observed your word, and keep your covenant.
33:10 YORU MISHPATEYCHA LE YA'AKOV VE TORAT'CHA LE YISRA-EL YASIYMU KETURAH BE APECHA VE CHALIL AL MIZBECHECHA
יוֹרוּ מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ לְיַעֲקֹב וְתוֹרָתְךָ לְיִשְׂרָאֵל יָשִׂימוּ קְטוֹרָה בְּאַפֶּךָ וְכָלִיל עַל מִזְבְּחֶךָ
They shall teach Ya'akov your statutes, and Yisra-El your law; they shall put incense before you, and whole burnt-offerings upon your altar.
33:11 BARECH YHVH CHEYLO U PHO'AL YADAV TIRTSEH MECHATS MATNAYIM KAMAV U MESANAV MIN YEKUMUN
בָּרֵךְ יְהוָה חֵילוֹ וּפֹעַל יָדָיו תִּרְצֶה מְחַץ מָתְנַיִם קָמָיו וּמְשַׂנְאָיו מִן יְקוּמוּן
Bless, YHVH, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; smite through the loins of those who rise up against him, and those who hate him, that they do not rise again.
Pey break.
49:8 YEHUDAH ATAH YODUCHA ACHEYCHA YADCHA BE OREPH OYEVEYCHA YISHTACHAVU LECHA BENEY AVIYCHA
יְהוּדָה אַתָּה יוֹדוּךָ אַחֶיךָ יָדְךָ בְּעֹרֶף אֹיְבֶיךָ יִשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ לְךָ בְּנֵי אָבִיךָ
KJ: 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.
BN: "Yehudah, you shall your brothers praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you.
Well there's a surprise! Yehudah gets everything that Yoseph had already been given: total supremacy, including the prostration of the brothers that Yoseph dreamed (Genesis 37:5-10), save only the priestly part of the eventual kingship; and in precisely the same language, so perhaps this is where the Yoseph-as-a-child story came from, and got attached because the Redactor needed something to pretend he ever lived in Kena'an. So we can begin to date this piece of poetical propaganda. And in addition, what a valiant and heroically marvellous character he is, ideal ancestor of King David, Yesha-Yahu (Isaiah) and Nechem-Yah (Nehemiah), the royal tribe that conquered and ultimately ruled Kena'an!
Was this the original, or was the whole thing somehow rewritten to give Yehudah pride of place and downgrade some of the others? We can never know. But we can remind ourselves of his "whoring" with Tamar, and of his reneguing on his Levirate obligations as her father-in-law to provide a son for her husband, his incest with her, and did he not marry out as well? Some role-model - no better than Re'u-Ven, Shim'on or Levi really! This is the epitome and archetypal template for Orwellian rewriting of history by the victor.
Yehudah's tribal territory was the northern Negev desert, from Chevron almost to Beit Lechem, and virtually every Bible story in Samuel and Kings takes place in Yehudah and in Bin-Yamin, immediately to his north, with occasional forays to do battle north or south. It would be interesting if we still had, if there ever were any, history scrolls written in Asher or Naphtali or Gad, but the Bible as we know it is essentially a document of Yehudah (Chronicles belongs to the northern kingdom), and the only tribe left in Babylon or Kena'an after Nebuchadnezzar was Yehudah (with the bit of Bin-Yamin that had amalgamated), so there was no one left to dispute his version.
Note the repeated puns in this verse, which are far too sophisticated for the time of Ya'akov (not that Ya'akov or his epoch lacked sophistication; simply that whatever the Yehudit language was at that time had not yet evolved to that point); they reflect a much later liturgical poetry. YEHUDAH ATAH YODUCHA ACHEYCHA YADCHA, for example, Yoducha playing on the meaning of his name, Yadcha on its spelling.
Note the use of YISHTACHAVU, reflecting again what Yoseph has done elsewhere, but also raising again the question that I have asked on several occasions, and to which I still have no answer: why is it sometimes YISHTACHU and sometimes YISHTACHAVU? The root is SHETACH, which is the surface of the floor; the form is Hitpa'el, which is reflective, so YISHTACHU is grammaticaly correct for "prostration", and the double Vav to make it YISHTACHAVU is unusual and unnecessary; yet this is the form retained in liturgy (in the Mah Tovu for example - VE ANI ESHTACHAVEH)
49:9 GUR ARYEH YEHUDAH MI TEREPH BENI ALIYTA KA RA RAVATS KE ARYEH U CHE LAVIY MI YEKIYMENU
גּוּר אַרְיֵה יְהוּדָה מִטֶּרֶף בְּנִי עָלִיתָ כָּרַע רָבַץ כְּאַרְיֵה וּכְלָבִיא מִי יְקִימֶנּוּ
BN: "Yehudah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you are gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
The "lion of Judah". According to Midrash Tanchuma the lion's whelp was Yehudah's tribal emblem. Yet see Mosheh's description of Dan in Deuteronomy 33:22 - it's in my note to verse 18, below.
The level of the language has risen considerably; it is now full of vocabulary that appears nowhere else. Can we also tell from the literary form what date it must be? Or are there hints of the Prophetic writings here? The next verse will answer that question.
49:10 LO YASUR SHEVET MI YEHUDAH U MECHOKEK MI BEIN RAGLAV AD KI YAVO SHILOH VE LO YIKHAT AMIM
לֹא יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִיהוּדָה וּמְחֹקֵק מִבֵּין רַגְלָיו עַד כִּי יָבֹא שִׁילֹה וְלוֹ יִקְּהַת עַמִּים
KJ: 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.
BN: "The sceptre shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, as long as men come to Shiloh; and to him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
There, we have it, the date of the writing; or at least, the earliest possible date, which was long after Ya'akov; and the latest probable, which was centuries before the Prophets. Shiloh was effectively the religious capital of Yisra-El from the end of the Yehoshu'a conquest until King David moved the Ark to Yeru-Shala'im (Shechem was unofficially the political capital); so any point of time between those two. The former makes the more sense anyway, since it was probably David who "invented" the twelve tribes as the amphictyonic confederation that ruled the kingdom of Yisra-El. Except that Yehudah did not become the predominant tribe, in Shiloh or anywhere, until after the Temple was built and the ten tribes disappeared into oblivion.
MECHOKEK MI BEIN RAGLAV: The ruler's staff between his feet suggests another traditional emblem of kingship, displayed on many Assyrian and Persian monuments; the staff, echoed in Aharon and Mosheh later, is at once temporal and spiritual. Parallels are the shaman or wizard's staff – which we know Shemu-El (Samuel) wielded – and the caduceus pole of Hermes Trismegistus, which is the emblem of the healing god. Once again the ancient concept of the priest-king or sacred-king.
The Septuagint, Targum Onkelos and Sa'adyah all read SHILOH (שילה) without the Yud, as SHELO (שלה) - which may be an archaic form of this word, or possibly a poetic form of SHALOM, the word for peace/wholeness? Does this affect our reading? It is safe to presume that these translators and commentators only did this because a reference to Shiloh in the Torah was simply too problematic, and they couldn't find a simpler way of pretending it wasn't there.
So no, it should not affect our reading, unless we are bound in dogma, as were the three above; but it does affect our dating. Ya'akov could not have given such a reading of the future unless he genuinely knew it in the Nostradamic manner; or unless it was written retroactively.
And this is reinforced by Rashi, who retains SHILOH, as here; his commentary is particularly interesting for two quite different reasons. First, that he identifies the lion with the wild beast that allegedly devoured Yoseph in Genesis 37:33, and infers that Ya'akov is making another point about the wickedness of his sons, specifically blaming Yehudah for perpetrating that lie which broke their father's heart, though the text does not name any of the sons and in fact has Ya'akov making the assumption. Secondly, he identifies the lion's whelp with the young David - which if correct must date this text to the end, not the beginning, of our time-frame:
"He [Ya'akov] prophesied about David, who was at first like a cub: 'When Sha'ul was king over us, it was you who led Yisra-El out and brought them in' (II Samuel 5:2), and at the end a lion, when they made him king over them. This is what Onkelos means in his translation by יְהֵא בְּשֵׁירוּיָא שִׁלְטוֹן, [he shall be a ruler] in his beginning."
49:11 OSRI LA GEPHEN IYROH VE LASREKAH BENI ATONO KIBES BA YAYIN LEVUSHO U VE DAM ANAVIM SUTOH
אֹסְרִי לַגֶּפֶן עִירֹה וְלַשֹּׂרֵקָה בְּנִי אֲתֹנוֹ כִּבֵּס בַּיַּיִן לְבֻשׁוֹ וּבְדַם עֲנָבִים סוּתֹה
KJ: 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:
BN: "Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to the choice vine; he washes his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
Although the original amphictyony was probably Davidic, there are strong indications that this was written - or perhaps simply re-written - much later, to confirm the amphictyony when it was no more, either after Sennacherib or after Nebuchadnezzar; there would have been no need for it any later than that. Having lost the other tribes, Yehudah became dominant automatically, but the need to corroborate his authority with ancestral and divine provenance was still essential. After Koresh (Cyrus), the other tribes became mere history as Yehudah now either had, or was fighting to get back, the whole land and not just its own tribal hegemony.
49:12 CHACHLIYLI EYNAYIM MI YAYIN U LEVEN SHINAYIM ME CHALAV
חַכְלִילִי עֵינַיִם מִיָּיִן וּלְבֶן שִׁנַּיִם מֵחָלָב
KJ: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
BN: "His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
This has the quality of something out of the Song of Songs.
Yehudah, as noted above, comes second in Mosheh's list:
Deuteronomy 33:7 "VE ZOT LI YEHUDAH VA YOMAR SHEMA YHVH KOL YEHUDAH VE EL AMO TEVIYENU YADAV RAV LO VE EZER MI TSARAV TIHEYEH
וְזֹאת לִיהוּדָה וַיֹּאמַר שְׁמַע יְהוָה קוֹל יְהוּדָה וְאֶל עַמּוֹ תְּבִיאֶנּוּ יָדָיו רָב לוֹ וְעֵזֶר מִצָּרָיו תִּהְיֶה
And this for Yehudah, and he said: Hear, YHVH, the voice of Yehudah, and bring him in to his people; his hands shall contend for him, and you shall be a help against his adversaries."
Pey break.
49:13 ZEVULUN LE CHOPH YAMIM YISHKON VE HU LE CHOPH ANIYOT VE YARCHATO AL TSIDON
KJ: 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.
BN: "Zevulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea, and he shall be a shore for ships, and his flank shall be upon Tsidon.
Zevulun comes fifth in this list, ahead of Yisaschar, who should be fifth, if Ya'akov was simply going through Le'ah's sons in order.
49:13 ZEVULUN LE CHOPH YAMIM YISHKON VE HU LE CHOPH ANIYOT VE YARCHATO AL TSIDON
זְבוּלֻן לְחוֹף יַמִּים יִשְׁכֹּן וְהוּא לְחוֹף אֳנִיּוֹת וְיַרְכָתוֹ עַל צִידֹן
KJ: 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.
BN: "Zevulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea, and he shall be a shore for ships, and his flank shall be upon Tsidon.
Zevulun comes fifth in this list, ahead of Yisaschar, who should be fifth, if Ya'akov was simply going through Le'ah's sons in order.
There is always the possibility, worth considering, that the names were attached afterwards, and not beforehand. This matters, in general; but specifically here, because Ya'akov's oracle/blessing is very clear, while Zevulon's borders never matched it. Zevulun, as far as any text of the Bible tells us - and there is very little about Zevulon anywhere - was land-locked, only connected with Tsidon (Sidon) in the Davidic/Solomonic era, at the time of king Hu-Ram (Hiram), when Asher, and probably Naphtali, became either subordinated to his kingdom or allied through political marriage (these being the logical interpretations of 1 Kings 7:14). Yet the Ya'akov text suggests that, at least perhaps, that extreme north-western point of West Menasheh, around Mount Carmel, where Haifa stands today, was in fact Zevulun.
Deuteronomy 33:18 U LE ZEVULUN AMAR SEMACH ZEVULUN BE TSETEM VE YISASCHAR BE OHALEYCHA
וְלִזְבוּלֻן אָמַר שְׂמַח זְבוּלֻן בְּצֵאתֶךָ וְיִשָּׂשכָר בְּאֹהָלֶיךָ
And of Zevulun he said: Rejoice, Zevulun, in your going out, and, Yisaschar, in your tents.
33:19 AMIM HAR YIKRA'U SHAM YIZBECHU ZIVCHEY TSEDEK KI SHEPHA YAMIM YIYNAKU U SEPHUNEY TEMUNEY CHOL
עַמִּים הַר יִקְרָאוּ שָׁם יִזְבְּחוּ זִבְחֵי צֶדֶק כִּי שֶׁפַע יַמִּים יִינָקוּ וּשְׂפֻנֵי טְמוּנֵי חוֹל
They shall call peoples to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness; for they shall suck the abundance of the seas, and the hidden treasures of the sand.
יִשָּׂשכָר חֲמֹר גָּרֶם רֹבֵץ בֵּין הַמִּשְׁפְּתָיִם
KJ: Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
BN: "Yisaschar is a large-boned ass, couching down between the sheepfolds.
Geographically, as per the map, Yisaschar is a narrow-boundaried walk-through, couching down, or probably crouching down, between two parts of Menasheh, leaving us two wonder how come Menasheh got quite so much land, but Yisaschar, like Zevulun, so very little.
49:15 VA YAR MENUCHAH KI TOV VE ET HA ARETS KI NA'EMAH VA YET SHICHMO LISBOL VA YEHI LE MAS OVED
וַיַּרְא מְנֻחָה כִּי טוֹב וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ כִּי נָעֵמָה וַיֵּט שִׁכְמוֹ לִסְבֹּל וַיְהִי לְמַס עֹבֵד
KJ: 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.
BN: "For he saw a resting-place that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant, and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant under taskwork.
To understand the intent of this oracle, we need to look at other texts that tell us about Yisaschar, either the man, or the tribe; unfortunately, there aren't any. These two verses are in fact the most detailed personal references anywhere in the Tanach.
49:16 DAN YADIN AMO KE ACHAD SHIVTEY YISRA-EL
דָּן יָדִין עַמּוֹ כְּאַחַד שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ: Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
BN: "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Yisra-el.
That Dan should come next in the list is also surprising; though it also adds weight to the speculation earlier that Dan and Dinah were twins, or at least mother-siblings. In theory Dan is a son of Bilhah, in which case he should appear in this list next to Naphtali, Bilhah's other son; yet here he is at the end of the Le'ah list, and Dinah is the only named daughter, and she too was one of Le'ah's.
KE ACHAD: "As..." Which sounds rather as though he isn't one of the tribes of Yisra-El, a hypothesis explored in detail in my essay "The Leprachauns of Palestine". There is a need to explore much further into the Dana'an history with all of its British and European link.
49:17 YEHI DAN NACHASH ALEY DERECH SHEPHIYPHON ALEY ORACH HA NOSHECH IKVEY SUS VA YIPOL ROCHVO ACHOR
יְהִי דָן נָחָשׁ עֲלֵי דֶרֶךְ שְׁפִיפֹן עֲלֵי אֹרַח הַנֹּשֵׁךְ עִקְּבֵי סוּס וַיִּפֹּל רֹכְבוֹ אָחוֹר
KJ: 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.
BN: "Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path, that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward.
Being a "judge" is straightforward - it is the meaning of his name. Why the serpent is not so obvious. But see my note to Gad at verse 19. Methinks Ya'akov is playing word-games!
49:18 LIYSHU'AT'CHA KIVIYTI YHVH
לִישׁוּעָתְךָ קִוִּיתִי יְהוָה
KJ: I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
BN: "I wait for your salvation, YHVH
YHVH: not for the first time it is YHVH rather than Elohim who has made a lengthy disappearance from the text; and appears now in somewhat curious manner, as though another death-bed exclamation by Ya'akov has been written down by the stenographer' an aside, rather than part of the oracle.
Lines like this one bear remarkable similarities to the style and parallelism of the Psalms: again Davidic. It encourages the question: why was this written? Self-evidently it isn't what Ya'akov actually said to his sons on his death-bed (several would surely have walked out in fury if he had!), unless he was delirious, or on hallucinogenic medicines, or inspired to a level of poetry previously unhinted at in his words or actions ("is Sha'ul now among the prophets? - 1 Samuel 10:11). Appearing as it does at the peroration of the book, we can regard it as a piece of tag-on, a work of poetry too beautiful and interesting to overlook, and the Redactor and his fellow scholars will have needed only a short committee meeting to decide it had to go in somewhere. Yes, but where? It reads like a piece of liturgy, probably attached to the annual covenant renewal ceremonies at which all the tribes participated, but probably a late version rewritten after Sennacherib's victory had robbed Yisra-El of ten tribes, leaving only Yehudah and Bin-Yamin (we cannot imagine too much excitement among certain of the other tribes, being told they had to travel for miles and stay for days in some out-of-the-way shrine, so that they could be insulted with the kinds of derogations that run through these verses; it would be interesting to know what was in the pre-Sennacherib versions, if this hypothesis is correct). This is nonetheless the logical place to put it in the Book.
Deuteronomy 33:22 U LE DAN AMAR DAN GUR ARYEH YEZANEK MIN HA BASHAN
וּלְדָן אָמַר דָּן גּוּר אַרְיֵה יְזַנֵּק מִן הַבָּשָׁן
And of Dan he said: Dan is a lion's whelp, that leaps forth from Bashan.
Samech break; end of fourth fragment.
49:19 GAD GEDUD YEGUDENU VE HU YAGUD AKEV
גָּד גְּדוּד יְגוּדֶנּוּ וְהוּא יָגֻד עָקֵב
KJ: Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
BN: "Gad: a troop shall troop upon him; but he shall troop upon their heel.
The puns coming fast and free now; though not, alas, in any English translation I have yet encountered, so how would you know, if you didn't know Yehudit/Ivrit? GAD GEDUD YEGUDENU isn't simply complex alitteration and word-play on Gad's name, it is also a perfect mirror of verse 8, which does the same with Yehudah's name - YEHUDAH ATAH YODUCHA ACHEYCHA YADCHA. Lots of references too to AKEV (עקב) = "heel", which of course is Ya'akov's own name; Dan in verse 17, for example, "bites the horse's heels - NOSHECH IKVEY SUS". Some of the sons get blessings that are purely verbal puns, others appear to get something quite different. This is worth examining purely as poetry.
Gad later repelled the Beney Amon (who bordered his territory), as well as the Beney Mo-Av and Beney Aram. Yiphtach (Jephthah, Judges 11) was a Gadite - see also the Greek version of his story, and those of Yaphet and Iphigeneia.
Deuteronomy 33:20 U LE GAD AMAR BARUCH MARCHIYV GAD KE LAVI SHACHEN VE TARAPH ZERO'A APH KADKOD
וּלְגָד אָמַר בָּרוּךְ מַרְחִיב גָּד כְּלָבִיא שָׁכֵן וְטָרַף זְרוֹעַ אַף קָדְקֹד
And of Gad he said: Blessed be he who enlarges Gad; he dwells as a lioness, and tears the arm, yea, the crown of the head.
33:21 VA YAR RESHIYT LO KI SHAM CHELKAT MECHOKEK SAPHUN VA YETU RASHEY AM TSIDKAT YHVH ASAH U MISHPATAV IM YISRA-EL
וַיַּרְא רֵאשִׁית לוֹ כִּי שָׁם חֶלְקַת מְחֹקֵק סָפוּן וַיֵּתֵא רָאשֵׁי עָם צִדְקַת יְהוָה עָשָׂה וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו עִם יִשְׂרָאֵל
And he chose a first part for himself, for there a portion of a ruler was reserved; and there came the heads of the people, he executed the righteousness of YHVH, and his ordinances with Yisra-El.
The KADKOD which Gad tears will reappear in verse 26, as well as in the Mosheh text (Deuteronomy 33:16) relating to Yoseph - see notes to this below.
Samech break.
49:20 ME ASHER SHEMENAH LACHMO VE HU YITEN MA'ADANEY MELECH
KJ: Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
BN: "As for Asher, his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
Close proximity to both the Mediterranean and the Lebanon reflected here, Asher the beneficiary of the trade in purple dyes, and clothing made from them, which established the Phoenicians of Tsur and Tsidon as the great trading empire of their epoch, founders of Troy in Turkey and Carthage in Tunisia as well as much of what would become Greece, including the trading outposts on Crete and Cyprus. It was from those purple dyes that the Phoinikim acquired their name, and the Kena'anim likewise.
Much dispute among the non-faith scholars as to whether Asher is a male version of Asherah, or a Yehudit version of Osher, the Egyptian name for Osiris, the corn-god. We know from multiple textual sources that Asherah was worshipped in this part of the land; we also know from Egyptian and Greek sources that it was precisely on the coasts of Asher that Eshet (Isis) came to find the casket in which Set had put the dead Osher out to sea, after murdering him; so both explanations could be correct. Part of the difficulty is the spelling: Asher has an Aleph (א), as does Asherah, where Osher has an Ayin (ע) - but this is the 5th century BCE writing down of folk mythologies and tribal legends that had been in the oral tradition for a thousand years at least, so the writer then would have had the same problem, and made a decision for whatever reason at the time; such a decision cannot be regarded as reliable, and we have to look in the text for evidence. This oracle is self-evidently key in our understanding of this fact.
49:20 ME ASHER SHEMENAH LACHMO VE HU YITEN MA'ADANEY MELECH
מֵאָשֵׁר שְׁמֵנָה לַחְמוֹ וְהוּא יִתֵּן מַעֲדַנֵּי מֶלֶךְ
KJ: Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
BN: "As for Asher, his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
Close proximity to both the Mediterranean and the Lebanon reflected here, Asher the beneficiary of the trade in purple dyes, and clothing made from them, which established the Phoenicians of Tsur and Tsidon as the great trading empire of their epoch, founders of Troy in Turkey and Carthage in Tunisia as well as much of what would become Greece, including the trading outposts on Crete and Cyprus. It was from those purple dyes that the Phoinikim acquired their name, and the Kena'anim likewise.
Much dispute among the non-faith scholars as to whether Asher is a male version of Asherah, or a Yehudit version of Osher, the Egyptian name for Osiris, the corn-god. We know from multiple textual sources that Asherah was worshipped in this part of the land; we also know from Egyptian and Greek sources that it was precisely on the coasts of Asher that Eshet (Isis) came to find the casket in which Set had put the dead Osher out to sea, after murdering him; so both explanations could be correct. Part of the difficulty is the spelling: Asher has an Aleph (א), as does Asherah, where Osher has an Ayin (ע) - but this is the 5th century BCE writing down of folk mythologies and tribal legends that had been in the oral tradition for a thousand years at least, so the writer then would have had the same problem, and made a decision for whatever reason at the time; such a decision cannot be regarded as reliable, and we have to look in the text for evidence. This oracle is self-evidently key in our understanding of this fact.
Deuteronomy 33:24 U LE ASHER AMAR BARUCH MI BANIM ASHER YEHI RETSU'I ECHAV VE TOVEL BA SHEMEN RAGLO
וּלְאָשֵׁר אָמַר בָּרוּךְ מִבָּנִים אָשֵׁר יְהִי רְצוּי אֶחָיו וְטֹבֵל בַּשֶּׁמֶן רַגְלוֹ
And of Asher he said: Blessed be Asher above sons; let him be the favoured of his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.
33:25 BARZEL U NECHOSHET MI NE'ALECHA U CHE YAMEYCHA DAVEYCHA
בַּרְזֶל וּנְחֹשֶׁת מִנְעָלֶךָ וּכְיָמֶיךָ דָּבְאֶךָ
Iron and brass shall be your bars; and as your days, so shall your strength be.
Samech break.
And of course, the most "blessed" of all is Osher, if you are an Egyptian, or have just moved to Egypt, as Ya'akov and his family have; though it could just as well be Asherah, or even Sarah, if you have spent half your adult life in Padan Aram, where she was the principal goddess. Many of the Psalms incorporate this sense of the name: Ashrey: Happy/Blessed are they who. One of them, Psalm 145, has been a central feature of synagogue liturgy from the outset.
49:21 NAPHTALI AYALAH SHELUCHAH HA NOTEN IMREY SHAPHER
נַפְתָּלִי אַיָּלָה שְׁלֻחָה הַנֹּתֵן אִמְרֵי שָׁפֶר
KJ: Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
BN (1): "Naphtali is a hind let loose, he delivers fine words.
BN (2): see the note to EYLAH, below.
The tribe had a reputation for eloquence, based mostly on the song of Devorah following the victory of Barak, a Naphtalite (Judges 5).
EYLAH (אילה) is generally translated as "hind", but it could just as well be a "terebinth", and the whole line: "Naphtali is a slender terebinth which puts forth goodly branches". This is preferable, especially because a similar figure of speech is used for Yoseph in the following verse.
Deuteronomy 33:23 U LE NAPHTALI AMAR NAPHTALI SEVA RATSON U MAL'E BIRKAT YHVH YAM VE DAROM YERASHAH
וּלְנַפְתָּלִי אָמַר נַפְתָּלִי שְׂבַע רָצוֹן וּמָלֵא בִּרְכַּת יְהוָה יָם וְדָרוֹם יְרָשָׁה
And of Naphtali he said: O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of YHVH; possess the sea and the south.
Samech break.
49:22 BEN PORAT YOSEPH BEN PORAT ALEI AYIN BANOT TSA'ADAH ALEI SHUR
בֵּן פֹּרָת יוֹסֵף בֵּן פֹּרָת עֲלֵי עָיִן בָּנוֹת צָעֲדָה עֲלֵי שׁוּר
KJ: Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
BN: "Yoseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a fountain; its branches run over the wall.
49:23 VA YEMARARUHU VA ROBU VA YISTEMUHU BA'ALEI CHITSIM
וַיְמָרֲרֻהוּ וָרֹבּוּ וַיִּשְׂטְמֻהוּ בַּעֲלֵי חִצִּים
KJ: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
BN: "The archers have dealt bitterly with him, and shot at him, and hated him.
This line and the next are important because we know exactly (we are told in the Bible, which may not be the same thing) when bows and arrows (in the sense of military "archers" intended here) were first introduced into Yisra-El. Again, in David's time - see the various stories in Samuel (e.g. 2:1:18) and Chronicles (e.g. 1:12:2), of how the Beney Yisra-El learned archery from the Pelishtim, and David made it mandatory for his troops, and also the coded signals using arrows that he and Yehonatan (Jonathan) used when he was running from Sha'ul (1 Samuel 20:18-42).
Yoseph has already received his blessing (Genesis 48:15) though all we are told is that Ya'akov blessed him, without the words of the blessing; the words given in the verse are the beginning of the blessing over Yoseph's sons. In 48:21 he adds a hope,or perhaps a confident prediction, that "Elohim will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your forefathers", though this is not actually a blessing as such. But verse 22 is: "'Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow." Not tribal land but, as discussed in my notes to this verse, the Shechem, the priestly portion.
The archer, in the world of astrology, is Sagittarius, the month whose final day is Sol Invictus, the winter solstice, the birthday of Tammuz, David, Jesus...
49:24 VA TASHEV BE EYTAN KASHTO VA YAPHOZU ZERO'EY YADAV MIYDEY AVIR YA'AKOV MI SHAM RO'EH EVEN YISRA-EL
וַתֵּשֶׁב בְּאֵיתָן קַשְׁתּוֹ וַיָּפֹזּוּ זְרֹעֵי יָדָיו מִידֵי אֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב מִשָּׁם רֹעֶה אֶבֶן יִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ: 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:)
BN: "But his bow held firm, and the arms of his hands were rendered supple by the hands of the Mighty One of Ya'akov; from there, from the Shepherd, the Stone of Yisra-El.
This surely is the language of the Psalms: the Lord is my shepherd in Psalm 23; the rock that occurs in several... "Stone of Yisra-El" especially sounds like a variant upon TSUR YISRA-EL, "the Rock of Yisra-El" in 2 Samuel 23:3, who is described as EZRA'T YISRA-EL, "the helper of Yisra-El", when it is used in today's liturgy.
But more significantly, this cannot be Ya'akov speaking or he wouldn't speak about himself in this way.
Who is "the mighty one of Ya'akov"? A similar idea of deity to PACHAD YITSCHAK, "the fear of Yitschak" in Genesis 31:42? cf Isaiah 1:24. Again, a much later construct of the divine than anything Mosaic (worth looking at Auguste Comte on this; his construct of the three phases of human intellectual evolution: the Theological, the Metaphysical, the Epistemological. Anything up to and including the Davidic must be counted as Theological; the Metaphysical - the development of abstract ideas - begins around the 6th century BCE, at the time of the Prophets).
The word KESHET gets in to quite a few of these blessings too. Archery, AS NOTED ABOVE, is normally associated with Sagittarius; we need to undertake a mesocosmic analysis of the tribes, alongside a map of their territories, to determine how the map of the constellations was superimposed politically on the map of Yisra-El from the time of David. Drummond's "Oedipus Judaicus" provides the best starting-point. See my notes to Number Twelve.
49:25 ME EL AVIYCHA VE YA'ZERECHA VE ET SHADAI VIYVARCHECHA BIRCHOT SHAMAYIM ME AL BIRCHOT TEHOM ROVETSET TACHAT BIRCHOT SHADAYIM VA RACHAM
מֵאֵל אָבִיךָ וְיַעְזְרֶךָּ וְאֵת שַׁדַּי וִיבָרְכֶךָּ בִּרְכֹת שָׁמַיִם מֵעָל בִּרְכֹת תְּהוֹם רֹבֶצֶת תָּחַת בִּרְכֹת שָׁדַיִם וָרָחַם
KJ: 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:
BN: "Even by the god of your father, who shall help you, and by Shadai, who shall bless you with the blessings of the heavens above, and the blessings of the deep that couch beneath, the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
Tehom the sea-monstress, complete with womb and breasts! And identified this time directly with El Shadai, as Shimshon (Samson) is with Delilah, Night with Day! See commentary on Genesis 1:2.
"Blessings of the heavens" means "dew, rain and sunshine", all of which are specific to the god Anu, but also strongly suggestive of the goddess Diana, who may be a variant of the one unnamed child, Dinah. Compare this with the "Mashiv ha ru'ach u morid ha gashem" prayer that is said on Shemini Atseret.
This verse has all the feel of a liturgical closure. Having run through the things for which thanks are to be given, the final blessing is wound up in what is to any synagogue Jew a fairly typical manner. The next verse then completes it, leaving us to wonder what the Bin-Yamin verse is doing there. If it were part of the whole blessing it would come earlier. Where it is located, it can only be an appendix, which furthers the view that Rachel's sons (meaning Ben-Oni, rather than Bin-Yamin, and Yoseph) were Egyptian and added on. Yoseph's appearance where it is, is also anomalous, since Ephrayim and Menasheh have had their blessing, but presumably the Redactor, making his decision, felt that Yoseph had to be included, and where he is, if the piece were to be logical at the end of his story in Genesis; but that it would be too much to put Bin-Yamin there as well.
49:26 BIRCHOT AVIYCHA GAVRU AL BIRCHOT HORAI AD TA'AVAT GIV'OT OLAM TIHEYEYNA LE ROSH YOSEPH U LE KADKOD NEZIR ECHAV
בִּרְכֹת אָבִיךָ גָּבְרוּ עַל בִּרְכֹת הוֹרַי עַד תַּאֲוַת גִּבְעֹת עוֹלָם תִּהְיֶיןָ לְרֹאשׁ יוֹסֵף וּלְקָדְקֹד נְזִיר אֶחָיו
KJ: 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.
BN: "The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my progenitors until the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Yoseph and on the crown of the head of the prince among his brethren.
If this verse, as it appears on the surface, is still part of the Yoseph blessing, then Yoseph seems to have a very much longer blessing than anyone else, which may of course be why it has been placed here; to exalt him. However as the previous note suggests…
YOUR FATHER...MY PROGENITORS: If Ya'akov were the speaker, this is not how he would say it; if an oracle had been delivering, and now came out of mask to converse with the boys at a mundane level, the statement would be entirely plausible. But this is not how the narrative relates it.
There is however a very large question-mark over the translation of this verse, which appears to bestow a favouritism on Yoseph; one that, if it is correct, would surely revive the childhood hatred of his brothers, and lead to disharmony after Ya'akov's death. The problem lies with two words, Yoseph and Nezir; the first of which may not actually be Yoseph's name, but a verb from the same root (see my note to its reusage in exactly that manner in verse 29; and note that it appears again in that usage in verse 33), the second of which is denoted as "prince" because a NEZER is a diadem, which is princely, but no more than that. NEZER is also the root of NAZIR, whence a Nazirite, a person who dedicates themselves to the religious life for a set period (Numbers 6). If we decided to take the alternative meaning for both words, the second half of the verse would translate as:
BN (2): "they [the blessings] shall be on the head of he who gathers me to my ancestors, and on the crown of the head of he who dedicates himself faithfully among his brethren."
A much better translation, because a far more meaningful benediction, in the circumstance.
A much better translation, because a far more meaningful benediction, in the circumstance.
Deuteronomy 33:13 U LE YOSEPH AMAR MEVORECHET YHVH ARTSO MI MEGED SHAMAYIM MI TAL U MI TEHOM ROVETSET TACHAT
וּלְיוֹסֵף אָמַר מְבֹרֶכֶת יְהוָה אַרְצוֹ מִמֶּגֶד שָׁמַיִם מִטָּל וּמִתְּהוֹם רֹבֶצֶת תָּחַת
And of Yoseph he said: Blessed of YHVH be his land; for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath...
33:14 U MI MEGED TEVU'OT SHEMESH U MI MEGED GERESH YERACHIM
וּמִמֶּגֶד תְּבוּאֹת שָׁמֶשׁ וּמִמֶּגֶד גֶּרֶשׁ יְרָחִים
And for the precious things of the fruits of the sun, and for the precious things of the yield of the moons...
33:15 U ME ROSH HAREREY KEDEM U MI MEGED GIV'OT OLAM
וּמֵרֹאשׁ הַרְרֵי קֶדֶם וּמִמֶּגֶד גִּבְעוֹת עוֹלָם
And for the tops of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the everlasting hills...
33:16 U MI MEGED ERETS U MELO'AH U RETSON SHOCHNEY SENEH TAVOTAH LE ROSH YOSEPH U LE KADKOD NEZIYR ECHAV
וּמִמֶּגֶד אֶרֶץ וּמְלֹאָהּ וּרְצוֹן שֹׁכְנִי סְנֶה תָּבוֹאתָה לְרֹאשׁ יוֹסֵף וּלְקָדְקֹד נְזִיר אֶחָיו
And for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, and the good will of he who dwelt in the bush; let the blessing come upon the head of Yoseph, and upon the crown of the head of him that is prince among his brethren.
33:17 BECHOR SHORO HADAR LO VE KARNEY RE'EM KARNAV BEHEM AMIM YENAGACH YACHDAV APHSEY-ARETS VE HEM RIVEVOT EPHRAYIM VE HEM ALEPHEY MENASHEH
בְּכוֹר שׁוֹרוֹ הָדָר לוֹ וְקַרְנֵי רְאֵם קַרְנָיו בָּהֶם עַמִּים יְנַגַּח יַחְדָּו אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ וְהֵם רִבְבוֹת אֶפְרַיִם וְהֵם אַלְפֵי מְנַשֶּׁה
His firstling bullock, majesty is his; and his horns are the horns of the wild-ox; with them he shall gore the peoples all of them, even the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephrayim, and they are the thousands of Menasheh.
All of which leads me to wonder if Yoseph isn't in fact excluded from the amphictyony precisely because he is the successor to Ya'akov, the one who rules as the sun, while the twelve tribes play the roles of Arthur's knights, Jesus' disciples, the constellations of his cosmos...
Pey break.
49:27 BIN-YAMIN ZE'EV YITRAPH BA BOKER YO'CHAL AD VE LA EREV YECHALEK SHALAL
KJ: Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
BN: "Bin-Yamin is a ravening wolf; in the morning he devours the prey and at evening he divides the spoil."
After Yehoshu'a, the main body of Kena'an was in reality divided threefold: Ephrayim and the other Galilean tribes; Yehudah and the middle section of Bin-Yamin and Shim'on; with the trans-Jordanian tribes somewhat separated, and barely sustaining themselves. This would become formally the case after the death of Shelomoh (Solomon), though by then Shim'on and the trans-Jordanian tribes had more or less disappeared. The image here suggests a warlike tribe; cf Judges 5:14 and 20:16.
One other option: Yishma-El and Esav and Menasheh all found themselves without a blessing, and asked for one, and so one was given to them as a kind of appendix. Is this is what is happening to Bin-Yamin here too?
For a word-by-word commentary on this verse, go to the page on Bin-Yamin.
49:27 BIN-YAMIN ZE'EV YITRAPH BA BOKER YO'CHAL AD VE LA EREV YECHALEK SHALAL
בִּנְיָמִין זְאֵב יִטְרָף בַּבֹּקֶר יֹאכַל עַד וְלָעֶרֶב יְחַלֵּק שָׁלָל
KJ: Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
BN: "Bin-Yamin is a ravening wolf; in the morning he devours the prey and at evening he divides the spoil."
After Yehoshu'a, the main body of Kena'an was in reality divided threefold: Ephrayim and the other Galilean tribes; Yehudah and the middle section of Bin-Yamin and Shim'on; with the trans-Jordanian tribes somewhat separated, and barely sustaining themselves. This would become formally the case after the death of Shelomoh (Solomon), though by then Shim'on and the trans-Jordanian tribes had more or less disappeared. The image here suggests a warlike tribe; cf Judges 5:14 and 20:16.
One other option: Yishma-El and Esav and Menasheh all found themselves without a blessing, and asked for one, and so one was given to them as a kind of appendix. Is this is what is happening to Bin-Yamin here too?
For a word-by-word commentary on this verse, go to the page on Bin-Yamin.
Deuteronomy 33:12 LE VIN-YAMIN AMAR YEDID YHVH YISHKON LA VETACH ALAV CHOPHEN ALAV KOL HA YOM U VEYN KETEPHAV SHACHEN
לְבִנְיָמִן אָמַר יְדִיד יְהוָה יִשְׁכֹּן לָבֶטַח עָלָיו חֹפֵף עָלָיו כָּל הַיּוֹם וּבֵין כְּתֵפָיו שָׁכֵן
Of Bin-Yamin he said: The beloved of YHVH shall dwell in safety by him; he covers him all the day, and he dwells between his shoulders.
The beloved of YHVH noch! Where David is Yedid-Yah, the beloved of YHVH's consort, YAH - again that relationship of Shimshon and Delilah that we witnessed in verse 25. "My beloved son, in whom I am well-pleased", and who will sit on my right hand - my Yamin!
49:28 KOL ELEH SHIVTEY YISRA-EL SHENEYM ASAR VE ZOT ASHER DIBER LAHEM AVIYHEM VA YEVARECH OTAM ISH ASHER KE VIRCHATO BERACH OTAM
כָּל אֵלֶּה שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר וְזֹאת אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לָהֶם אֲבִיהֶם וַיְבָרֶךְ אוֹתָם אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר כְּבִרְכָתוֹ בֵּרַךְ אֹתָם
KJ: 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.
BN: All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra-El, and this is what their father spoke to them and how he blessed them; each one according to his blessing he blessed them.
But not Dinah, because this is now a patriarchal world; and it wasn't really a blessing - indeed, if this were really the blessing, then several of the tribes would feel that he had done to them much as he did to Esav previously: this one a snake and that one a ravening wolf. And if this is Ya'akov reciting the blessings, why are they called tribes - SHIVTEY YISRA-EL - and not sons - BENEY YISRA-EL? And anyway the phrasing isn't correct. These are not the twelve tribes. They may be the 12 sons, but they are not the 12 tribes.
However we view the poem, it has now ended, and this verse is the narrative once more.
49:29 VA YETSAV OTAM VA YOMER AL'EHEM ANI NE'ESAPH EL AMI KIVRU OTI EL AVOTAI EL HA ME'ARAH ASHER BIS'DEH EPHRON HA CHITI
וַיְצַו אוֹתָם וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם אֲנִי נֶאֱסָף אֶל עַמִּי קִבְרוּ אֹתִי אֶל אֲבֹתָי אֶל הַמְּעָרָה אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׂדֵה עֶפְרוֹן הַחִתִּי
KJ: 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,
BN: And he instructed them, telling them, "I will soon be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Chiti...
He has of course already made this request to Yoseph earlier (Genesis 47:30), though the phrasing was different, with odd references to Rachel, and no specific mention of Machpelah.
That word NE'ESAPH is troubling, being so close to the name Yoseph, indeed from the same root - this may help with our understanding of verse 26.
EPHRON HA CHITI: see the link.
49:30 BE ME'ARAH ASHER BIS'DEH HA MACHPELAH ASHER AL PENEY MAMRE BE ERETS KENA'AN ASHER KANAH AV-RAHAM ET HA SADEH ME ET EPHRON HA CHITI LA ACHUZAT KAVER
KJ: 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.
BN: "In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Kena'an, which Av-Raham bought with the field from Ephron the Chiti in order to possess a burying-place...
Strange that he needs to spell it out so prolixly - if his sons spent years with him in Kena'an, in that family, after coming back from Padan Aram, surely they would have visited the family shrine, and known. No, this is spelled out for the exiles in Babylon, or the returnees afterwards, as a didactic exercise. Overstatement is always such a give-away.
49:31 SHAMA KAVRU ET AV-RAHAM VE ET SARAH ISHTO SHAMA KAVRU ET YITSCHAK VE ET RIVKAH ISHTO VE SHAMA KAVARTI ET LE'AH
KJ: There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
BN: "There they buried Av-Raham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Yitschak and Rivkah his wife; and there I buried Le'ah...
ISHTO: And again, he would not need to explain to the boys who Av-Raham and Sarah were; and would he not say "my parents" rather than "Yitschak and Rivkah, and, at least for seven of them, "your mother"?
ET LE'AH (את-לאה): significantly Le'ah as mother of Yehudah is in the ancestral burial-place; but not Rachel the mother of Yoseph and Bin-Yamin - somebody has been fiddling the books again, I suspect (see my notes to Genesis 35:18-20). You would have thought, given his deep love for Rachel, that he would have wanted to be buried beside her; but clearly it was more important for the Redactor that Yehudah be connected to the ancestral mausoleum; and presumably, by the time of the Redaction, the tomb of Rachel at Beit Lechem was already so significant a shrine that her body could not be moved.
And of course this cave was important to David, because his capital was at Chevron, before he moved it to Yeru-Shala'im. So his claim to kingship is reinforced if the ancient Chitite burial cave can be shown to belong to the Beney Yisra-El as well.
"There they buried Yitschak" is interesting, because we were explicitly told, in Genesis 35:29, that Ya'akov and Esav personally buried him. So why is he saying "they" and not "we"? Again it reads like evidence that this was never Ya'akov speaking, but a later writer attributing, again didactically, and sadly without sufficient awareness of his own text.
49:32 MIKNEH HA SADEH VE HA ME'ARAH ASHER BO ME ET BENEY CHET
KJ: The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
BN: "The field, and the cave that is in it, which was purchased from the Beney Chet."
Very emphatic this; the third reference to the Chitite ownership. See Genesis 23.
49:33 VA YECHAL YA'AKOV LETSAVOT ET BANAV VA YE'ESOPH RAGLAV EL HA MITA VA YIGVA VA YE'ASEPH EL AMAV
KJ: 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.
BN: And when Ya'akov had finished instructing his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered unto his people.
YE'ASEPH RAGLAV (ויאסף רגליו): note the alternative usage, as in verse 29, of what can only be a deliberate pun on Yoseph's name; two puns indeed, in quick succession. It almost makes me wonder if the Beney Yisra-El didn't invent the name Yoseph out of the god of death, which was of course an Osiric role, for he is effectively presiding over the death-rites of his father; Pharaoh's name for him, Tsaphnat Pa'ne'ach, was after all quite different (Genesis 41:45). The Sea of Reeds, which is in Goshen, and which the Beney Yisra-El may or may not cross on the night of the Exodus, is known as Yam Suph, and the goddess of the Sea of Reeds as Yah Suph - both likewise variations on Yoseph's name.
End of chapter 49.
He has of course already made this request to Yoseph earlier (Genesis 47:30), though the phrasing was different, with odd references to Rachel, and no specific mention of Machpelah.
That word NE'ESAPH is troubling, being so close to the name Yoseph, indeed from the same root - this may help with our understanding of verse 26.
EPHRON HA CHITI: see the link.
49:30 BE ME'ARAH ASHER BIS'DEH HA MACHPELAH ASHER AL PENEY MAMRE BE ERETS KENA'AN ASHER KANAH AV-RAHAM ET HA SADEH ME ET EPHRON HA CHITI LA ACHUZAT KAVER
בַּמְּעָרָה אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׂדֵה הַמַּכְפֵּלָה אֲשֶׁר עַל פְּנֵי מַמְרֵא בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן אֲשֶׁר קָנָה אַבְרָהָם אֶת הַשָּׂדֶה מֵאֵת עֶפְרֹן הַחִתִּי לַאֲחֻזַּת קָבֶר
KJ: 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.
BN: "In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Kena'an, which Av-Raham bought with the field from Ephron the Chiti in order to possess a burying-place...
Strange that he needs to spell it out so prolixly - if his sons spent years with him in Kena'an, in that family, after coming back from Padan Aram, surely they would have visited the family shrine, and known. No, this is spelled out for the exiles in Babylon, or the returnees afterwards, as a didactic exercise. Overstatement is always such a give-away.
49:31 SHAMA KAVRU ET AV-RAHAM VE ET SARAH ISHTO SHAMA KAVRU ET YITSCHAK VE ET RIVKAH ISHTO VE SHAMA KAVARTI ET LE'AH
שָׁמָּה קָבְרוּ אֶת אַבְרָהָם וְאֵת שָׂרָה אִשְׁתּוֹ שָׁמָּה קָבְרוּ אֶת יִצְחָק וְאֵת רִבְקָה אִשְׁתּוֹ וְשָׁמָּה קָבַרְתִּי אֶת לֵאָה
BN: "There they buried Av-Raham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Yitschak and Rivkah his wife; and there I buried Le'ah...
ISHTO: And again, he would not need to explain to the boys who Av-Raham and Sarah were; and would he not say "my parents" rather than "Yitschak and Rivkah, and, at least for seven of them, "your mother"?
ET LE'AH (את-לאה): significantly Le'ah as mother of Yehudah is in the ancestral burial-place; but not Rachel the mother of Yoseph and Bin-Yamin - somebody has been fiddling the books again, I suspect (see my notes to Genesis 35:18-20). You would have thought, given his deep love for Rachel, that he would have wanted to be buried beside her; but clearly it was more important for the Redactor that Yehudah be connected to the ancestral mausoleum; and presumably, by the time of the Redaction, the tomb of Rachel at Beit Lechem was already so significant a shrine that her body could not be moved.
And of course this cave was important to David, because his capital was at Chevron, before he moved it to Yeru-Shala'im. So his claim to kingship is reinforced if the ancient Chitite burial cave can be shown to belong to the Beney Yisra-El as well.
"There they buried Yitschak" is interesting, because we were explicitly told, in Genesis 35:29, that Ya'akov and Esav personally buried him. So why is he saying "they" and not "we"? Again it reads like evidence that this was never Ya'akov speaking, but a later writer attributing, again didactically, and sadly without sufficient awareness of his own text.
49:32 MIKNEH HA SADEH VE HA ME'ARAH ASHER BO ME ET BENEY CHET
מִקְנֵה הַשָּׂדֶה וְהַמְּעָרָה אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ מֵאֵת בְּנֵי חֵת
KJ: The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
BN: "The field, and the cave that is in it, which was purchased from the Beney Chet."
Very emphatic this; the third reference to the Chitite ownership. See Genesis 23.
49:33 VA YECHAL YA'AKOV LETSAVOT ET BANAV VA YE'ESOPH RAGLAV EL HA MITA VA YIGVA VA YE'ASEPH EL AMAV
וַיְכַל יַעֲקֹב לְצַוֹּת אֶת בָּנָיו וַיֶּאֱסֹף רַגְלָיו אֶל הַמִּטָּה וַיִּגְוַע וַיֵּאָסֶף אֶל עַמָּיו
KJ: 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.
BN: And when Ya'akov had finished instructing his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered unto his people.
YE'ASEPH RAGLAV (ויאסף רגליו): note the alternative usage, as in verse 29, of what can only be a deliberate pun on Yoseph's name; two puns indeed, in quick succession. It almost makes me wonder if the Beney Yisra-El didn't invent the name Yoseph out of the god of death, which was of course an Osiric role, for he is effectively presiding over the death-rites of his father; Pharaoh's name for him, Tsaphnat Pa'ne'ach, was after all quite different (Genesis 41:45). The Sea of Reeds, which is in Goshen, and which the Beney Yisra-El may or may not cross on the night of the Exodus, is known as Yam Suph, and the goddess of the Sea of Reeds as Yah Suph - both likewise variations on Yoseph's name.
End of chapter 49.
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