Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/256

224 every thing that was mild and quiet, and yet they proved to be thus furious.

II. A proof of this is the murder of the Shechemites, which Jacob deeply resented at the time, (ch. 34. 30.) and still continued to resent. They slew a man, Shechem himself, and many others; and, to effect that, they digged down a wall, broke the houses, to plunder them, and murder the inhabitants. Note, The best governors cannot always restrain those under their charge from committing the worst villanies. And when two in a family are mischievous, they commonly make one another so much the worse, and it were wisdom to part them. Simeon and Levi, it is probable, were most active in the wrong done to Joseph, which some think Jacob has here some reference to; for in their anger they would have slain that man. Observe what a mischievous thing self-will is in young people: Simeon and Levi would not be advised by their aged and experienced father; no, they would be governed by their own passion, rather than by his prudence. Young people would better consult their own interest, if they would less indulge their own will.

III. Jacob's protestation against this barbarous act of their's, O my soul, come not thou into their secret. Hereby he professes not only his abhorrence of such practices in general, but his innocence particularly in that matter. Perhaps he had been suspected as, under-hand, aiding and abetting; he therefore thus solemnly expresses his detestation of the fact, that he might not die under that suspicion. Note, 1. Our soul is our honour; by its powers and faculties we are distinguished from, and dignified above, the beasts that perish. 2. We ought, from our hearts, to detest and abhor all society and confederacy with bloody and mischievous men. We must not be ambitious of coming into their secret, or knowing the depths of Satan.

IV. His abhorrence of those brutish lusts that led them to this wickedness; Cursed be their anger. He does not curse their persons, but their lusts. Note, 1. Anger is the cause and original of a great deal of sin, and exposes us to the curse of God, and his judgment, Matt. 5. 22. 2. We ought always, in the expressions of our zeal, carefully to distinguish between the sinner and the sin, so as not to love or bless the sin for the sake of the person, nor to hate or curse the person for the sake of the sin.

V. A token of displeasure which he foretells their posterity should lie under for this; I will divide them: The Levites were scattered throughout all the tribes, and Simeon's lot lay not together, and was so strait, that many of the tribe were forced to disperse themselves in quest of settlements and subsistence. This curse was afterwards turned into a blessing to the Levites; but the Simeonites, for Zimri's sin, (Numb. 25. 14.) had it bound on. Note, Shameful dispersions are the just punishment of sinful unions and confederacies.

8. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies: thy father's children shall bow down before thee. 9. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 11. Binding his fole unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. 12. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Glorious things are here said of Judah. The mention of the crimes of the three eldest of his sons, had not so put the dying patriarch out of humour, but that he had a blessing ready for Judah, to whom blessings belonged. Judah's name signifies praise, in allusion to which, he says, Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, v. 8. God was praised for him, (ch. 29. 35.) praised by him, and praised in him; and therefore his brethren shall praise him. Note, Those that are to God for a praise, shall be the praise of their brethren.

It is prophesied,

1. That the tribe of Judah should be victorious and successful in war!war: [sic] Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. This was fulfilled in David, Ps. 18. 40.

2. That it should be superior to the rest of the tribes; not only in itself more numerous and illustrious, but having a dominion over them; Thy father's children shall bow down before thee: Judah was the lawgiver, Ps. 60. 7. That tribe led the van through the wilderness, and in the conquest of Canaan, Judg. 1. 2. The prerogatives of the birth-right which Reuben had forfeited, the excellency of dignity and power, were thus conferred upon Judah. Observe, "Thy brethren shall bow down before thee, and yet shall praise thee, reckoning themselves happy in having so wise and bold a commander." Note, Honour and power are then a blessing to those that have them, when they are not grudged and envied, but praised and applauded, and cheerfully submitted to.

3. That it should be a strong and courageous tribe, and so qualified for command and conquest; (v. 9.) Judah is a lion's whelp. The lion is the king of beasts, the terror of the forest when he roars; when he seizes his prey, none can resist him; when he goes up from the prey, none dares pursue him to revenge it. By this it is foretold that the tribe of Judah should become very formidable, and should not only obtain great victories, but should peaceably and quietly enjoy what was got by those victories; that they should make war, not for the sake of war, but for the sake of peace. Judah is compared, not to a lion rampant, always tearing, always raging, always ranging; but to a lion couchant, enjoying the satisfaction of his power and success, without creating vexation to others: this is to be truly great.

4. That it should be the royal tribe, and the tribe from which Messiah the Prince should come; (v. 10.) The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, till Shiloh come. Jacob here foresees and foretells, (1.) That the sceptre should come out of the tribe of Judah, which was fulfilled in David, on whose family the crown was entailed. (2.) That Shiloh should be of this tribe; his Seed, that promised Seed, in whom the earth should be blessed; that peaceable and prosperous one, or the Saviour, so others translate it, he shall come of Judah. Thus dying Jacob, at a great distance, saw Christ's day, and it was his comfort and support en his death-bed. (3.) That after the coming of the sceptre into the tribe of Judah, it should continue in that tribe, at least, a government of their own, till the coming of the Messiah, in whom, as the King of the church, and the great High-Priest, it was fit that both the priesthood and the royalty should determine. Till the captivity, all along from David's time, the sceptre was in Judah, and from thence governors of that tribe, or of the Levites that adhered to it, (which was equivalent,) till Judea became a province of the Roman empire, just at the time of our Saviour's birth, and