Глава 49

Gen.49:3–4. “Reuben, my firstborn! You are my strength and the beginning of my sons. You are heavy to bear, and heavy with unbridledness and lawlessness. Don't boil like water! Because you ascended to your father’s bed, you desecrated my bed by ascending to it.” The Hebrew text says: “Reuben, my firstborn! You are my strength and the head of my children. Bigger to carry you, and bigger in strength. You are poured out like water - do not add further. For you have ascended to your father’s bed and have defiled the bed by your ascent.” And the meaning here is this: “You are my firstborn, the eldest among children. And in accordance with the order of your birth, you should have received the inheritance that was due to you by birthright, as well as the priesthood and the kingdom - because all this is conveyed in the text with images of bearing weight and extraordinary strength. “But since you sinned and, like water that does not fit in a small vessel, spilled in a burst of voluptuousness, then I command you not to sin again.” And become equal in rights with your brothers, thereby washing away the punishment for sin, because you have lost the title of firstborn son.” Gen.49:5–6. “Simeon and Levi, brothers, committed an unjust act according to their own invention. Let not my soul come into their council, and let not my liver compete with their assembly. Because in their rage they killed people and in the fit of their grief they cut the sinews of the bull." Inevitably, in accordance with the design of this work, I am forced to make longer stops on those points in which there are discrepancies with Jewish truth. After all, in it we read: “Simeon and Levi, brothers, whose weapons are vessels of injustice. Let not my soul enter into their secret, and let not my glory be ruined in their assembly. Because in their rage they killed a man and in their lust they undermined the wall” (Gen. 34). With these words, Jacob shows that he did not have his blessing for them to kill Shechem and Hamor - people with whom an alliance was concluded, shed innocent blood contrary to the treaty of peace and friendship and, overwhelmed by cruelty, as if by some kind of madness, destroyed the walls of the hospitable city. So he goes on and says: Gen.49:7. “Cursed is their rage because it is unbridled, and their anger because it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." After all, Levi did not receive his own inheritance, but he had several cities to live in, scattered throughout all the tribes. And about Simeon it is written in the Book of Joshua (chap. 19) that he did not receive his own inheritance, but he received some land in the tribe of Judah. The Book of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 4) says more clearly that since Simeon had multiplied and had no territory to conquer, he went out into the wilderness. Some give a prophetic interpretation that the killed people are the apostles, and the bull whose sinews the Pharisees cut is Christ. Gen.49:8. “Judas, your brothers will praise you.” Since Jude is translated as “confession (glorification)” or “praise,” it is therefore written: “Judas, you will be glorified by your brothers” or “you will be praised by your brothers.” Gen.49:9. “The sons of your father will worship you. Lion's cub Judah, from the shoot, my son, you rose up, crouching [to the ground] like a lion and like a lion's cub. Who will make him stand up? . Although the mystery about Christ here is extensive, the letter of this prophecy says that kings from Judah will be born through the line of David and that all tribes without exception will give him a share. Because he says not “your mother’s sons,” but “your father’s sons.” And what follows next: “From a sprout, my son...”, in the European text looks like “from captivity, my son, you rose.” This shows that he will stand at the head of the captive nations, and in accordance with a more spiritual understanding, that “he went up on high and brought captivity captive” (Ps. 67). Or, what I think is better, captivity means suffering, and ascension means the resurrection of Christ. Gen.49:11. “He ties his donkey’s colt to a vine bush and the donkey’s son with a rope.” In the Hebrew text it goes like this: “He who binds his donkey to the vine bush, and to sorec ( שֹּׂרֵקָ ֖), my son, his donkey.” Because, as you can easily guess, he tied the son of a donkey, on whom Jesus sat (by the son of a donkey we must understand the pagan people), to the vine bush of the apostles, who were from the Jews. “And to the sorec,” that is, to the best vine bush, he tied the donkey on which Christ sat, that is, the Church gathered from the pagan nations. And by the fact that he says “my son,” he makes a ἀποστροϕή (“personal address” - Translator’s note) to Judas himself, because all this will be accomplished by none other than Christ. But you should also know that where we read: “He who ties his colt to the vine bush,” instead of “coal” in the Hebrew text we can read “his city.” In accordance with the same meaning, the Church is depicted here in different words, about which it is written in another place: “A city standing on the top of a mountain cannot hide” (Matthew 5:14), and also: “The strong current of the river makes glad the city of God” (Ps. 45:5). Gen.49:14–15. “Issachar wished for good: he finds peace in the middle of the inheritance and sees peace that he is good, and the land that it is fertile. He put his shoulder to work and became a farmer." The Hebrew text says: “Issachar is a bony donkey, lying between the borders. And he sees the peace that it is good, and the land that it is pleasant: and he bowed his shoulder to bear the burden and began to work to pay the tribute.” Since he spoke above about Zebulun, who would take possession of the shores of the Great Sea and even reach Sidon and other Phoenician cities, he now returns to the territory located inland, and, giving his blessing, makes Issachar heir, because he will become the owner of the most beautiful region of Galilee, next to Naphtali. And he was named a bony donkey, who adapted his shoulders to carry a burden, because he was most busy working on cultivating the land and transporting goods (fruits produced in his domain) to the sea, including delivering tribute to the kings. According to the Jews, here, through a metaphor, it is indicated that Issachar, meditating on the holy Scriptures day and night, put all his zeal into this work, and therefore all the tribes of Israel had to serve him and, like a teacher, bring gifts. Gen.49:16–18. “Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Let Dan be a serpent on the road, a basilisk on the path, biting the horse’s hooves so that its rider falls back. I will wait for Your Savior, Lord!” . Samson, the judge of Israel, was from the tribe of Dan. Therefore, Jacob says the following here: “I now see in my spirit how your Nazirite Samson grows his hair and, having killed his enemies, wins victory over them. Because, like the serpent and the basilisk that block traffic on the roads, he does not allow anyone to pass through the land of Israel. But even if someone, thoughtlessly relying on his own power, like on the agility of a horse, wants to treacherously plunder the land, he will not have enough strength to escape.” He says all this through the metaphor of the serpent and the rider. [And further:] “So, I see that your Nazirite is very strong. And since he himself died because of a harlot and through his death killed all our enemies, then I thought, God, that this is Your Son Christ. But since he died and did not rise again, and Israel was again taken into captivity, then I will wait for another Savior of the world and my people, Who is destined to come, and He will become the One for whom the nations will wait (cf. Gen. 49, 10 according to LXX).” Gen.49:19. “Gad: the robber will rob him, and he himself will rob [his] heel.” I have given the translation according to the Hebrew text. But where I put "robber" it says gedud ( גְּד ֣ וּד ), which creates a pun on the name Gad ( גָּ ֖ ד ). The meaning of the word gedud can be more clearly expressed as ε ὔ ζωνος, that is, “equipped” or “ready for battle.” And this whole prophecy is that at first Dan sent Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh to their possessions, to their sons who were beyond the Jordan, and fourteen years later he returned there himself and discovered that the neighboring nations had launched a great war against them. Dan boldly entered this fight, but only after the enemies were [generally] defeated. Read the Book of Joshua (chap. 13) and Chronicles (1 Chron. 5). I am not ignorant of the fact that there is much more mystery in the blessings given to the patriarchs, but this has no bearing on the present work. Gen.49:21. “Naphtali is a free thicket that produces beauty in its generation.” The Hebrew text says: “Naphtali is a irrigated field that produces sayings of beauty.” This means that there are hot springs in this tribe, or that the land of this tribe is irrigated in addition to Lake Gennesaret by the flow of the Jordan. And the Jews believe that the "irrigated field" and the "sayings of beauty" are prophecies concerning Tiberias, who seems to have acquaintance with the Law. In addition, where I put “irrigated field”, and the Seventy interpreters - στέλεχος ἀνειμένον, that is, “free thicket”, in the Hebrew text we read ajala sluaa ( שְׁלֻחָ ֑ ה אַיָּלָ ֣ ה), which can be translated as “released deer.” The expression is used because of the early time of ripening of fruits in the inheritance of Naphtali and shows the “swiftness” of the local more fertile land. But it is better if we attribute all this to the teachings of the Savior, which here, in the land of Gennesaret, He taught, perhaps, more than anywhere else, as is written about in the Gospel. Gen.49:22–26. “The son who multiplied was Joseph, the son who multiplied in the fountain. The daughters step up onto the wall with orderly steps. And [some] irritated him and fought with him; and those who had arrows with them were angry with him; and those who had the arrows with them were angry with him. He sat in the strength of his bow, and the fetters of his hands were broken by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob from the place from which the stone of Israel will be grazed by the God of your father.” and so on. I have presented this passage as it appears in the Hebrew text instead of translating the Seventy Interpreters. Because in this case they offer a translation that, for the most part, does not coincide with the Hebrew text. And the meaning of this passage is this: “Joseph, you bear such a name because God has multiplied you for me, or because you will be greatest among your brothers (after all, the tribe of Ephraim was the strongest, as we read in the Books of Kings and Chronicles). My son Joseph, I say, you are so beautiful that all the multitude of Egyptian girls look at you from the walls, from the towers and from the windows. Your brothers were jealous of you and this made you angry. After all, they have arrows of strong envy and they are wounded by the weapons of jealousy. But you have placed your bow and weapons of war in God: He is a mighty Warrior. And your chains, with which your brothers bound you, were destroyed and broken by Him, so that from your seed the tribe of Ephraim would be born, strong and strong and, like a very hard stone, indestructible, and also ruling over the ten tribes of Israel.” Gen.49:27. “Benjamin, the ravenous wolf, in the morning he will still eat, and in the evening he will give away food.” It is obvious to everyone to what extent this verse is the clearest prophecy about the Apostle Paul. Because in his youth he, of course, persecuted the Church, but in his old age he was a preacher of the Gospel. However, in the Hebrew text we read: “Benjamin, the ravenous wolf (or hunter), will eat the prey in the morning, and divide it in the evening.” The Jews explain it this way. The altar on which victims were slaughtered and the base of which was watered with sacrificial blood was located in the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin. Thus, this prophecy, they claim, means that the priests slaughter the sacrifices in the morning, and in the evening they divide what the people according to the Law had collected for them. In this case, Jews believe that the bloodthirsty, gluttonous wolf is an image of the altar, and the division of spoils is an image of the priests who, while serving the altar, live off the altar.