[6] 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.
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. O my soul, come not thou into their secret
- Hereby he professeth not only his abhorrence of such practices in general,
but his innocency particularly in that matter. Perhaps he had been suspected
as under - hand aiding and abetting; he therefore solemnly expresseth his
detestation of the fact.
[7] 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.
Cursed be their anger - Not their persons. 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. 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 that 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, Numbers 25:6- 14, had it bound on.
[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.
Judah's name signifies praise, in allusion to which he
saith, Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, God was praised for
him, Genesis 29:35, praised by him, and praised in him; and therefore hisbrethren
shall praise him. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies - This
was fulfilled in David, Psalms 18:40.Thy father's children shall bow down
before thee - Judah was the law - giver, Psalms 60:7. That tribe led the
van through the wilderness, and in the conquest of Canaan, Judges 1:2.The
prerogatives of the birth - right which Reuben had forfeited, the excellency
of dignity and power, were thus conferred upon Judah. Thy brethren shall
bow down before thee, and yet shall praise thee, reckoning themselves happy
in having so wise and bold a commander.
[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?
Judah is a lion's whelp - The lion is the king of beasts,
the terror of the forest when he roars; when he seizeth 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 enjoy what was got by those victories. Judah is compared not
to a lion rampant, always raging but to a lion couching, enjoying the satisfaction
of his success, without creating vexation to others.
[10] 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. [11]
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:
[12] His eyes shall be red with wine, and
his teeth white with milk.
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come
- Jacob here foretels, (1.) That the sceptre should come into the tribe
of Judah, which was fulfilled in David, on whose family the crown was entailed.
(2.) That Shiloh should be of this tribe; that seed in whom the earth should
be blessed. That peaceable prosperous one, or, the Saviour, so others translate
it, shall come of Judah. (3.) That the sceptre should continue in that
tribe, 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 was at that time taxed as one of the provinces, 2:1, and at the time
of his death the Jews expressly owned, We have no king but Caesar. Hence
it is undeniably inferred against the Jews, that our Lord Jesus is be that
should come, and we are to look for no other, for he came exactly at the
time appointed. (4.) That it should be a fruitful tribe, especially that
it should abound with milk and wine, Genesis 49:11,12, vines so common,
and so strong, that they should tye their asses to them, and so fruitful,
that they should load their asses from them; wine as plentiful as water,
so that the men of that tribe should be very healthful and lively, their
eyes brisk and sparkling, their teeth white. Much of that which is here
said concerning Judah is to be applied to our Lord Jesus.
-
He is the ruler of all his Father's children, and the conqueror
of all his Father's enemies, and he it is that is the praise of all the
saints.
-
He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, as he is called with
reference to this, Revelation 5:5, who having spoiled principalities and
powers, went up a conqueror, and couched so as none can stir him up when
he sat down on the right hand of the Father.
-
To him belongs the sceptre, he is the lawgiver, and to him
shall the gathering of the people be, as the desire of all nations, Haggai
2:7, who beinglifted up from the earth should draw all men unto him, 12:32,and
in whom the children of God that are scattered abroad should meet as the
centre of their unity, 11:52.
-
In him there is plenty of all that which is nourishing and
refreshing to the soul, and which maintains and chears the divine life
in it; in him we may have wine and milk, the riches of Judah's tribe, without
money, and without price, Isaiah 55:1.
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