not have a plainer instance in the place a little session of his purchase, Jacob being the ling them thence: but the Scripture relates more willing to recover his right herein, many things to have been done, without because it was an earnest of his future pos- mentioning the circumstances of time and session of the whole land. And the neigh- place: as Bochartus observes. And among bouring Canaanites would concern other instances gives that in xxxvi. 24, themselves in the defence of the invaders, where Ana is said to have met with the both because they were convinced of the Emims (so he understands it) in the wilderright of Jacob's cause, and because they ness: of which encounter we find no mention were overruled by Divine Providence, in in any other place (see his Hierozoic., par. which Jacob trusted, and of which he had ii. lib. iv. cap. 13). And as I take it, we ample experience. Or, 2. Metaphorically, i. e., by his money, which he calls his sword and his bow, not only because money is answerable to the sword and the bow, and all other things, Eccl. x. 19, and is a defence, Eccl. vii. 12, and therefore may well be so called, even as prayers and tears There are those who, with St. Jerome, are called the arms of the Church, because they serve for the same purpose that arms understand by sword and bow, his money: do against their enemies; but also and prin- which he calls by those warlike names, to cipally by way of opposition to the sword signify this was the only instrument he used and bow of his cruel sons. So the sense to acquire anything. Just as the Romans, may be this, I have given to thee one portion, or one Shechem, not the city of Shechem, which Simeon and Levi took from the hand of the Amorite with their sword and their bow, but a part of the territory of Shechem which I took or received from the hand of the Amorite by my sword and my bow, i. e., by my money, whereby I purchased it. when they would signify they had got anything without any other help but their own industry alone, say they obtained it proprio marte; using a similitude from military expenses and labours. If this do not seem harsh, it is not hard to give an account why he calls those Amorites who before were called Hivites for Amorites seems to have been the general name of all the seven nations of Canaan, they being the chief; just as all the people of the seven United Provinces are now commonly called Hollanders, who are the most potent of all the rest. Quam cepi e manu אֲשֶׁר לָקַחְתִּי וגו'-.Rosen Bp. Patrick.-22 Which I took out of the hand of the Amorite, &c.] He doth not mean the city of Shechem; which his sons took unjustly and cruelly (and not from the Amorites, but the Hivites), without his knowledge, and contrary to his will: but that piece of land which he bought of Hamor Amoraæi, Amoræorum, gladio meo et arcu Non intelligit tantum agrum, quem the father of Shechem (Gen. xxxiii. 19, meo. compared with St. John iv. 5). Which prope Sichem emerat (xxxiii. 18), nam seems to be the reason why Joseph was emere non est armis acquirere; sed totum himself here buried in his own ground, agrum Sichemitarum, quem Simeon et Levi Quod factum given him by his father (Josh. xxiv. 32), armis suis acquisiverunt. and not in the cave of Machpelah. The quamvis Jacobus summopere improbaret, only difficulty is, how he could say, that he nil tamen obstat, quo minus tractus ille, took this land from the Amorite by his sword, quum vacuus relictus esset, nullis vicinorum and by his bow (which comprehend all eum occupantibus, Jacobo cesserit. warlike instruments), when he bought it for autem se illum sibi suis armis acquisivisse, a hundred pieces of silver of Hamor the quamvis filii illo vi injusta potiti fuerint, Hivite. It is to be supposed therefore that quum pater et posteri quasi homo unus he took it, i. e., recovered it from the habeantur; vid. e. c. ad xlvi. 4. Minime Amorites, who had seized on it, after his opus est, cum nonnullis Hebræorum removal to another part of Canaan; and pro futuro capere, q. d.: quam accipiam, would not restore it, but constrained him to i. e., quam mei posteri suis armis, cum drive them out by force. We read nothing Cananæam occupabunt, Amoræis eripient. indeed in the foregoing history, either of Ad quam sententiam ideo delapsi videntur, their invading his possession, or his expel- quia si hæc Jacobi verba referuntur ad ea, Dicit quæ c. xxxiv. narrantur, non apparet, quo- | ticum eripuisse dici possit. Quas difficultates modo Jacobus Amoræis tractum Sichemiti- ut removerent, plerique duplicem viam incum eripuisse dicere possit, quum Sichemus ierunt. Altera est eorum, qui opinantur, xxxiv. 2, Chivæus dicatur. Verum simpli- ut lacunam historicam expleant, Amoræos cissimum est, Amoræos pro Cananæis agrum Semiticum, quem Iacobus post cædem generatim dici existimare, ut Amos ii. 9, Sichemorum Hebronem migrans deseruisset, (ubi cf. not.), quod illi Cananæorum, qui- occupasse, sed Iacobum postea illuc rebus et Chivæi accensebantur, potentissimi versum vi et armis Amoræos expulisse et essent, quippe quorum dominatio et ultra et agrum suum gladio et arcu recepisse (vidd. citra Jordanem longe lateque patebat. Bonfrer., Calov. ad h. 1., W. A. Bachiene, Schum.-Vocem D LXX. ut nomen Histor. und Geograph. Beschreib. von Paläsproprium reddiderunt. Sed cum adiectum tina, übersetzt mit Anmerk. von Gottfr. Maas., sit, illa necessario denotat latus, tractum, p. ii. t. iii. p. 351. Lipsiæ, 1773. Kuinol., partem, quam Iosephus præ ceteris fratribus I. 1). Altera est potissimum Merceri et acceperit. (Cfr. Hoffinanni commentar. in Rosenmuelleri, qui contendunt, totum agrum Deut. xxxiii. p. iii. p. 37.) Qualis autem Sichemitarum, quem nulli vicini occupare hæc fuerit, antiquitus dissenserunt inter se ausi essent, Iacobo cessisse, Iacobum autem interpretes. Alii enim cum LXX. de urbe dici illum sibi suis armis acquisivisse, quamSichem explicant collato cap. xxxiv. alii cum vis filii illo vi iniusta potiti fuerint, quum Iohanne ev. iv. 5 (ëpxetai ovv els nóλw τs pater et posteri quasi homo unus habeantur. Σαμαρείας λεγομένην Συχὰρ, πλησίον τοῦ Deinde Rosenmueller. simplicissimum iuχωρίου ὅ ἔδωκεν Ἰακὼβ Ἰωσὴφ τῷ υἱῷ αὑτοῦ. dicat existimare, Amoræos pro Cananæis Cfr. ad h. 1. Kuinolii et Lueckii commentar.) generatim dictos esse ut Amos ii. 9, quod de agro, prædio, quod Iacobus prope Si-illi Cananæorum, quibus et Chivæi accensi chemum emerat, collato xxxiii. 18, s. Utri- sint, potentissimi fuissent, quippe quorum que tamen offenderunt in seqq., dominatio et ultra et citra Iordanem paquam manibus Amoritarum gladio meo et tuisset. Sed quomodo Iacob v. 21, ut arcu meo eripui. Nam quum Genesis liber vates moribundus futura tanquam præsentia nullam huius facti Iacobi mentionem inie- sive futura exacta canit: ita eum et v. 22, cerit, contra Iacobus agrum xxxiii. 19, verbum veluti futurum exactum propretio emisse non gladio et arcu acquisivisse, nuntiasse putaverim hac mente: quam olim dicatur: non satis apparet, quid sibi scriptor per posteros meos, Israëlitas, Amoræis bello voluerit, quamquam interpretes, ne quod eripuero. Cfr. Ios. xvi.; Iud. i. 35; Rosenstatuebant nimiopere vacillaret, variam ex- muelleri Alterthumsk. vol. ii. p. i. p. 256, s. plicandi rationem tentârunt. At risum Quapropter verisimillimum est, scriptorem magis movent quam locum illustrant metaphoricæ interpretationes, quas Hieronymus, Chald., Aben-Esra aliique excogitarunt v. c. gladium et arcu significare pecuniam multo labore et sudore acquisitam aut arma piorum, orationem et obsecrationem. Alii contra omnium codd. auctoritatem pro in voce tamen negative tantum, ut ita dicam, nostro scribi volunt, ut ab inusitato convenit. derivatum idem sit quod Arab. b, et hic spectasse id, quod Ioseph 1. 25, optat et Ex. xiii. 19; Ios. xxiv. 32, evenit. Quodsi verum est, Iacob moribundus pollicetur Iosepho, quod deus Iacobo pollicitus est xlvi. 3, 4. Ceterum de verbis: gladio et arcu meo, cfr. Ios. xxiv. 12, quo locus CHAP. XLIX. 1. וַיִּקְרָא יַעֲקֹב אֶל־בָּנָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הֵאָסְפוּ .demensum, pensum, nummus ,קְלִיטָה .Hebr וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם אֵת אֲשֶׁר־יִקְרָא אֶתְכֶם Alii, tam inani coniectura critica merito בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים : explosa, respiciunt Simeonis et Levi crudeliter factum, ex quo Sichem ob stuprum Dinæ illatum arcu et gladio occupassent. ἐκάλεσε δὲ Ἰακὼβ τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ, καὶ At vix tibi persuadeas, Iacobum illud factum, εἶπεν αὐτοῖς. συνάχθητε, ἵνα ἀναγγείλω ὑμῖν, quod tantopere improbaverit et paulo post τί ἀπαντήσει ὑμῖν ἐπ' ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν. c. xlix. 5-7, iterum improbat, sibi ipsi Au. Ver.-And Jacob called unto his tribuisse. Neque sic apparet, quum Sche- sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, chemus xxxiv. 2, Chivæus appelletur, quo- that I may tell you that which shall befall modo Iacobus Amoræis tractum Sichemi- you in the last days. In the last days. So Onkelos and others, | fined to the firstborn before the law, as who understand it of the times of the appears by Abel's offering sacrifice as well Messiah. Ged. In future days. as Cain, and Moses being a priest as well as Aaron (Psal. xcix. 6), unless we understand thereby the office of chief priest. And so Jonathan here reports the ancient opinion of the Jews, that Reuben lost the highpriesthood (lib. i. de Synedr., cap. 16, p. 643, &c.). My might.] Whom I begot when I was in my full vigour. Rosen., Schum.-Hereafter. For the prophecy related more particularly to the settlement of the Israelites in the land of Canaan. Therefore translate in posterum as the words are used Num. xxiv. 14; Deut. iv. 30; Jer. xlviii. 47; Dan. ii. 28. Iacobum de tribuum sorte in Cananæa obtinenda prophetæ personam agere, ab initio non minus indicat scriptor quam sub finem strength.] The same thing, in more words. Quodsi animo perpendis, vocc. Or, it may be interpreted, the prime support non reddes cum Hieronymo: of my family. The firstborn is called the novissimis temporibus, vel cum Onkel. beginning of strength, in Deut. xxi. 17; Psalm cv. 36. v. 28. p in fine dierum, ut possis cum multis veterum interpretum messianam ætatem intelligere, sed: in posterum; id quod illa verba denotant Num. xxiv. 14; Deut. iv. 30; Ier. xlviii. 47; Dan. ii. 28, pet Coran. Sur. ii. 4.-Schum. Ver. 3. The beginning (or the first-fruits) of my The excellency of dignity.] Who hadst the pre-eminence among thy brethren (being the firstborn), if thou hadst not fallen from it by thy folly; as it follows afterwards. solid ground to think the priesthood, as I יֶתֶר שְׂאֵת וְיֶתֶר עָז : The excellency of power.] Who wast born to the highest authority among them. The Hebrews refer dignity to the priesthood, and 1970s power the kingdom. But there being no "solid I καὶ said before, was confined to the eldest καὶ brother, I take dignity to signify the double portion of the estate; and power, authority among them, while they remained in one family. Ρουβὴν πρωτότοκός μου, σὺ ἰσχύς μου, ἀρχὴ τέκνων μου, σκληρὸς φέρεσθαι, σκληρὸς αὐθάδης. Au. Ver.-3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Ged.-Reuben! my firstborn wert thou; the fruit of my vigour, the prime of my might; superior in dignity, superior in strength. Booth. Reuben! my firstborn wast thou; Pool.-The beginning of my strength; the first instance or evidence of my might or strength, or of that masculine vigour whereby God enabled me to beget a child. Compare Deut. xxi. 17; Psal. cv. 36. Or the first of my children, which are the strength, the stays, and supports of a father, and of his family; thence called his arrows, as Psal. cxxvii. 4, and by other authors, the pillars of the house. The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. As firstborn thou hadst the right of precedency before all thy brethren in point of dignity and power of privilege; the double portion, the priesthood, the dominion over thy brethren were thine. The beginning of my vigour and strength; Superior in excellence-superior in power! Bp. Patrick.-Thou art my firstborn.] So we read xxix. 32. To whom the Jews commonly observe belonged three prerogatives a double portion of the father's estate, the priesthood, and the kingdom (as they speak), i.e., the chief authority among his brethren. The first of these, says the Chaldee para- Bp. Horsley.-"IN M'ONT "First-fruit of phrast, was given to Joseph, the second my manly vigour." That this expression to Levi, the third to Judah, because Reuben signifies an eldest son is certain. It occurs had forfeited all the rights of his primoge- in this sense in Deut. xxi. 17; Ps. lxxviii. niture, by his incest with his father's wife. 51; and cv. 36. In the two last places it But Mr. Selden himself (who gives a full is rendered by the LXX., àñaρxní ñоvoν, account of the Jews' opinion in this matter) or TovWv. That particularly signifies the acknowledges the priesthood was not con- generative vigour of the male in procreation, see my Hosea, Critical Notes, chap. ix. [tuapte culpa amisisti, uti vs. 4, sequitur. note (F.). Onkelos hæc ita exponit: Tibi conveniebat "in might." So I render, not accipere tres partes, primogenituram, sacer"violence." By rendering it "violence," dotium et regnum. In eundem modum HeDr. Durell has, in my judgment, destroyed bræorum alii et Hieronymus, cujus hæc the principal beauty of this part of the sunt verba in Quæstt. ad h. 1.: Debebas poem; which consists in a sudden transition juxta ordinem nativitatis tuæ, et hæreditatem, from the enumeration of Reuben's privileges quæ primogenitis jure debebatur, sacerdotium to the denunciation of his punishment. To scilicet et regnum, accipere; hoc quippe in preserve this, there should not be the least portando onere, et prævalido robore demonintimation of his ill desert in the first triplet. stratur. Non meminit duplicis portionis, The noun primarily signifies the natural quæ primogenitis debebatur, et in terræ strength and vigour of anything animate or divisione cessit Josepho ejusque duobus inanimate but, applied to men, it more filiis, at dignitas regni data est Judæ, quod frequently denotes that union of bodily is inter fratres potentissimus esset (1 Chr. strength and mental valour, which is ren- v. 1, 2), quamquam Ruben alioquin semper dered by the English word "might." in genealogiis pro primogenito recensetur, Rosen.-Ruben! primogenitus meus tu, vis unde et primus portionem accepit ultra Jormea et principium roboris mei. Periphrasis danem in terra Gilead, verum ut unus tantum est ornatior primogeniti. hic est robur ceterorum. Voce Hebræorum quidam virile, quod in flore ætatis corpori inest sacerdotii dignitatem indicari putant, ab (ảκμý), q. d., quem viribus integris, cum offerendis sc. sacrificiis, et elevatione s. exprimum uxorem duxeram, genui. Ita iv. pansione manuum, Hebræis 2 dicta, 12. vis telluris dicitur fructus, quem qua populo sacerdotes benedicebant. Hinc nondum effœta tellus edere solebat. Contra Lutherus: der oberste im Opfer und der est filius patre jam sene susceptus, oberste im Reich. Verum simplicissimum xliv. 20. Ad primogenituræ descriptionem videtur, ut (Infinit. verbis extollere, pertinent etiam voce. i principium elatum esse) dignitatem, s. excellentiam sigroboris mei, quod referendum est ad primam nificet, qua quis supra alios elevatur, nec vim generandi, quæ in primogenito exeritur. ex vocis proprietate ad sacerdotium magis, Aquila vero reddidit képáλαιov λúñηs μov, quam ad ullam aliam dignitatem referatur. Symmachus, apyn ddus, quod sequutus Bene Saadias: præcellens in nobilitate. LXX. Hieron. principium doloris. Sane xxxv. reddidere: σκληρὸς φέρεσθαι καὶ σκληρὸς 18, aderat jis doloris significatu. Illi igitur avoáôŋs, durus ferri et durus pervicax. Pro interpretes Rubenem a patre vocatum volunt in suo codice habuisse, ideo est veriprincipium doloris sui, quod is primus inter simile, quod interpretes illi et xlv. 5, verba filios ei dolorem acerbum attulerit stupratapie undè orλnpòv úμîv þavýτw, et concubina Bilha, xxxv. 22, quod nefarium 1 Sam. xx. 7, σkλnpos reddiderunt. facinus illi pater exprobrat vs. sq. At si initium doloris ex filiorum facinore spectes, Ver. 4. פַּחַז כַּמַּיִם אַל־תּוֹתַר כִּי עָלִיתָ ,prius occurret Simeonis et Levi crudelitas מִשְׁכְּבֵי אָבִיךָ אָז חִלַּלְתָּ יְצוּעִי עָלָה : cap. xxxiv, Nostro autem loco Jacobus in eo versatur, ut declaret, in quo sita sit Rubenis dignitas. Accedit locus huic plane similis Deut. xxi. 17, ubi qui primo membro τότε ἐξύβρισας ὡς ὕδωρ. μὴ ἐκζέσης, ἀνέβης yàp ẻπì την KOÍTηY TOÙ TаτρÓS σOV. uiavas την σтρwμvηv, où ȧvéßns. Au. Ver.-4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel [Heb., do not thou excel]; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it he went up to my couch [or, my couch is gone]. primogenitus idem extremo vs. initium roboris ejus, i.e., patris sui appellatur. LXX. utroque loco verterunt: dpxy TÉKVOV. Vid. et Ps. lxxviii. 51; cv. 36. Pergit in prædicanda Rubenis dignitate: præcellentia dignitatis et præcellentia fortitudinis s. potentiæ, subaudi: Gesen.-, m. properly, the act of erat tibi, vel, eras tu, abstractis positis pro boiling over, overflowing, of water; hence, concretis, i. e., competebat tibi primogeni- frivolous, wanton. Gen. xlix. 4: DE, tura nascendi ordine; præstabas dignitate for, thou boilest over as water, an et robore. Sed tantam hanc prærogativam image or representation of wantonness and 1 T frivolity. Symm., vmeρégeσas. Vulg., effusus | both for thyself and for thy posterity, and it es. Prof. Lee.-, m. Syr., salax, lascivus fuit. Arab., superbivit, vel falso gloriatus fuit. shall be given to others; the priesthood to Levi, the dominion to Judah, and the double portion to Joseph. Then defiledst thou it, by committing incest with Bilhah. He Probably Boiling or repeats the same thing, and that in an running over; swelling up. Wantonness or emphatical manner, turning his speech and pride, Gen. xlix. 4. Ged. Like water, thou hast lapsed; preeminence thou shalt not have, because thou ascendedst thy father's bed. Then wast thou degraded, when thou ascendedst my couch. Booth. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, face from Reuben to his brethren, in a posture of indignation and detestation; which you must not impute to Jacob's passion, he being now a dying man, and this being forty years after the crime committed, but to the Spirit of God guiding his tongue to utter this, not only nor chiefly for the punishment of Reuben, who, as many think, had repented of his sin; but for terror, instruction, and caution to all others, and to assure them that sin, though it may be long Pool.-Unstable as water: this may con- dissembled and borne with, yet it will one cern either, 1. Something past, or Reuben's time or other be sorely punished. But these fault; and so he is said to have been un- and the next foregoing words may be thus stable, or light, and vain, as the word is used, rendered, Then defiledst thou my bed: he Judg. ix. 4; Zeph. iii. 4; like water, moved went up to it, or rather, he is gone up, i. e., with every little wind of temptation, and he is vanished, or perished, or lost; for so unbounded in thy lust; as water of itself hath this word is oft used, as Job v. 26; Isa. no bounds, but will scatter itself every way, v. 24; Jer. xlviii. 15. And so here is an if it be not kept within banks, or in a elegant figure, called antanaclasis, whereby vessel: or, husty, violent, impetuous in thy the same word is repeated in the same verse lust, like water, which either overflows or in a different sense, as Psal. xviii. 26; Matt. breaks its banks. Or, 2. Something to viii. 22. So here, He went up wickedly to come, or Reuben's punishment; and so the his father's bed to commit a great sin; theremeaning is, Thou, i.e., thy posterity, shall fore now he is gone up penally, to receive be unstable or unsettled, flitting and vanish- condign punishment; his excellency is gone ing, coming to nothing, or poured forth like up like smoke, which ascendeth and is diswater, useless, contemptible, and weak. persed in the air. And this may seem to Such, indeed, was the state of that tribe, of which we read nothing eminent in Scripture. See Judg. v. 15, 16. This I prefer before the former, 1. Because it is not probable that his fault should be described here in such general and ambiguous and dark terms, which is described so plainly and particularly Bp. Patrick.-Unstable as water.] The in the following words. 2. Because this Hebrew word pachaz signifying haste, and makes the coherence most plain. Here is in the Chaldee having the signification of a description, (1.) Of Reuben's excellent leaping, the interpretation of St. Jerome state to which he was born, ver. 3. (2.) Of seems most reasonable; which is, poured his fall from that state, in these words, and out like water, out of a vessel upon the the immediately following, thou shalt not ground. And then it denotes Reuben's excel. (3.) Of the reason of this fall, his falling from his dignity, and losing his pregreat sin. 3. Because the similitude of eminence; as water suddenly disappears, water applied to men in this manner, notes when it is poured out on the earth, and rather their impotency and calamity than sucked up into it. their sin, as Josh. vii. 5; Psalm xxii. 14. Thou shalt not excel, or, be the most eminent amongst thy brethren; thou hast lost thy pre-eminency due to thee by birthright, be the truest translation and interpretation, because it keeps close to the Hebrew words and their order; whereas, in our translation, there is both a transplacing of the Hebrew words, and a supplement added unnecessarily. Then defiledst thou it he went up to my couch.] Or rather, When thou defiledst my couch, it vanished, i. e., his excellency departed. For the word halah, which is here |