King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 11 notes
1And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
How did Jacob come about this knowledge?
How did he know what was to befall his sons in the last days?
When did he become a prophet?
But this should not be surprising. Jacob was a man God spoke to.
It shouldn’t be a wonder he prophesied concerning the end.
2Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
Jacob speaks in the 3rd person.
3Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4Unstable 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.
I will not at all be surprised that since then Jacob never knew her again and kept himself from her.
After all she was a servant to begin with.
5Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
The eldest borns of Jacob, who were to serve as an example unto the younger ones and to ease the burden of their father, rather caused him much pain and trouble.
6O 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.
7Cursed 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.
8Judah, 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.
9Judah 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?
10The 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.
Oh my God, the things that Jacob knew, the visions of the most high he had that only he knew.
Here he lets them out.
He was not just pouring blessing from his mind and heart ♥.
He knew some things by prophecy... how else could he have known that the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes?
11Binding 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:
12His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.
14Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
15And 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.
He was not just blessing, he was prophesying what he saw.
Jacob prophesied what he saw, as in this case with Judah... At the same time he had power to bless whom he will, as Joseph, and curse, as Reuben.
What he liked, he sustained the prophecy thereof.
Lord have mercy and give us of the water and fountain of the spirit.
16Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24But 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:)
25Even 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:
26The 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.
I like Joseph’s blessings. He determined his own fate and destiny as a result of the strength of his character. Though he was not the first born, he far superseded the first. He determined his destiny and consequently, a great blessing was bestowed upon him.
O I love this part of the blessings of Joseph so poetic.
27Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28All 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.
He blessed them all... NONE was called cursed. Even Reuben, who seemed cursed, was described as blessed.
Just that some blessings were better than others. And like Esau, even the blessing which seems not the best — much can be made out of it.
Really Reuben was blessed in many ways.
29And 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,
30In 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.
31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
33And 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.
Amen, and now the blessing is hovering around, looking for the next person in line to carry out the will of God.
Yes, the blessing was on Joseph now, who took care of all his brethren, but soon enough Joseph was going to die and Israel 🇮🇱, now a nation in a foreign land, lived comfortably.
But who was going to stand out next in an extraordinary way, in a way that showed the might and power of God?
Who was going to carry the blessings?