Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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beauty and strength of the body, Judah like a lion, Issachar like an ass, Dan like a serpent, Naphtali like a hind. Let not those of different tempers and gifts censure one another, nor envy one another, any more than those of different statures and complexions.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough,
even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
He closes with the blessings of his best beloved sons, Joseph and Benjamin; with these he will breathe his last.
The blessing of Joseph, which is very large and full. He is compared (Ge 49:22) to a fruitful bough, or young tree; for God had made him fruitful in the land of his affliction; he owned it, Ge 41:52. His two sons were as branches of a vine, or other spreading plant, running over the wall. Note, God can make those fruitful, great comforts to themselves and others, who have been looked upon as dry and withered. More is recorded in the history concerning Joseph than concerning any other of Jacob's sons; and therefore what Jacob says of him is historical as well as prophetical. Observe,
1 The providences of God concerning Joseph, Ge 49:23, 24. These are mentioned to the glory of God, and for the encouragement of Jacob's faith and hope, that God had blessings in store for his seed. Here observe
(1.) Joseph's straits and troubles, Ge 49:23. Though he now lived at ease and in honour, Jacob reminds him of the difficulties he had formerly waded through. He had had many enemies, here called archers, being skillful to do mischief, masters of their art of persecution. They hated him: there persecution begins. They shot their poisonous darts at him, and thus they sorely grieved him. His brethren, in his father's house, were very spiteful towards him, mocked him, stripped him, threatened him, sold him, thought they had been the death of him. His mistress, in the house of Potiphar, sorely grieved him, and shot at him, when she impudently assaulted his chastity (temptations are fiery darts, thorns in the flesh, sorely grievous to gracious souls); when she prevailed not in