Israelitish kingdom. But we can here the less legitimately separate sceptre and kingdom from each other, because, even in the earlier promises made to the Patriarch, there is the prophecy of the rising of a kingdom among their descendants,--of a kingdom, too, that shall extend beyond the boundary of that posterity itself. (Compare Gen. xvii. 6, "Kings shall come out of thee;" ver. 16, "And she shall become nations. Icings of nations shall be of her." See also Gen. xxxv. 11.) In vol. ii. of the _Dissertations on the Genuineness of the Pentateuch_, p. 166 f., we detailed the natural foundations which there existed for foreseeing the establishment of a kingdom in Israel. It is evident that the promise which was formally given to the whole posterity of the Patriarchs, is here appropriated specially to Judah, who, for [Pg 65] the benefit of the whole people, is to have the sceptre.[4] From what has been remarked, it appears that the fulfilment of this prophecy began first with David; up to that time Judah had been only "a lion's whelp." "In the person of Saul," as Calvin remarks, "there was an abortive effort; but there came out at length in David, under the authority and legitimate arrangement of God, the sovereignty of Judah, according to the prophecy of Jacob." It also appears, from what has been observed, that _Reinke_, S. 45 of his Monography, _Die Weissagung Jacobs über Schilo_, Münster 1849 (a work written with great diligence), is mistaken in determining the sense to be,[5] that Judah as a tribe would not perish, and his superiority not cease, until out of him Shiloh, etc.; and that he is wrong, too, in maintaining, S. 133, that the continuance of the royal dignity, and the superiority over all the tribes until the time of Christ, were not required by these words. From the remarks which we have made, even more than that is required,--the _continuance_, namely, _of Judah's dominion over the Gentiles_; for otherwise it would be necessary to make a violent separation of these words from the preceding ones. That which has given rise to such interpretations and assertions, viz., the apparent difficulty encountered in pointing out the fulfilment,[6] is by no means removed by such an explanation. For, if we look to the surface only, what had been left of the superiority of the tribe of Judah, at the time when Christ appeared? But if we look deeper, we shall find no reason for such feeble interpretations. The fulness of strength which, notwithstanding the deepest humiliation, still dwelt in the sceptre of Judah at the time when Christ appeared, is made manifest by the very appearance of Christ--the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Although faint-heartedness, perceiving only what is immediately before the eyes, might have said, "The sceptre has departed from [Pg 66] Judah," to every one who was not blinded it must have been evident, at the very moment when Christ appeared, that the sceptre had not departed from Judah.