48:19. But he refusing, said: I know, my son, I know: and this also shall become a people, and shall be multiplied; but his younger brother shall be greater than he; and his seed shall grow into nations. 48:20. And he blessed them at that time, saying: In thee shall Israel be blessed, and it shall be said: God do to thee as to Ephraim, and as to Manasses. And he set Ephraim before Manasses. 48:21. And he said to Joseph, his son: Behold I die, and God will be with you, and will bring you back into the land of your fathers. 48:22. I give thee a portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorrhite with my sword and bow. Genesis Chapter 49 Jacob's prophetical blessings of his twelve sons: his death. 49:1. And Jacob called his sons, and said to them: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you the things that shall befall you in the last days. 49:2. Gather yourselves together, and hear, O ye sons of Jacob, hearken to Israel, your father: 49:3. Ruben, my firstborn, thou art my strength, and the beginning of my sorrow; excelling in gifts, greater in command. My strength, etc. . .He calls him his strength, as being born whilst his father was in his full strength and vigour: he calls him the beginning of his sorrow, because cares and sorrows usually come on with the birth of children. Excelling in gifts, etc., because the firstborn had a title to a double portion, and to have the command over his brethren, which Ruben forfeited by his sin; being poured out as water, that is, spilt and lost. 49:4. Thou art poured out as water, grow thou not; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, and didst defile his couch. Grow thou not. . .This was not meant by way of a curse or imprecation; but by way of a prophecy foretelling that the tribe of Ruben should not inherit the pre-eminences usually annexed to the first birthright, viz., the double portion, the being prince or lord over the other brethren, and the priesthood: of which the double portion was given to Joseph, the princely office to Juda, and the priesthood to Levi. 49:5. Simeon and Levi brethren: vessels of iniquity waging war. 49:6. Let not my soul go into their counsel, nor my glory be in their assembly: because in their fury they slew a man, and in their self-will they undermined a wall. Slew a man,. . .viz., Sichem the son of Hemor, with all his people, Gen. 34.; mystically and prophetically it alludes to Christ, whom their posterity, viz., the priests and the scribes, put to death. 49:7. Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn: and their wrath, because it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel. 49:8. Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hand shall be on the necks of thy enemies; the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee. 49:9. Juda is a lion's whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?