dermined 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?

A lion's whelp, etc... This blessing of Juda foretelleth the strength of
his tribe, the fertility of his inheritance; and principally that the
sceptre and legislative power should not be utterly taken away from his
race till about the time of the coming of Christ: as in effect it never
was: which is a demonstration against the modern Jews, that the Messiah
is long since come; for the sceptre has long since been utterly taken
away from Juda.

49:10. The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from
his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the
expectation of nations.

49:11. Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the
vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of
the grape.

49:12. His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than
milk.

49:13. Zabulon shall dwell on the seashore, and in the road of ships,
reaching as far as Sidon.

49:14. Issachar shall be a strong ass, lying down between the borders.

49:15. He saw rest that it was good: and the land that it was excellent:
and he bowed his shoulder to carry, and became a servant under tribute.

49:16. Dan shall judge his people like another tribe in Israel.

Dan shall judge, etc... This was verified in Samson, who was of the
tribe of Dan, and began to deliver Israel. Judges 13.5. But as this
deliverance was but temporal and very imperfect, the holy patriarch
(ver. 18) aspires after another kind of deliverer, saying: I will look
for thy salvation, O Lord.

49:17. Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth
the horse's heels, that his rider may fall backward.

49:18. I will look for thy salvation, O Lord.

49:19. Gad, being girded, shall fight before him: and he himself shall
be girded backward.