by that tribe, not only in the war which he waged with all the tribes on account of their wickedness in Gibeah (Judg 20), but on other occasions also (Jdg 5:14), in its distinguished archers and slingers (Jdg 20:16; 1Ch 8:40, 1Ch 8:12; 2Ch 14:8; 2Ch 17:17), and also in the fact that the judge Ehud (Jdg 3:15.), and Saul, with his heroic son Jonathan, sprang from this tribe (1Sa 11:1-15 and 13; 2Sa 1:19.).
Verse 28
The concluding words in Gen 49:28, “ All these are the tribes of Israel, twelve,” contain the thought, that in his twelve sons Jacob blessed the future tribes. “ Every one with that which was his blessing, he blessed them,” i.e., every one with his appropriate blessing (אשׁר accus. dependent upon בּרך which is construed with a double accusative); since, as has already been observed, even Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, though put down through their own fault, received a share in the promised blessing.
verses 29-33
Death of Jacob. - After the blessing, Jacob again expressed to his twelve sons his desire to be buried in the sepulchre of his fathers (Gen 24), ), where Isaac and Rebekah and his own wife Leah lay by the side of Abraham and Sarah, which Joseph had already promised on oath to perform (Gen 47:29-31). He then drew his feet into the bed to lie down, for he had been sitting upright while blessing his sons, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered to his people (vid., Gen 25:8). ויּגוע instead of ויּמת indicates that the patriarch departed from this earthly life without a struggle. His age is not given here, because that has already been done at Gen 47:28.
Chap. 50
==verses 1-3== Gen 50:1-3.
Burial of Jacob.
When Jacob died, Joseph fell upon the face of his beloved father, wept over him, and kissed him. He then gave the body to the physicians to be embalmed, according to the usual custom in Egypt. The physicians are called his servants, because the reference is to the regular physicians in the service of Joseph, the eminent minister of state; and according to Herod. 2, 84, there were special physicians in Egypt for every description of disease, among whom the Taricheuta, who superintended the embalming, were included,
