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Judah thou! Thy brethren shall praise thee!
Thy hand in the neck of thine enemies,
Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee.
A lion's whelp^85 is Judah;
From the prey, my son, thou art gone up:
He stoopeth down, he coucheth like a lion,^86
And like a lioness^87 - who shall rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh^88 come,
And to Him willing obedience of the nations!
He bindeth unto the vine his foal,
And unto the choice vine his ass's colt;
He washeth his garments in wine,
And in the blood of grapes his raiment;
Sparkling his eyes from wine,
And white his teeth from milk.
As local illustrations of this richness of the portion of Judah, the reader will
remember that the best wine in Palestine grew near Hebron and Engedi (Numbers
13:23, etc.; Song of Solomon 1:14), and that some of the best pasture-land was south
of Hebron, about Tekoa and Carmel. (1 Samuel 25:2; 2 Chronicles 26:10; Amos 1:1)
The next blessing also connects itself with the name of Zebulun, or "dwelling,"
although it requires to be borne in mind, in further illustration of the fact that it was
not intended as a literal prediction, that the possessions of the tribe of Zebulun, so far
as we can judge from Joshua 19:10-16, never actually touched the Mediterranean nor
the Sea of Galilee, nor yet literally bordered on Zidon:
Zebulun - by the coast of seas shall he dwell,
And that, by the coast of ships,
And his side towards Zidon.
The name of Issachar, "reward," or "hire," is also emblematical of the character of the
tribe, as, in its rich portion of Lower Galilee, it preferred labor with quietude, to
power and domination:
Issachar is a bony ass,
Crouching between the folds.
He saw rest, that it was a boon,
And the land, that it was pleasant,
(^)