Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 49:6

"O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hocked an ox." — Genesis 49:6 (ASV)

Their secret. —The word sôd used here literally means the small carpet or cushion upon which a person in Eastern cultures sits. Consequently, for two people to sit upon the same carpet signifies a high degree of friendship and familiarity. It would therefore be more accurately translated as alliance or intimacy.

To their assembly, my honor, do not be united. —For assembly (Hebrew congregation), see Genesis 28:3 and Genesis 35:11. It means here their union or confederacy. In the first clause, Jacob bids his soul—his true self—not to enter their alliance; here, in the style of Hebrew poetic parallelism, he intensifies the meaning. For by my honor, he signifies all that gave him dignity and worth in the sight of God and man. And this nobleness would be degraded and lost by union with men banded together for evil.

In their self-will they dug down a wall—Self-will is worse than anger and signifies that arrogant temper which leads to wanton cruelty. The latter words mean, they houghed an ox. The Vulgate and Syriac versions took it as our version does, understanding it as making a breach in the walls of Shechem. However, they had a different reading, shur, whereas the word in Hebrew is shor, an ox, and it is rendered this way by the Septuagint. The ox was in ancient times the symbol of majesty, and thus bulls are used for princes in Psalm 22:12 and Psalm 68:30.

Thus, then, the meaning is: “In their anger at the wrong done to their sister, they killed Hamor, prince of Shechem, with his people; and from wanton cruelty, without any just cause for indignation, they hamstrung the noblest of their brothers—not killing Joseph outright, but disabling him by selling him into slavery, so that he might perish there.”