Charles Spurgeon Commentary Genesis 49:1-2

"And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days. Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father." — Genesis 49:1-2 (ASV)

It must have been a great comfort to the old man to have all his twelve sons with him. What a quiet answer this was to his former unbelief! They were all there, yet he could remember the time when he had said, "Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away." Ah! we also shall have in our later days to chide ourselves for our foolish unbelief. "Jacob called unto his sons," so he was not bereaved after all. They are all here, Jacob.

It falls to the lot of few fathers to have twelve sons, and to fewer still to have all twelve of them gathered about his dying bed. "Gather yourselves together." They were to keep together as a family; and shall not the people of God keep together? Come away from the world, beloved, but come close to one another; be one household, let it be your delight to assemble around your elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days." We are not told nowadays everything about the future, but much of the future is unfolded to us in the great principles of the law and the gospel, and we may learn very much of holy foresight by coming to the oracles of God.