John Calvin Commentary Genesis 49

And Jacob called. In the previous chapter, the blessing on Ephraim and Manasseh was related (Genesis 48:1), because, before Jacob was to treat of the state of the whole nation that would spring from him, it was right that these two grandsons should be included among his sons.

Now, as if carried above the heavens, he announces, not as a man, but as from the mouth of God, what will be the condition of them all for a long time to come. It is first important to note that, as he then had thirteen sons, he envisions in each of them the same number of nations or tribes; in this act, the admirable splendor of his faith is evident.

For since he had often heard from the Lord that his offspring would be increased to a multitude of people, this oracle is to him like a sublime mirror, in which he can perceive things deeply hidden from human understanding. Moreover, this is not a simple confession of faith, by which Jacob testifies that he hopes for whatever had been promised him by the Lord; rather, he rises superior to men, as the interpreter and ambassador of God, to regulate the future state of the Church.

Now, since some interpreters perceived this prophecy to be noble and magnificent, they have thought that it would not be adorned with its proper dignity unless they could extract from it certain new mysteries. Thus it has happened that, in striving earnestly to draw out profound allegories, they have departed from the genuine sense of the words and have corrupted, by their own inventions, what is here delivered for the solid edification of the pious.

But so that we do not depreciate the literal sense, as if it did not contain speculations sufficiently profound, let us mark the design of the Holy Spirit. In the first place, the sons of Jacob are informed beforehand of their future fortune, so that they may know themselves to be objects of the special care of God. And, although the whole world is governed by His providence, they, nevertheless, are preferred to other nations, as members of His own household.

It seems apparently a lowly and contemptible thing that a region productive of vines, which would yield an abundance of choice wine, and one rich in pastures, which would supply milk, is promised to the tribe of Judah. But if anyone will consider that the Lord is by this giving an illustrious proof of His own election, in descending, like the father of a family, to the care of food, and also showing, even in small matters, that He is united by the sacred bond of a covenant to the children of Abraham, he will look for no deeper mystery.

Second, the hope of the promised inheritance is again renewed to them. And, therefore, Jacob, as if he would put them in possession of the land by his own hand, explains plainly, and as in an affair actually present, what kind of habitation would belong to each of them.

Can the confirmation of a matter so serious appear contemptible to sensible and prudent readers? It is, however, the principal design of Jacob more correctly to point out from where a king would arise among them, who would bring them complete blessedness. And in this manner he explains what had been promised obscurely concerning the blessed seed.

In these things there is so great weight that the mere consideration of them, if only we were skillful interpreters, should rightly fill us with admiration. But (omitting all things else) an advantage of no common kind consists in this single point: that the mouth of impure and profane men, who freely undermine the credibility of Moses, is shut, so that they no longer dare to contend that he did not speak by divine inspiration.

Let us imagine that Moses does not relate what Jacob had prophesied before, but speaks in his own person. From where, then, could he divine what did not happen until many ages afterwards? Such, for instance, is the prophecy concerning the kingdom of David.

And there is no doubt that God commanded the land to be divided by lot, to prevent any suspicion from arising that Joshua had divided it among the tribes by agreement, and as he had been instructed by his master.

After the Israelites had obtained possession of the land, the division of it was not made by the will of men. How was it that a dwelling near the seashore was given to the tribe of Zebulun, a fruitful plain to the tribe of Asher, and to the others, by lot, what is here recorded, except that the Lord would ratify His oracles by the result, and would show openly that nothing then occurred which He had not, a long time before, declared would take place?

I now return to the words of Moses, in which holy Jacob is introduced, relating what he had been taught by the Holy Spirit concerning events still very remote. But some, with fierce anger, demand, "From where did Moses derive his knowledge of a conversation held in an obscure hut two hundred years before his time?"

I ask in return, before I give an answer: From where did he get his knowledge of the places in the land of Canaan, which he assigns, like a skillful surveyor, to each tribe? If this was knowledge derived from heaven (which must be granted), why will these godless chatterers deny that the things which Jacob predicted were divinely revealed to Moses?

Besides, among many other things which the holy fathers had handed down by tradition, this prediction might then be generally known. How was it that the people, when tyrannically oppressed, implored the assistance of God as their deliverer? How was it that at the simple hearing of a promise previously given, they raised their minds to a good hope, unless some remembrance of the divine adoption still flourished among them?

If there was a general acquaintance with the covenant of the Lord among the people, how impudent it would be to deny that the heavenly servants of God more accurately investigated whatever was important to be known respecting the promised inheritance! For the Lord did not utter oracles by the mouth of Jacob which, after His death, a sudden oblivion would destroy, as if He had breathed I do not know what sounds into the air.

But rather, He delivered instructions common to many ages, so that His posterity might know from what source their redemption, as well as the hereditary title of the land, flowed down to them. We know how reluctantly, and even timidly, Moses undertook the task assigned to him when he was called to deliver his own people, because he was aware that he would have to deal with an unmanageable and rebellious nation.

It was, therefore, necessary that he should come prepared with certain credentials which might give proof of his vocation. And, therefore, he presented these predictions as public documents from the sacred archives of God, so that no one might suppose him to have intruded rashly into his office.

Gather yourselves together. Jacob begins by inviting their attention. For he gravely enters on his subject and claims for himself the authority of a prophet, in order to teach his sons that he is not at all making a private disposition of his household affairs in a will, but that he is expressing in words those oracles which are deposited with him, until the event will follow at the proper time.

He does not command them simply to listen to his wishes, but gathers them into an assembly by a solemn rite, so that they may hear what will occur to them in the course of time. Moreover, I do not doubt that he places this future period of which he speaks in opposition to their exile in Egypt, so that, when their minds were in suspense, they might look forward to that promised state.

Now, from the remarks above, it can be easily inferred that this prophecy includes the whole period from the departure out of Egypt to the reign of Christ: not that Jacob enumerates every event, but that, in the summary of things on which he briefly touches, he arranges a settled order and course until Christ should appear.

Reuben, thou art my first-born. He begins with the first-born, not for the sake of honor, to confirm him in his rank, but that he may the more completely cover him with shame and humble him by just reproaches. For Reuben is here cast down from his primogeniture because he had polluted his father’s bed by incestuous intercourse with his mother-in-law.

The meaning of his words is this: You, indeed, by nature the first-born, ought to have excelled, since you are my strength and the beginning of my manly vigor; but since you have flowed away like water, there is no longer any ground for arrogating anything to yourself. For from the day of your incest, that dignity which you received on your birthday, from your mother’s womb, is gone and vanished away.

The noun (און), some translate seed, others grief; and interpret the passage this way: Thou my strength, and the beginning of my grief or seed. Those who prefer the word grief assign as a reason that children bring care and anxiety to their parents. But if this were the true meaning, there would instead have been an antithesis between strength and sorrow.

However, since Jacob is continuously reciting the declaration of the dignity that belongs to the first-born, I do not doubt that he here mentions the beginning of his manhood. For as men, in a certain sense, live again in their children, the first-born is properly called the “beginning of strength.” To the same point belongs what immediately follows: that he had been the excellency of dignity and of strength, until he had deservedly deprived himself of both.

For Jacob places before the eyes of his son Reuben his former honor, because it was for his profit to be made thoroughly conscious of where he had fallen from. So Paul says that he set before the Corinthians the sins by which they were defiled, in order to make them ashamed (1 Corinthians 6:5).

For since we are inclined to flatter ourselves in our vices, scarcely any of us are brought back to a sound mind after we have fallen, unless we are touched with a sense of our vileness. Moreover, nothing is better adapted to wound us than when a comparison is made between those favors God bestows upon us and the punishments we bring upon ourselves by our own fault.

After Adam had been stripped of all good things, God reproaches him sharply, and not without ridicule: Behold Adam is as one of us. What purpose is this designed to serve, except that Adam, reflecting within himself how far he has changed from that man who had recently been created according to the image of God and had been endowed with so many excellent gifts, might be confounded and fall prostrate, lamenting his present misery?

We see, then, that reproofs are necessary for us, so that we may be touched to the quick by the anger of the Lord. For thus it happens not only that we become displeased with the sins for which we are now bearing the punishment, but also that we take greater care to diligently guard those gifts of God that dwell within us, lest they perish through our negligence.

Those who refer the “excellency of dignity” to the priesthood, and the “excellency of power” to the kingly office, are, in my opinion, too subtle interpreters. I understand the simpler meaning of the passage to be that if Reuben had stood firmly in his own rank, the chief place of all excellency would have belonged to him.

Unstable as water. He shows that the honor that did not have a good conscience as its guardian was not firm but evanescent; and thus he rejects Reuben from the primogeniture. He declares the cause, so that Reuben would not complain that he was punished when innocent. For it was also very important in this matter that he be convinced of his fault, so that his punishment would not be without benefit.

We now see Jacob, having laid carnal affection aside, executing the office of a prophet with vigor and magnanimity. For this judgment is not to be attributed to anger, as if the father desired to take private vengeance on his son; rather, it proceeded from the Spirit of God, because Jacob was fully mindful of the burden imposed upon him.

The word עלח (alach) at the close of the sentence signifies to depart, or to be blown away like the ascending smoke, which is dispersed. Therefore, the sense is that the excellency of Reuben, from the time that he had defiled his father’s bed, had flowed away and become extinct. For to interpret the expression concerning the bed to mean that it ceased to be Jacob’s conjugal bed because Bilhah had been divorced is too unconvincing.

Simeon and Levi are brethren. He condemns the massacre of the city of Shechem by his two sons Simon and Levi, and denounces the punishment for such a great crime. From this we learn how hateful cruelty is to God, since the blood of man is precious in His sight.

For it is as if He would summon those two men before His own tribunal and demand vengeance on them, when they thought they had already escaped. However, it may be asked whether pardon had not been granted to them long ago; and if God had already forgiven them, why does He recall them to punishment again?

I answer that it was both privately useful to themselves and also necessary as an example, that this slaughter should not remain unpunished, although they might have obtained previous forgiveness. For we have seen before, when they were admonished by their father, how far they were from that sorrow which is the beginning of true repentance. It may be believed that they afterwards became more and more stupefied with a kind of brutish torpor in their wickedness; or at least, that they had not been seriously affected by bitter grief for their sin.

There was also the fear that their posterity might become addicted to the same brutality, unless they were divinely impressed with horror at the deed. Therefore the Lord, partly to humble them and partly to make them an example to all ages, inflicted on them the punishment of perpetual ignominy.

Moreover, in acting this way, He did not retain the punishment while remitting the guilt, as the Papists foolishly imagine; but though truly and perfectly appeased, He administered a correction suitable for future times. The Papists imagine that sins are only half remitted by God, because He is not willing to absolve sinners freely.

But Scripture speaks very differently. It teaches us that God does not exact punishments that compensate for offenses, but rather punishments that will purge hearts from hypocrisy, invite the elect to repentance—as the allurements of the world are gradually shaken off—stir them up to vigilant solicitude, and keep them under restraint by the bridle of fear and reverence.

From this it follows that nothing is more preposterous than that the punishments we have deserved should be redeemed by satisfactions, as if God, like men, would have what was owed paid to Him. Indeed, rather, there is the best possible agreement between the free remission of punishments and those chastenings of the rod, which prevent future evils rather than follow those already committed.

To return to Simeon and Levi. How is it that God, by inflicting a punishment that had been long deferred, should drag them back as guilty fugitives to judgment, if not because impunity would have been harmful to them? And yet He fulfills the office of a physician rather than that of a judge, who refuses to spare because He intends to heal; and who not only heals two who are sick, but also, by an antidote, anticipates the diseases of others, so that they may beware of cruelty.

This also is highly worth remembering: that Moses, in publishing the infamy of his own people, acts as the herald of God. Not only does he proclaim a disgrace common to the whole nation, but he also brands with infamy the special tribe from which he sprang. From this it plainly appears that he paid no respect to his own flesh and blood, nor could he be induced by favor or hatred to misrepresent anything or to deviate from historical faithfulness. Instead, as a chosen minister and witness of the Lord, he was mindful of his calling, which was to declare the truth of God sincerely and confidently.

A comparison is made here not only between the sons of Jacob personally but also between the tribes that descended from them. This certainly was an especially opportune occasion for Moses to defend the nobility of his own people. But so far is he from heaping praises upon them, that he frankly brands the progenitor of his own tribe with an everlasting dishonor, which would redound to his whole family.

Those Lucianist dogs, who carp at the doctrine of Moses, claim that he was a vain man who wished to acquire for himself command over the unrefined common people. But if this had been his project, why did he not also make provision for his own family? His sons, whom ambition would have persuaded him to try to place in the highest rank, he sets aside from the honor of the priesthood and consigns them to a lowly and common service.

Who does not see that these impious slanders have been anticipated by divine counsel rather than by merely human prudence, and that the heirs of this great and extraordinary man were deprived of honor for this reason: that no sinister suspicion might attach to him? But to say nothing of his children and grandchildren, we can perceive that, by censuring his whole tribe in the person of Levi, he acted not as a man, but as an angel speaking under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and free from all carnal affection.

Moreover, in the former clause, he announces the crime; afterwards, he adds the punishment. The crime is that instruments of violence are in their dwellings; and therefore he declares, both with his tongue and in his heart, that he holds their counsel in abhorrence, because, in their desire for revenge, they destroyed a city with its inhabitants.

Commentators differ regarding the meaning of the words. For some take the word מכרות (makroth) to mean swords, as if Jacob had said that their swords had been wickedly polluted with innocent blood. But those who translate the word as habitations think more correctly, as if he had said that unjust violence dwelt among them because they had been so bloodthirsty.

I do not doubt that the word כבד (chabod) is used for the tongue, as in other places. Thus the sense is clear: that Jacob, from his heart, so detests the crime perpetrated by his sons that his tongue will not give any assent to it whatsoever. He does this so that they may begin to be dissatisfied with themselves, and that all others may learn to abhor treachery combined with cruelty.

Fury, beyond doubt, signifies a perverse and blind impulse of anger; and lust is opposed to rational moderation, because they are governed by no law.

Interpreters also differ regarding the meaning of the word שור (shor). Some translate it as “bullock” and think that the Shechemites are allegorically denoted by it, since they were sufficiently robust and powerful to defend their lives, if Simon and Levi had not weakened them by fraud and treachery. But a different interpretation is far preferable, namely, that they “overturned a wall.” For Jacob magnifies the heinousness of their crime by the fact that they did not even spare buildings in their rage.

Cursed be their anger. What I have said must be kept in mind; namely, that we are divinely admonished by the mouth of the holy prophet to keep at a distance from all wicked counsels. Jacob pronounces a woe upon their fury. Why is this, if not so that others may learn to restrain themselves and be on guard against such cruelty?

However, (as I have already observed) it will not suffice to keep our hands pure unless we are far removed from all association with crime. For though it may not always be in our power to suppress unjust violence, yet concealing it is blameworthy when it approaches the appearance of consent.

Here even family ties, and whatever else would bias sound judgment, must be set aside, since we see a holy father, at God's command, thundering so severely against his own sons. He declares the anger of Simon and Levi to be all the more hateful because it was violent from its beginning and remained implacable to the very end.

I will divide them in Jacob. It may seem a strange way to proceed that Jacob, while designating his sons as patriarchs of the Church and calling them heirs of the divine covenant, should pronounce a curse on them instead of a blessing. Nevertheless, it was necessary for him to begin with the chastisement that would prepare the way for the manifestation of God’s grace, as will become clear at the end of the chapter. But God mitigates the punishment by giving them an honorable name in the Church and leaving their rights intact. Indeed, His incredible goodness unexpectedly shone forth when what was Levi's punishment was changed into the reward of the priesthood.

The dispersion of the Levitical tribe originated in their father's crime, so that he would not congratulate himself on account of his perverse and lawless spirit of revenge. But God, who in the beginning produced light out of darkness, found another reason for the Levites to be dispersed among the people—a reason not only free from disgrace but highly honorable—namely, that no corner of the land would be without competent instructors.

Lastly, He appointed them overseers and governors in His name over every part of the land, as if He would scatter everywhere the seed of eternal salvation or send out ministers of His grace. From this we conclude how much better it was for Levi to be chastised at the time for his own good, than to be left to perish as a consequence of present impunity in sin.

And it should not be considered strange that when the land was distributed and cities were given to the Levites far apart from each other, this reason was suppressed, and an entirely different one was brought forward: namely, that the Lord was their inheritance. For this, as I have recently said, is one of God's miracles: to bring light out of darkness.

Had Levi been sentenced to distant exile, he would have fully deserved the punishment. But now, God in a measure spares him by assigning him a wandering life in his paternal inheritance.

Afterwards, with the mark of infamy removed, God sends his descendants into different parts under the title of a distinguished embassy.

In Simon there remained a certain, though obscure, trace of the curse, because a distinct territory did not fall to his sons by lot; instead, they were mixed with the tribe of Judah, as is stated in Joshua 19:1. Afterwards, they went to Mount Seir, having expelled the Amalekites and taken possession of their land, as it is written (1 Chronicles 4:40–43).

Here, also, we perceive the manly fortitude of holy Jacob, who, though a decrepit old man and an exile, lying on his private and lowly couch, nevertheless assigns provinces to his sons as if from the lofty throne of a great king. He also does this in his own right, knowing that the covenant of God was entrusted to him, by which he had been called the heir and lord of the land. At the same time, he claims for himself authority as a prophet of God.

For it is very important for us, when the word of God sounds in our ears, to grasp by faith what is proclaimed, as if His ministers had been commanded to carry into effect what they pronounce.

Therefore, it was said to Jeremiah:

See I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. (Jeremiah 1:10).

And the prophets are generally commanded to set their faces against the countries they threaten, as if they were equipped with a large army to make the attack.