John Gill Commentary Deuteronomy 33:23

"And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, And full with the blessing of Jehovah, Possess thou the west and the south." — Deuteronomy 33:23 (ASV)

And of Naphtali he said
The tribe of Naphtali, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem:

O Naphtali, satisfied with favour ;
with the favour of men, which to have is a great blessing; and as he gave goodly words to others, he had the good word of others, (Genesis 49:21) ; and with the favour of God, as the next clause shows; which is the greatest blessing of all, and is special and peculiar, free and sovereign, and the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; and to be full of this, and satisfied of an interest in it, is the highest of enjoyments; and nothing is of a more satisfying nature, it is a feast of itself; see (Psalms 63:3Psalms 63:5) ;

and full with the blessing of the Lord ;
As such must needs be who are full of and satisfied with the your, good will, and love of God; for they are filled with all spiritual blessings, with all the blessings of grace, which spring from his free favour, as pardon of sin, a justifying righteousness, adoption, sanctifying grace, a right and title to eternal life.

This may have respect to the temporal happiness of this tribe, which has a remarkable share in the favour and good will of God, and in the blessings of his goodness. Strabo ^F1 , an Heathen writer, speaking of this part of the land of Judea, says it was a happy and fruitful country, bearing all manner of fruit; in this tribe was the fruitful country of Gennesaret, full of delightful gardens and fields, which lay along by a lake of that name, frequently mentioned in the New Testament; which country, Josephus says ^F2 , one may call the ambition of nature; and the Targum of Jonathan has it, ``you shall be full of the fruits of the valley of Gennesaret;'' and particularly this country was favoured with the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; see (Matthew 4:13–15) (9:1) (11:23) ;

possess thou the west and the south ;
not the west and south of the land of Israel; for, according to Josephus ^F3 , this tribe lay to the east and north of it, just the reverse; and it is plain from (Joshua 19:34) ; that it had Asher on the west, and Zebulun on the south; wherefore some understand this of the commodities this tribe was supplied with, as through the tribe of Asher on the west, on which those trading cities Tyre and Sidon bordered; and through Zebulun on the south, which was near the sea, and was given to navigation and trade:

though it should be observed that the word for "west" signifies the "sea" ^F4 ; and intends not the Mediterranean sea, which this tribe did not reach; but the sea of Tiberias and Gennesaret, as all the Targums explain it; and Bochart ^F5 observes, that the portion of Naphtali reached from the south of the city of Dan to the sea of Tiberias; so that the south is observed with respect to Dan last mentioned, and the west or sea to the sea of Tiberias.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Geograph. l. 16. p. 519.
• F2: De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 9. sect. 8.
• F3: Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 22.
• F4: (My) "mare", Montanus, V. L. Cocceius.
• F5: Heirozoic. par. 1. l. 3. c. 18. col. 898.