John Gill Commentary


John Gill Commentary
"And of Asher he said, Blessed be Asher with children; Let him be acceptable unto his brethren, And let him dip his foot in oil." — Deuteronomy 33:24 (ASV)
And of Asher he said
The tribe of Asher, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem:
[let] Asher [be] blessed with children ;
with large numbers, as it appears this tribe was, having in it 53,400 men of war, (Numbers 26:47) . It was esteemed a great blessing to have many children, (Psalms 128:3Psalms 128:4) ; or "above the children"; above or more than the rest of the children of Jacob; see (Luke 2:36Luke 2:38) ; Jarchi observes, that he had seen, in a book called Siphri, that there was none in all the tribes blessed with children as Asher, but not known how:
let him be acceptable to his brethren ;
either for his excellent bread, and royal dainties, (Genesis 49:20) ; or for the goodness of his olives and oil, and for the brass and iron found in this tribe, as follows; or, as some say, because of his children, his daughters being very beautiful:
and let him dip his foot in oil ;
have such plenty of it, that if he would he might dip or wash his feet in it; and it was usual not only to anoint the head, but the feet F6 also, with oil, (Luke 7:46) .