THE CURSE UPON SERPENT-KIND On thy belly shalt thou go, And dust shalt thou eat, All the days of thy life. 15 Enmity will I set between thee and the woman, He shall bruise thee on the head, And thou shalt wound him on the heel. § 6. The Divine Judgment upon Womankind, Gen. 316 Gen. 3 16I will make thy pain great in thy pregnancy, § 7. The Divine Judgment upon Man, Gen. 317b-19 Gen. 3 17Cursed shall the ground be because of thee, And thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 19By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat, And to dust shalt thou return. § 8. The Noah Oracle, Gen. 925b-27 Gen. 9 25bCursed be Canaan, May he be a servant of servants to his brothers. 26 Blessed of Jehovah be Shem; Let Canaan also be a servant to him. 27 God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; §6 The natural basis of this oracle is the pain which woman had to bear as mother and Oriental wife. As in the immediately preceding and following oracles, all pain and misfortune and discomfort are traced back to sin as the cause. $8 Canaan in this ancient oracle represents the Canaanites, whom the Hebrews, the descendants of Shem, conquered and enslaved. Japheth is probably here to be identified with the Phoenicians. It possibly also included their colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean. The underlying historical fact, which this oracle formulates, is that the rich, opulent, highly civilized Canaanites were subjugated and completely absorbed by the semi-barbarous nomadic Israelites, who, in turn, as in the days of David and Solomon, made close commercial alliances with the Phoenicians. Primitive thought apparently explained this strange event in the terms of this oracle, which is equivalent to saying that it was thus divinely decreed. The prophet, however, who has incorporated the oracle in its present setting, goes deeper and presents the true explanation: it was because of the moral depravity of the Canaanites and the superior moral and religious sense of the Hebrews that the latter attained the ascendency over the decadent and immoral Canaanites. Cf. Vol. I, § 5. Of the unceasing warfare between man and serpentkind Expla nation lot Explanation of man's painful lot The fortunes of the Canaanites Of the Of their Western neigh bors The prosperity promised to the Hebrews Exordium Reuben ruled by ungovernable passions § 9. Jehovah's Blessing upon Abraham's Descendants, Gen. 122. ● Gen. 12 2I will make thee a great nation, And I will bless thee and magnify thy name, So that thou shalt be a blessing. "I will bless them that bless thee, And him that curseth thee will I curse, So that all the families of the earth Shall invoke a like blessing for themselves." § 10. Jacob's Blessing upon the Tribes, Gen. 492-77 Gen. 49 Assemble, O sons of Jacob, And listen to Israel your father." Reuben thou art my first-born,d My strength and the first-fruit of my manhood, $9 This is the oldest early Judean version of that divine promise to the Israelitish race through Abraham which is repeated in fourfold form in Gen. 15 and 17. Cf. Vol. I, § 16. It embodies those early hopes and aspirations of which the days of David and Solomon were the historical basis. Vs. voices the attitude toward the outside world that was dominant until the experiences of the exile opened the eyes of certain prophets to the idea of unselfish service. Cf. Gen. 2523, Vol. I, § 28, for the brief Jacob-Esau birth oracle; Gen. 2727b-29, Vol. I, § 30, for Isaac's blessing upon Jacob; Gen. 2730b, 40, Vol. I, § 30, for Isaac's blessing on Esau; and Gen. 4815, 16, Vol. I, § 55, for Jacob's blessing upon Ephraim and Manasseh. 123 The current translation, shall be blessed, is not supported by the Heb. nor the parallel passages. Cf. Vol. I, § 12, note. § 10 To Jacob, the traditional father of the twelve tribes of Israel, the different oracles relating to them were appropriately attributed, just as to Isaac were assigned the Jacob-Esau oracles. This traditional ascription is embodied not only in the present early Judean prophetic setting, vs. 1, but also in the introduction to the oracle itself, 2. Thus the evidence is strong that the tendency to attribute anonymous writings to certain prominent characters of a preceding age was very early, for the present poem in its completeness apparently antedates the division of the Hebrew Empire. It is, indeed, the national song of united Israel and may well come from a court poet in the days of David, who collected the earlier tribal songs and added the exordium and the exuberant description of the conquest and rule of Judah under the leadership of the great king from Bethlehem, 8-12, After the division and the events which followed he would not, in all probability, have sung: The scepter shall not pass from Judah, Nor the royal staff from between his feet. Nowhere are these later calamities reflected. The tone of the poem is critical and the guilty tribes are condemned; but the spirit in general is jubilant, and there is no evidence that the poet wrote later than the middle of the reign of David or that of Solomon. This conclusion is also confirmed by the vocabulary and literary style which are primitive. The same is true of the institutions and religious ideas. It is evident that many popular songs, some describing the situation, some the characteristics, and some the striking experiences of the different tribes have here been woven together. Several of them evidently, e. g., those regarding Zebulun and Issachar, anticipate conditions antedating the union of the tribes or even the situation reflected in Judg. 5. Some contain allusions to incidents recorded in the traditions of Gen., e. g., 34, and others to prehistoric events. In the suggestions which it furnishes regarding the earliest beginnings of Israel's life, the ancient poem is of great historical value. With only a very few doubtful exceptions, the three-beat measure prevails throughout these poems. The ideas are simple and the literary style is crude but vigorous. They record the first beginnings of philosophical thinking. There are traces also of a didactic purpose; in the opening stanzas, for example, the poet is seeking to formulate the principles illustrated by the bitter experience of the tribes. b49 And hear has apparently been added by mistake, for the same verbal idea is found in the next line. 492 Cf. the introductions to the later prophetic messages, Is. 110, 2814, 329, Mic. 11. d493 Lit., first of my strength; Gk., the first of my children. Cf. Dt. 2117, Ps. 10536, Hos. 123b. Reuben was probably regarded as the first-born because this tribe was the first to settle in its eastJordan home. JACOB'S BLESSING UPON THE TRIBES First in dignity and strength,' 'Boiling over like water, thou shalt not be first, 5Simeon and Levi are akin,h Weapons of violence are their swords, Judah, thy brothers praise thee!m Thy hand is on the neck of thy enemies." From the prey, my son, thou hast gone up;° 10 The sceptre shall not pass from Judah, "Binding his foal to the vine, And his ass's colt to the choice vine," He hath washed his garments in wine, 493 Lit., pre-eminence. 1493 Lit., native strength. The Gk. interpretation followed above apparently represents the original thought. 8494 Cf. the crime of Reuben recorded in Gen. 3522, that of incest. b495 Lit., brothers, they are of the same type as well as blood kin. 1496 Lit., liver, according to ancient Semites a seat of the feelings. So Gk. and the original Heb., supported by the context. 1496 Or unite, i. e., do not join. 496 So Gk., which correctly interprets the Heb., man, as generic, equal to mankind. 1498 The most heinous of crimes in the ancient nomadic life, that of hocking an ox. It recalls the summary punishment meted out in the pioneer periods to horse thieves. The historical reference probably is to the treachery of the Reubenites and Levites in breaking their covenant and slaying the Shechemites as recorded in Gen. 34. m498 The Heb., as frequently in this ancient poem, has a play on the proper name Jehudahjodûkā. n498 I. e., as conqueror. 0499 I. e., sated with prey slain by his irresistible blow. P4910 The picture is that of a king sitting on his throne with the end of his sceptre resting between his feet. 44910 If the line, which follows in the Heb., is original, it probably is to be interpreted As long as one goes to Shiloh. Cf. the corresponding expression in the early Judean prophetic narrative of Judg. 1831, So they set up Micah's graven image as long as the hand of God was in Shiloh, Sam., Gk., Sym., Theod., and Targ. Onkelos, however, give the messianic rendering, Until that one comes to whom it belongs, but it can hardly be original, for this interpretation assumes a Heb. word found only in the latest O.T. writings. Furthermore, the line interrupts the context. It was apparently suggested to a late scribe who lived after the fall of the Judean house and who looked, in common with the men of his day, for the re-establishment of the Davidic messianic rule. 4911 Symbolic of the abundance and fertility of the vineyards of Judah, Simeon and Levi violent and treacherous Judah, the ruling tribe, victo-. rious and prosper ous 4918 Another play on the proper name Dan-yādin. The reference is probably to the historic fact that the little tribe of Dan, in its remote home at the foot of Mount Hermon, ruled itself bravely and effectively, waging its battles with the larger foes about. Cf. Dt. 3322. 4918 Possibly a later addition, yet not inappropriate in the present context, for only with the help of the divine deliverer could the little tribe hope to emerge triumphantly from the unequal conflict. 4919 Another play on the proper name, Gad gědûd yěgûděnnû. An allusion to the constant attacks of the Ammonites and Arabians to which the Gadites, because of their exposed situation, were subject. Cf. Dt. 3320, 21 b4919 The final letter of this line has, through a copyist's error, been prefixed to the next line. The Gk. has preserved the original reading. 49 The translation of this vs. is doubtful. The usual translation is: Naphtali is a hind set free, The above reading, however, is based upon the Heb. consonantal text and on the whole gives a clearer and more intelligible picture. pre-eminently pros perous 24 But his bow remains ever bent," Through the power of the Mighty one of Jacob, In the name of the Shepherdi of Israel, 25 The God of thy fathers, who ever helpeth thee, And El-Shaddai [God Almighty], who blesseth thee, And of the great deep that coucheth beneath, With blessings of the breast and womb, 26 With blessings of father and mother, k With blessings of the everlasting mountains,' With the gifts of the ancient hills! They shall be on the head" of Joseph, On the head of the consecrated among his brothers. 27 Benjamin is a ravening wolf, In the morning he devoureth prey, And at evening divideth spoil. § 11. Moses' Blessing upon the Tribes, Dt. 33 Benjamin, famous in war Dt. 33 This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the JehoIsraelites before his death, and he said: Jehovah came from Sinai, He beamed from Seir in their behalf," d4922 This rendering is doubtful. * 494 Lit., in strength. under the symbol of a steer. The phrase may go back to the days when Jehovah was worshipped b49 Following a slightly different vowel pointing, which is supported by the Syr. The current translations make little sense. 149 The Heb. adds stone, but this is not supported by the Gk. versions nor by the context. The reference is to the stone of Bethel. Cf. Is. 3029. 149 So Sam., Gk., and Syr. Cf. Gen. 171 and Vol. I, § 16, note . k49 So Gk., supported by the context. The Heb. is evidently corrupt. Possibly it originally read with blessings on father and man and child. 149 So Gk, and slightly restored Heb. text. m493 Lit., that which is desirable; Gk., blessings. 49% Lit., crown of the head. 049% Lit., a Nazirite. 11 This song is a later and widely variant version of the so-called blessing of Jacob in Gen. 49. Both refer to the geographical position, character, and experiences of the different tribes. The description of Joseph is in many lines verbally identical in both, showing that one poet was familiar with the work of the other. Dt. 33, however, is a more perfect unit, being provided with a noble and deeply religious prologue and epilogue. The style also is much more finished and the tone eulogistic. The conquest is only a distant memory of the past, 27. 28 The tribe of Simeon has disappeared entirely. Reuben is few in numbers and in danger of becoming extinct and the Levites have become an honored caste of priests. Judah, instead of ruling over all the tribes, as in Gen. 498-10, is apart by itself and in danger of being overwhelmed by its adversaries. Joseph, represented by the powerful tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, is the object of the poet's pride. Clearly the poem was written after the division of David's empire in 937 and before the P332 Gk., Luc., and Targ., for us. vah's revela tion as deliv erer, guide, and ruler of Israel |