the relative termination differs from the absolute end of all. Hence the consciousness was sure to be excited that the rest and enjoyment and possession, which are referred to as perfect in Jacob's blessing, were not fully realised in Joshua's days, and therefore that Jacob's blessing still pointed onward from the period of its first partial fulfilment to a future day, when it should be more perfectly fulfilled. As a general rule each age will see the object of its longings, and therefore the end, in the satisfaction of those wants of which it happens to be conscious. But with every essential advance in the history of the world the horizon widens, and men become conscious of new wants, new desires, new expectations, of which previously they had no suspicion. The expansion of existing germs brings new germs to light, which until then had been hidden from view. And thus every condition which seemed likely to be the end is no sooner reached, than it becomes the commencement of a new development; and this will continue till the absolute end arrives, and with it the full expansion of every germ.

This blessing was closely related to that pronounced on Jacob by his father Isaac (vol. i. § 72; vid. my Einheit der Genesis, p. 198 seq.). Jacob here communicated to his sons, in a more fully developed form, what he had already received from his father; and the many points of coincidence and, to some extent, verbal agreements, which we meet with, especially in the predictions concerning Judah and Joseph, bear witness how deeply the prophetic words of his father had been impressed upon Jacob's mind.

Hitherto we have found the blessing of promise not merely handed down to the next generation by the possessor of it for the time-being, but also expressly repeated and confirmed by Jehovah (vol. i. § 72. 1). The latter, however, was not the case with Jacob's sons; there is no intimation of their having been invested with the blessing by Jehovah. And from this time forth even the former ceased. The reason why Jacob was the last to invest his sons with the blessing of promise was, that he was the last solitary possessor of the covenant and the blessing. And the reason for the omission of the express investiture on the part of Jehovah in the present case, seems to have been, that now at length the way of grace entirely coincided with that of nature. So long as certain members of the family had to be excluded as natural branches, it was necessary that the divine investiture

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should be repeated every time; but as soon as the patriarch had been pointed out, whose entire posterity, without any exception was destined to carry forward the plans of salvation, his divine investiture had force and validity for all future generations.

(2). Reuben, the first-born, stood first in the rank of the brethren who surrounded their father's bed. According to the rules of primogeniture, the double inheritance (Gen. xxi. 17) and the headship of the family also belonged to him (1 Chr. vi. 2; Gen. xlix. 3); but he had forfeited both the rights and the honour of birthright by the commission of incest (Vol. i. § 83). He ought, as the first-born, to have been the firmest defender of the honour of the family, and it was by him that it had been violated. For that reason the crown of dignity and might, to which his birthright entitled him, was taken from his head. Simeon and Levi were the next in order, but the dignity, which Reuben had forfeited, could not be conferred upon them; for through their treachery towards the Shechemites (Vol. i. § 82) they had brought disgrace upon the house of Jacob, made his good name "to stink" among the heathen (Gen. xxxiv. 30), and acted in criminal opposition to the call of Israel, to be the channel of blessings and the medium of salvation to the heathen. They had united for the purpose of crime, therefore they were to be scattered in Israel. "This scattering of Simeon and Levi was an appropriate punishment for their alliance, which was opposed to the spirit of Israel, just as at a former period the forcible dispersion of the nations had been the consequence of their combining in opposition to the will of Jehovah" (Baumgarten).

The three elder sons were thus excluded from the rights and privileges of the birthright. They were not to inhabit the heart of the land, which would otherwise have fallen to their share. Reuben's inheritance was to be outside the true holy land, and therefore was not even mentioned. Simeon and Levi were to be scattered in fragments among the rest of the tribes, and therefore to lose the advantages and independence, which only compactness and unity could secure. But, although they were deprived of the blessings of the birthright, they were not separated from the community of the chosen people, or from the call which they had received. They were not placed on the same footing as Ishmael and Esau, but still continued, as individuals, members of the family, and as tribes, members of the

people, to whom the promise was given. They were, therefore, to co-operate with the rest in the duties to which the whole people had been called, and that was their blessing. But their co-operation was of a miserable kind, with very little of an independent character, and that was their curse.

(3). The earlier monographical expositions of the blessing on Judah have been specified by Tuch (Comm. p. 570). There have now to be added to the list Hengstenberg's Christology, sqq. Sack's Apologetik; Hofmann's Weissagung und Erfüllung; and L. Reinke's Weissagung Jakob's üb. d. zukünftige glückliche Loos des Stammes Juda und dess. Nachkommen Schilo. The tone and substance of Jacob's discourse changed as soon as he looked at Judah. He was able to bestow upon the fourth son at least one part of that, which he had been obliged to refuse to the first three. The one great privilege of the first-born, the rank of chief among the tribes, with pre-eminence in power and dignity, is awarded to Judah. He is in reality, what he is in name, the praised among his brethren. The sons of his father bend before him, for with the courage of a lion he has fought as their leader and champion against every enemy, and having maintained their cause successfully, he holds the fruits of his victory with a lion's power. By swaying the sceptre with the force he displays, he is able not only to enter into rest, but to give rest to the tribes, at whose head he stands. The nations, whom he has conquered by the might of his arm, submit without resistance, yea willingly and cheerfully, to his peaceful government, and share in the blessings of peace and rest, into which he has entered and leads others also. The symbols of the conflict, by which the nations have been subjugated to their own advantage, are now laid aside, and he is surrounded by the emblems of peace alone. "Is he in full armour, a mighty conqueror, who has subdued the nations? Is his garment full of the blood of the slain, his eye fired with the fierceness of battle? No, he comes seated on the young colt of an ass, an animal of peace, and tarries in a vineyard. and tarries in a vineyard. Doubtless he has washed his clothes in blood, but it is the blood of the grape. It is wine that makes his eyes so full of fire, and milk, the harmless food by which his teeth are whitened, has made his temper gentle and kind. The blessing to be realized in Judah's future history begins with his victorious conflict, and closes with the

enjoyment of happiness and peace. His princely bearing is placed between the two. But Judah is the champion and leader of his brethren, and therefore they all share in the blessings secured by him." (Hofmann, Weissagung und Erfüllung i p. 118).

The most difficult passage in the blessing of Judah is the much disputed clause "till Shiloh come." We have followed Hofmann and others in taking to be a common noun,

with the meaning rest; and have rendered the clause: "till he (Judah) attains to rest." Most commentators, however, regard the words in question as the title of a personal Messiah, who was to spring from the tribe of Judah; though they arrive at this result in different ways. Shiloh is, of course, in this case, the subject, not the object, of the rendering: "till Shiloh (i.e. the Messiah) come." Thus Delitzsch (in his work on the prophetic theology of the Bible, p. 293) has expressed his firm conviction, "that every attempt to explain Shiloh as a common noun fails, and that the only correct rendering is that which treats it as a name of the Messiah, since this prediction formed an indispensable link in the historical chain, which ushered in the proclamation of salvation. For when once the patriarchal triad had become a dodekad in the family of Jacob, and thus the point of transition from the family to the people had been reached, the question necessarily arose, from which of the twelve tribes would salvation, i.e. the triumph of humanity, and the blessing of the nations, arise ?" But Delitzsch himself has not adhered to this explanation.

We also admit, as will presently appear, that this prophecy forms a necessary link in the historical chain, which ushered in the proclamation of salvation; but we by no means admit that it was important that the question, from which of the twelve tribes salvation was to be expected, should receive an answer at this early age. Such a question in fact could only arise, when the idea of salvation had assumed the form of a confident ex

pectation of a personal, individual Messiah. The organic progress of prophecy, and its close connexion in all its stages with contemporary history, prohibit us from imagining for a moment, that there was any expectation of a personal Messiah in the patriarchal age. In fact such an expectation was not only not indulged, but would have been altogether unsuitable to the cha

racter of the times. The evident intention of the whole history of that age was to develope the family into a great people; its entire tendency was to expand the unity of the patriarchs into the plurality of a nation. And this impulse, which was inherent in the patriarchal history, was not an unconscious one, but stood before the minds of the patriarchs with the greatest clearness and certainty, and was the one object of all their thoughts and hopes, and strong desires. The patriarchal history began with the consciousness of this their immediate destiny, as it was set before them in the clearest light by the call of Abraham. The progress of that history was maintained by the constant renewal, or revival of the same consciousness. Nearly every one of the numerous theophanies and Divine revelations, which occur in the history of the patriarchs, point to this end, and contain a promise that by the blessing of God it shall be attained. The earnest longing, which existed, for this expansion into a numerous people, was necessarily heightened by the delay, which arose partly from the barrenness that prevailed at first in the chosen family, and partly also from the necessity of excluding several of the actual descendants, and commencing afresh with a single patriarch. And now, just at the moment when the way was opened for this expansion, when faith in their destiny was exchanged for a sight of the first stage in its fulfilment, when the course of history was making it a reality, the consciousness must have been more vivid, and the assurance stronger, than ever it had been before. But as this was only the commencement of a coming fulfilment, and not the complete fulfilment itself, there was still so much demand for the exercise of faith and hope in connexion with that portion of their destiny, of which they were already conscious, that there was as yet no possibility of awakening the consciousness of still greater things beyond.

Since, then, prophecy, as a general rule, rests upon the age in which it is delivered, and only opens to view those features of the future, of which the germs and prototypes exist in the present, the expectations of salvation, which existed in the patriarchal age, must have been most closely related to the circumstances just referred to. An age, whose only task was to form a great nation from one single chosen man, whose movements, subjective and objective, were all concentrated upon this one result, a result longed for and looked for above all others, could