CHAPTER XXVIII. The benedictions upon Zebulun, Issachar, and Gad. In the next benediction, Zebulun and Issachar, the two younger sons of Leah, are classed together, because, says Dodd, they were uterine brothers but this is no good reason, since Leah having had six sons, there were consequently four other brothers by the same mother; it is therefore more likely to have been because their portions were near each other: they were territorial neighbours, as well as uterine brothers, and the former I apprehend to have been the main reason why they were united by Moses in his blessing. Although Issachar was the senior, he is placed last, as Jacob had before done, probably because he held an agricultural people in less esteem than a commercial, which the descendants of Zebulun and of Issachar respectively were. The one stands higher in the scale of national distinction than the other, commerce opening wide that unbounded field of international communication, which places at the disposal of all the resources severally enjoyed by each; thus ultimately producing a vast aggregate of civilization and political wisdom. "And of Zebulun he said," Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; And, Issachar, in thy tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain; We shall find upon comparison that these two blessings correspond precisely with those delivered by Jacob upon the same patriarchs. Their immediate progenitor says of Zebulun,* Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and Moses says, with the same spirit of prophecy, though at a less remote time, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; that is, from those havens alluded to by Jacob, on commercial speculations, calculated to increase the prosperity of a people dwelling near the Mediterranean sea; the portion of this tribe extending from thence on the west to the lake of Gennesaret on the east. And, Issachar, in thy tents. This refers to their agricultural habits, living in tents, which were easily removed from place to place, like the primitive nomads, for the more convenient feeding of their flocks and herds. Tents were in those early times in the east the usual, as they are even at this day the frequent, habitation of those who till the soil. In the days of Moses, and long subse * Genesis xlix. 13. quently, they were especially distinguished as an agricultural people. They shall call the people unto the mountain; that is, as Dr. Adam Clarke* supposes, with great probability, though the passage will bear a different interpretation, " there, by their traffic with the gentiles, they shall be the instruments in God's hands of converting many to the true faith, so that instead of sacrificing to idols, they should offer sacrifices of righteousness." The couplet is thus paraphrased in the Jerusalem Targum: "Behold the people of the house of Zebulun shall be ready to go to the mount of the holy house of the Lord." "Or by the people," says Bishop Patrick, in his note on the place, “perhaps he means the gentiles, their neighbours, whom they should endeavour to bring to the service of the true God, which was especially fulfilled when Christ came. (Matt. iv. 15, 16.) For they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, This couplet applies to Zebulun only, who shall become prosperous from successful commerce. 66 And of treasures hid in the sand. 66 By which," observes Dr. Durell, some understand the art of making glass from sand. Jonathan paraphrases the words thus: "They shall dwell near the great sea, and feast on the tunny fish, and catch the chalson or murex, See his Note. with whose blood they will die of a purple colour the threads of their cloths; and from the sand they will make looking-glasses, and other utensils of glass." "Several ancient writers," says Dr. Adam Clarke, "inform us, that there were havens in the coasts of the Zebulunites in which the vitreous sand, or sand proper for making glass, was found."-(See Strabo, lib. xvi. See also Pliny Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvi. cap. 26. Tacitus Hist. lib. v. cap. 7.) The words of Tacitus are remarkable. "The river Belus falls into the Jewish sea, about whose mouth those sands, mixed with nitre, are collected, out of which glass is formed, or which is melted into glass. Some think that the celebrated shell-fish called murex, out of which the precious purple dye was extracted, is here intended by the treasure hid in the sand': this also Jonathan introduces in this verse. And others think that it is a general term for the advantages derived from navigation and commerce." The exposition of Calmet of this prophecy is clear and judicious: "It means," he says, "that these two tribes, being at the greatest distance north, should come together to the temple at Jerusalem, to the holy mountain, and should bring with them such of the other tribes as dwelt in their way; and that occupying part of the coast of the Mediterranean, they should apply themselves to trade and navigation, and to the melting of metals and glass, denoted, by those words, treasures hid in the sand. The river Belus, whose sand was very fit for making glass, was in this tribe." Of Belus, the same writer says, this is "a little river of Judæa, which falls into the Mediterranean, about two furlongs from Ptolemais. Pliny says, lib. xxxvi. cap. 26, it rises from a lake, and does not run above four miles. Its waters are not good to drink; its bottom is marshy; but the water of the sea, flowing into its channel, washes the sand, and of this they make glass. The bank from whence the sand is taken for this use is not above five hundred paces in extent; and though, for many ages so much has been carried away, yet it remains inexhaustible. Josephus and Tacitus, lib. v., speak of it as well as Pliny; but the authors who treat of the holy wars take no other notice of the sands of Belus than of something then out of use, and known only by the writings of the ancients. It is said the making glass originated from this river."* son. Houbigant remarks on this prophecy, that "Moses preserves the same order with Jacob, naming the youngest first, and for the same reaThe youngest was to rejoice in his going out, or departure; but the elder in his tents; that is, the Jews, who were the elder, were not to leave their tents when becoming Christians, because Christ came to fulfil the law, not to dissolve it; but the church of the gentiles, the younger, could not rejoice unless she forsook her tents, rejecting the worship of false gods, and turning herself to the true religion, in which religion both of them call to the mountains, and offer the sacrifices of righteousness Calmet's Dic. art. Belus. |