Genesis 49:13

Near death, Jacob calls his twelve sons together (Genesis 49:1) and tells each what will become of him and of the tribe that will carry his name. Some of these words look back at what a son has done, and some look ahead to the land and the work his descendants would have. Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah have already heard theirs. Now come Zebulun and Issachar, sons of Leah, and Dan, the first son of Rachel’s handmaid Bilhah. After Dan, Jacob stops to pray, and then he goes on with Gad (Genesis 49:19). God had the place and calling of every tribe in view generations before any of them settled in Canaan, and the books of Joshua and Judges show these words coming true.

Zebulun was Jacob’s tenth son and Leah’s sixth. His name, Zᵉbûwlûwn, means “habitation”. Leah gave it because, having borne Jacob six sons, she said that her husband would now dwell with her (Genesis 30:20). Jacob’s first words about him fit the name: “Zebulun shall dwell”. The verb, shâkan, means to settle down, stay or dwell, and it speaks of a tribe with a settled home.

That home faces the sea. The word for haven, chôwph, comes from a root meaning “to cover”, and it names a cove or sheltered bay, a coast or shore. “Haven” stands twice in this verse, first “the haven of the sea” and then “an haven of ships”, and the repetition puts the sea at the centre of what Zebulun would be. His border reaches “unto Zidon”. Zidon, Tsîydôwn, a name meaning “fishery”, was a leading Phoenician city, famous for its seafaring, its trade across the sea and its luxury goods such as purple dye. Zebulun would live near that world of ships and merchants and share in its commerce, a calling of its own among brothers who mostly farmed and herded.

Moses later blesses Zebulun and Issachar together (Deuteronomy 33:18–19), and Joshua records the lot that fell to Zebulun and the cities in it (Joshua 19:10–16).

Issachar was Jacob’s ninth son and Leah’s fifth. His name, Yissâˢkâr, means “he will bring a reward”, and his reward would come through fertile land and steady labour.

Jacob compares him to a donkey. The word chămôwr means a male ass, named in Strong’s from its dun red colour. The donkey was an essential animal in Israel, valued for its strength and its endurance in carrying heavy loads over hard ground, so the picture honours Issachar. “Strong” is gerem, which literally means a bone, and here it describes a strong-boned animal with a frame built for heavy work.

“Couching down” translates râbats, to crouch, lie down or stretch out, as animals do when they rest. The donkey lies down “between two burdens”. The Hebrew word here, mishpâth, is in the dual form and can mean “sheepfolds” or “stalls”, and the KJV understands it as the loads slung on either side of the animal, like a pair of saddlebags. Either way the donkey rests with its work on both sides of it. That is Issachar’s future: a tribe that would carry much labour, a good deal of it laid on it by others, as the next verse says.

Scripture values this kind of strength. The proverbs commend the diligent, set the ant against the sluggard (Proverbs 6:6–11), promise that the diligent soul will be made rich (Proverbs 13:4), and observe that much increase comes by the strength of the ox (Proverbs 14:4). Issachar’s place among the tribes also shows that God gives his people different callings. Some tribes would lead and some would fight, and Issachar would labour and feed the nation, much as the body of Christ has many members with different gifts (1 Corinthians 12).

Verse 15 explains the picture. “He saw that rest was good” uses râʼâh, the ordinary verb for seeing, here with the sense of weighing something and valuing it. Rest is mᵉnûwchâh, a quiet and settled place, a state of ease and security, and Issachar judged it ṭôwb, good. The land too was nâʻêm, pleasant, agreeable and delightful. Issachar’s land would be the Jezreel Valley, also called the Plain of Esdraelon, one of the richest farming regions in the country and part of the land God had promised to Abraham’s offspring (Genesis 12:7). Land that rich drew the eyes of stronger neighbours, and holding it meant either fighting for it or paying them.

Issachar paid. He “bowed his shoulder to bear”. The shᵉkem is the shoulder, where a yoke or a load rests, nâṭâh is to bend or bow it, and çâbal is to carry a heavy load. The picture is of a beast of burden bending to the yoke. He “became a servant unto tribute”. The verb ʻâbad means to work, labour, serve or till, and maç is tribute in the form of forced labour or compulsory service, the levy a stronger power lays on a weaker one. Solomon raised a levy of bondservice with this word (1 Kings 9:21), which shows what it meant in practice. Jacob foresees a tribe ready to give its labour, to foreign powers or to rulers at home, to keep its peace and its harvests and to avoid the cost of fighting for full independence.

Dan was Jacob’s fifth son, born to Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid. Rachel named him, as Genesis records: “God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan” (Genesis 30:4–6). The name Dân means “judge”, and Jacob plays on it: “Dan shall judge his people”. The verb dîyn means to rule and to judge, and it reaches to governing, defending and vindicating, so a judge in Israel could be a leader and a deliverer as well as one who settled disputes. Moses had appointed judges over the people (Deuteronomy 1:16), and before Israel had kings, God raised up judges to rescue his people and administer justice.

The tribe of Dan gave Israel one of those judges. Samson was a Danite, set apart before his birth to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines (Judges 13:5), and he judged Israel twenty years (Judges 15:20). His life joined great strength from God with grievous personal failings, and still he judged his people as Jacob had said Dan would.

“As one of the tribes of Israel” uses shêbeṭ, a stick, rod, staff, club or sceptre, and so a tribe, a branch of the nation under its leader’s staff. Dan’s mother was a handmaid, and in some households a handmaid’s sons could be counted lower than the sons of a wife. Jacob gives Dan’s descendants full and equal standing as one of the twelve, and in the wilderness Dan has its own camp among the tribes (Numbers 2:25). God values every member of his people, whatever the circumstances of their birth. Christ, to whom the Father has given all judgment (John 5:22), gathers his people from every nation, kindred, people and tongue (Revelation 7:9), and his reign of justice and peace will last for ever (Isaiah 9:6–7).

Jacob’s second picture of Dan is darker. “Serpent” is nâchâsh, the ordinary word for a snake, which Strong’s derives from the idea of hissing. “Adder” is shᵉphîyphôn, a particular kind of snake, probably the horned viper, which lies hidden in sandy paths and strikes suddenly at the heels of whatever passes. The snake waits “by the way” and “in the path”, where travellers have to go. It bites the horse’s heels, a small and easily overlooked target, and “his rider shall fall backward”. The verb nâphal is to fall, and it can mean to be cast down or overthrown. A small hidden creature brings down a horse and the man of strength riding it.

The picture fits a tribe that would win by surprise and ambush, overcoming stronger enemies with sudden, indirect blows. Moses later gave Dan a blessing of his own (Deuteronomy 33:22).

The history of the tribe shows both sides of the picture. Dan struggled to take its first allotted territory, in the south-central part of the land, and moved north instead. There it fell on the city of Laish, whose people were living quietly and unsuspecting, took it and renamed it Dan, and set up a graven image with a priesthood of its own that lasted for generations (Judges 18:27–31).

Between his words about Dan and his words about Gad, Jacob suddenly speaks to God. The cry shows where Jacob’s own hope lies while he speaks of his sons’ futures. He may have been weary, or he may have been moved by the dangers he had just foreseen for Dan and the troubles ahead for his descendants. Either way, his words set every tribal future he foretells under the saving power of God.

“I have waited” is qâvâh, to wait for, look for, hope for. It is the waiting of hope, patient and expectant, from a man who had trusted God’s timing for a lifetime.

“Salvation” is yᵉshûwʻâh, deliverance, aid, victory and welfare. Scripture can use the word of a rescue brought about by a man, as when the people say that Jonathan “hath wrought this great salvation in Israel”, and it traces all salvation finally to the LORD. Jacob says “thy salvation”, the salvation that belongs to God and comes by his power. “LORD” stands for Yᵉhôvâh, the name of God that speaks of him as the self-existent and eternal one, the God of the covenant made with Abraham and Isaac. Jacob is addressing the God who had made him promises and kept them.

Jacob had known that salvation many times. He fled from Esau (Genesis 27:41–45), was kept through his years with Laban, met Esau again in peace (Genesis 33), and came safely through the danger after Shechem. Now, near death, he says that he has been waiting for God’s salvation all along. The psalms and the prophets share his posture: “Wait on the LORD” (Psalm 27:14), they that wait upon the LORD will renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31), and the LORD is good to those who wait for him (Lamentations 3:25–26).

In these few verses God shows that he knows his people one by one. Generations ahead he saw where Zebulun would live, how Issachar would work and what Dan would become, and he gave each a place among his people. A trading tribe by the sea, a farming tribe under heavy loads and a tribe of judges born to a handmaid all belong to Israel, as believers with very different callings belong to one body in Christ.

God also tells the truth about his people. Jacob names Issachar’s bargain and Dan’s serpent beside their strengths, and the history that followed bore him out. When he has looked as far into the future as God let him, he turns from his sons to the LORD and says that he has waited for his salvation. The hope of the whole family rested there, and that salvation came in Jesus, who began his preaching in Zebulun’s land and carried the burden that Issachar’s yoke only pictures. Jacob waited for it, and we wait with him for its completion.