It's something of a puzzle why the Torah puts so much emphasis on the purported 12 tribes of Israel, since most of them never any explicit part to play in the later chronicles. Ten of them are said to have disappeared after the conquest of the region (I can't say Israel because it was not a unified kingdom) by the Assyrian king
Tiglath-Pileser III in 753 BC, shortly before Exodus was written. Also, the lists vary somewhat from place to place in the Bible. This is the first one.
Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.
2 “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob;
listen to your father Israel.
3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might, the first sign of my strength,
excelling in honor, excelling in power.
4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel,
for you went up onto your father’s bed,
onto my couch and defiled it.
This refers to an incident described in two sentences in 35:22, which appears as a total non-sequitur and of which nothing is made at the time. Jacob's only response it seems, after many decades, is to dis Reuben now.
5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers—
their swords are weapons of violence.
6 Let me not enter their council,
let me not join their assembly,
for they have killed men in their anger
and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce,
and their fury, so cruel!
I will scatter them in Jacob
and disperse them in Israel.
This refers to the massacre of the entire city of Shechem, who slept with their sister Dinah. Just a few verses back, Jacob took credit for it although as I said, he was actually against it at the time.
8 “Judah, your brothers will praise you;
your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons will bow down to you.
9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
11 He will tether his donkey to a vine,
his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes will be darker than wine,
his teeth whiter than milk.
Not clear what all this poetic folderol is trying to say, but Judah eventually becomes the name of the southern kingdom.
13 “Zebulun will live by the seashore
and become a haven for ships;
his border will extend toward Sidon.
Actually in Numbers Zebulun is described as providing a lot of soldiers, but not as being maritime.
14 “Issachar is a rawboned donkey
lying down among the sheep pens.
15 When he sees how good is his resting place
and how pleasant is his land,
he will bend his shoulder to the burden
and submit to forced labor.
Nobody seems to know what this means,
including apologists for the Bible. There is no indication at any time that the tribe of Issachar was reduced to servitude (apart of course from the general Egyptian captivity).
16 “Dan will provide justice for his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan will be a snake by the roadside,
a viper along the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
so that its rider tumbles backward.
Again, who knows what this means? Actually it's the tribe of Levi, not Dan, that ultimately becomes the caste of judges.
18 “I look for your deliverance, Lord.
19 “Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders,
but he will attack them at their heels.
20 “Asher’s food will be rich;
he will provide delicacies fit for a king.
21 “Naphtali is a doe set free
that bears beautiful fawns.
22 “Joseph is a fruitful vine,
a fruitful vine near a spring,
whose branches climb over a wall.
23 With bitterness archers attacked him;
they shot at him with hostility.
24 But his bow remained steady,
his strong arms stayed limber,
because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
25 because of your father’s God, who helps you,
because of the Almighty, who blesses you
with blessings of the skies above,
blessings of the deep springs below,
blessings of the breast and womb.
26 Your father’s blessings are greater
than the blessings of the ancient mountains,
than the bounty of the age-old hills.
Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
It's a bit confusing, but because Jacob/Israel adopted Ephraim and Manessah, in some formulations their descendants constitute two separate tribes and there is no single tribe of Joseph. This is one reason why the lists of the 12 tribes vary. In any case, these are among the lost tribes.
27 “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
in the morning he devours the prey,
in the evening he divides the plunder.”
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.
The Death of Jacob
29 Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. 31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. 32 The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.”
33 When
Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up
into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
In Genesis 46 God says to Jacob "
“Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again." What God failed to mention is that he would come back dead.
2 comments:
Has there been any archaeological evidence of the cave of Machpelah?
I discussed this earlier, actually. There is a cave in Hebron which believers identify with it. There was an enclosure built over it during Herod's rule, which later became a Christian church and then a mosque depending on who ruled, and finally part of it became a synagogue after the '67 war. Various structures have been destroyed and erected over the course of this strife.
There is no evidence however that it is the real thing. As far as I know no human remains have been discovered there.
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