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From Eternity Past
Next were Simeon and Levi. They had been united in cruelty
toward the Shechemites and had been the most guilty in the selling of
Joseph.
I will divide them in Jacob,
And scatter them in Israel.
Moses, in his last blessing to Israel before entering Canaan, made
no reference to Simeon. In the settlement of Canaan, this tribe had
only a small portion of Judah’s lot, and such families as afterward
became powerful formed different colonies and settled in territory
outside the borders of the Holy Land. Levi also received no inheritance
[161]
except forty-eight cities. However, their fidelity when the other tribes
apostatized secured their appointment to the sacred service of the
sanctuary; thus the curse was changed into a blessing.
The crowning blessings of the birthright were transferred to Judah:
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise;
Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;
Thy father’s children shall bow down before thee... .
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh come;
And unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.
The lion, king of the forest, is a fitting symbol of this tribe, from
which came David, and the Son of David, Shiloh, the true “Lion of the
tribe of Judah,” to whom all powers shall finally bow and all nations
render homage.
For most of his children, Jacob foretold a prosperous future. At
last the name of Joseph was reached, and the father’s heart overflowed
as he invoked blessings upon “the head of him that was separate from
his brethren”: