here cannot be any doubt, that the promise of a personal Messiah
in His kingly office, if it be found in the Old Testament at all, must
exist in the passage which we are now considering.

The promises which first were given to Jacob's parents, and thereafter
transferred to him, included two things:--_first_, a numerous progeny,
and the possession of Canaan for them;--and _secondly_, the blessing
which, through them, was to come upon all nations. How, then, could it
be expected that Jacob, in transferring these blessings to his sons,
and while in spirit seeing them already in possession of the promised
land, and describing the places of abode which they would occupy, and
what should befall them, should have entirely lost sight of the second
object, which was much the more important, and as often repeated? Is it
not, on the contrary, probable that, as formerly, from among the sons
of Abraham and Isaac, so now, from among the sons of Jacob, _he_ should
be pointed out who should, according to the will of God, become the
depositary of this [Pg 77] promise, which was acquiring more and more
of a definite shape? The contrary of this we can the less imagine,
because, according to ver. 2, Jacob is to tell his sons that which
shall befall them "at the end of the days." The expression, "the end of
the days," is always used of that only which lies at the end of the
course which is seen by the speaker. (Compare my work on Balaam,[12] p.
465 f.) Accordingly, it indicates, in this passage, that Jacob's
announcement must comprehend the whole of the future sphere which
was accessible to him. But if we do not admit the reference, in
this passage, to the Messiah, then a whole territory of future
time, notoriously accessible to Jacob, is left untouched by his
announcement.--From the beginning of Genesis, we find the expectation
of an universal salvation; and at every new separation, the depositary
of this salvation, and its mediator for the whole remaining world, are
regularly pointed out. At first, salvation is promised to the whole
human race, then to the family of Shem, then to Abraham, then to Isaac,
then to Jacob. "Now that the patriarchal _trias_, since Jacob, has
extended into a _dodekas_ forming the historical transition from the
family of the promise to the nation of the promise, the question
arises, from which of the twelve tribes salvation, _i.e._, the victory
of mankind, and the blessing of the nations, is to come." (_Delitzsch_