hole, as a fellow-heir
of the country flowing with milk and honey, and corresponds entirely
with the blessings upon the other sons, which are, almost all of them,
only individual applications of the general blessing. It is evidently
parallel to what, in vers. 25, 26, is said of Joseph, and in ver. 20 of
Asher. That which Jacob here assigns to Judah, was [Pg 84] formerly, in
Gen. xxvii. 28, assigned by Isaac to Jacob, and in him to the whole
people: "God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the
earth, and plenty of corn and wine." Hence, it is not at all necessary
to examine history for the purpose of ascertaining whether Judah was
distinguished above the other tribes, by plenty of wine and milk.

We need not lose much time in discussing the attempts which have been
made to assign the blessing of Jacob to a later period. The futility of
all of them is proved by the circumstance, that we have not here before
us any special predictions, such as are peculiar to _vaticinia post
eventum_, but general prophetical outlines, individual applications of
the general blessings, exemplifications. Whatever seems, at first
sight, to be different, melts away while handling it. Thus, for
example, the blessings which Israel enjoyed by his dwelling on the
sea-side, are pointed out in the blessing upon Zebulun, because he had
his name from the _dwelling_, Gen. xxi. 20. That Zebulun is here viewed
only as a part of the whole, appears from the fact that, afterwards, he
did not live by the sea at all. In the case of Issachar, it was the
individuality of the ancestor Jacob which gave him occasion to
describe, from his own example, the dangers of an indolent rest.
History does not say anything of Issachar alone having yielded to these
dangers in a peculiar degree. In the case of Joseph, the events
personal to the son are transferred to the tribe, and in the tribe, to
the whole nation. In an inimitable manner the tender love of the father
towards his son and provider meets us here. The only thing which goes
beyond the human sphere of Jacob, is the prediction by which Judah is
placed in the centre of the world's history. But it is just this which,
even in its beginnings, goes beyond the time at which this pretended
_vaticinium post eventum_ is placed by _Tuch_, _Bleek_, and _Ewald_;
for, by this assumption of theirs, they are necessarily limited to the
time before David, if they wish to avoid the insurmountable
difficulties which ari