49:35 The Lord who rules over all said,
“I will kill all the archers of Elam,
who are the chief source of her military might. 1
49:24 But his bow will remain steady,
and his hands 2 will be skillful;
because of the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of 3 the Shepherd, the Rock 4 of Israel,
49:1 Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather together so I can tell you 5 what will happen to you in the future. 6
2:4 This is the account 7 of the heavens and
the earth 8 when they were created – when the Lord God 9 made the earth and heavens. 10
37:15 Their swords will pierce 11 their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
46:9 He brings an end to wars throughout the earth; 12
he shatters 13 the bow and breaks 14 the spear;
he burns 15 the shields with fire. 16
76:3 There he shattered the arrows, 17
the shield, the sword, and the rest of the weapons of war. 18 (Selah)
39:9 “‘Then those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and use the weapons for kindling 19 – the shields, 20 bows and arrows, war clubs and spears – they will burn them for seven years.
1 tn Heb “I will break the bow of Elam, the chief source of their might.” The phrase does not mean that God will break literal bows or that he will destroy their weapons (synecdoche of species for genus) or their military power (so Hos 1:5). Because of the parallelism, the “bow” here stands for the archers who wield the bow, and were the strongest force (or chief contingent) in their military.
2 tn Heb “the arms of his hands.”
3 tn Heb “from there,” but the phrase should be revocalized and read “from [i.e., because of] the name of.”
4 tn Or “Stone.”
5 tn After the imperative, the cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose/result.
6 tn The expression “in the future” (אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, ’akharit hayyamim, “in the end of days”) is found most frequently in prophetic passages; it may refer to the end of the age, the eschaton, or to the distant future. The contents of some of the sayings in this chapter stretch from the immediate circumstances to the time of the settlement in the land to the coming of Messiah. There is a great deal of literature on this chapter, including among others C. Armerding, “The Last Words of Jacob: Genesis 49,” BSac 112 (1955): 320-28; H. Pehlke, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Genesis 49:1-28” (Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1985); and B. Vawter, “The Canaanite Background of Genesis 49,” CBQ 17 (1955): 1-18.
7 tn The Hebrew phrase אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת (’elle tolÿdot) is traditionally translated as “these are the generations of” because the noun was derived from the verb “beget.” Its usage, however, shows that it introduces more than genealogies; it begins a narrative that traces what became of the entity or individual mentioned in the heading. In fact, a good paraphrase of this heading would be: “This is what became of the heavens and the earth,” for what follows is not another account of creation but a tracing of events from creation through the fall and judgment (the section extends from 2:4 through 4:26). See M. H. Woudstra, “The Toledot of the Book of Genesis and Their Redemptive-Historical Significance,” CTJ 5 (1970): 184-89.
8 tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1.
9 sn Advocates of the so-called documentary hypothesis of pentateuchal authorship argue that the introduction of the name Yahweh (
10 tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1; the order here is reversed, but the meaning is the same.
11 tn Heb “enter into.”
12 tn Heb “[the] one who causes wars to cease unto the end of the earth.” The participle continues the description begun in v. 8b and indicates that this is the
13 tn The verb שָׁבַר (shavar, “break”) appears in the Piel here (see Ps 29:5). In the OT it occurs thirty-six times in the Piel, always with multiple objects (the object is either a collective singular or grammatically plural or dual form). The Piel may highlight the repetition of the pluralative action, or it may suggest an intensification of action, indicating repeated action comprising a whole, perhaps with the nuance “break again and again, break in pieces.” Another option is to understand the form as resultative: “make broken” (see IBHS 404-7 §24.3). The imperfect verbal form carries on and emphasizes the generalizing nature of the description.
14 tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries along the generalizing emphasis of the preceding imperfect.
15 tn The imperfect verbal form carries on and emphasizes the generalizing nature of the description.
16 tn Heb “wagons he burns with fire.” Some read “chariots” here (cf. NASB), but the Hebrew word refers to wagons or carts, not chariots, elsewhere in the OT. In this context, where military weapons are mentioned, it is better to revocalize the form as עֲגִלוֹת (’agilot, “round shields”), a word which occurs only here in the OT, but is attested in later Hebrew and Aramaic.
17 tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.
18 tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.
19 tn Heb “burn and kindle the weapons.”
20 tn Two different types of shields are specified in the Hebrew text.