Gen 49:5, 7 | Clarke | e4.org | 5. Simeon and Levi, brethren: They have accomplished their fraudulent purposes. 6. Into their secret council my soul did not come; In their confederacy my honour was not united: For in their anger they slew a man, ( ish, a noble ,) And in their pleasure they murdered a prince. 7. Cursed was their anger, for it was fierce! And their excessive wrath, for it was inflexible! I will divide them out in Jacob, And I will disperse them in Israel. Verse 5. Simeon and Levi are brethren ] Not only springing from the same parents, but they have the same kind or disposition, head-strong, deceitful, vindictive , and cruel . They have accomplished, &c. ] Our margin has it, Their swords are weapons of violence , i. e., Their swords, which they should have used in defence of their persons or the honourable protection of their families, they have employed in the base and dastardly murder of an innocent people. The Septuagint gives a different turn to this line from our translation, and confirms the translation given above: συνετελεσαν αδικιαεξαιρεσεωςαυτων. They have accomplished the iniquity of their purpose ; with which the Samaritan Version agrees. In the Samaritan text we read [Samaritan] calu, they have accomplished , instead of the Hebrew keley , weapons or instruments , which reading most critics prefer: and as to mecherotheyhem , translated above their fraudulent purposes , and which our translation on almost no authority renders their habitations , it must either come from the AEthiopic macar, he counselled, devised stratagems, &c. , (see Castel ,) or from the Arabic [Arabic] macara , he deceived, practised deceit, plotted , &c., which is nearly of the same import. This gives not only a consistent but evidently the true sense.

‏ Genesis 49:5

5. Simeon and Levi, brethren:

They have accomplished their fraudulent purposes.

6. Into their secret council my soul did not come;

In their confederacy my honour was not united:

For in their anger they slew a man, ( ish, a noble,)

And in their pleasure they murdered a prince.

7. Cursed was their anger, for it was fierce!

And their excessive wrath, for it was inflexible!

I will divide them out in Jacob,

And I will disperse them in Israel.

Verse 5. Simeon and Levi are brethren] Not only springing from the same parents, but they have the same kind or disposition, head-strong, deceitful, vindictive, and cruel.

They have accomplished, &c.] Our margin has it, Their swords are weapons of violence, i. e., Their swords, which they should have used in defence of their persons or the honourable protection of their families, they have employed in the base and dastardly murder of an innocent people.

The Septuagint gives a different turn to this line from our translation, and confirms the translation given above: συνετελεσαν αδικιαεξαιρεσεωςαυτων. They have accomplished the iniquity of their purpose; with which the Samaritan Version agrees. In the Samaritan text we read [Samaritan] calu, they have accomplished, instead of the Hebrew keley, weapons or instruments, which reading most critics prefer: and as to mecherotheyhem, translated above their fraudulent purposes, and which our translation on almost no authority renders their habitations, it must either come from the AEthiopic macar, he counselled, devised stratagems, &c., (see Castel,) or from the Arabic [Arabic] macara, he deceived, practised deceit, plotted, &c., which is nearly of the same import. This gives not only a consistent but evidently the true sense.

‏ Genesis 49:7

Verse 7. Cursed was their anger] The first motions of their violence were savage; and their excessive or overflowing wrath, ebrah, for it was inflexible-neither the supplications of the males, nor the entreaties, tears, cries, and shrieks of the helpless females, could deter them from their murderous purpose; for this, Ge 49:5, they are said to have accomplished.

I will divide them out, achallekem, I will make them into lots, giving a portion of them to one tribe, and a portion to another; but they shall never attain to any political consequence. This appears to have been literally fulfilled. Levi had no inheritance except forty-eight cities, scattered through different parts of the land of Canaan: and as to the tribe of Simeon, it is generally believed among the Jews that they became schoolmasters to the other tribes; and when they entered Canaan they had only a small portion, a few towns and villages in the worst part of Judah's lot, Jos 19:1, which afterwards finding too little, they formed different colonies in districts which they conquered from the Idumeans and Amalekites, 1Ch 4:39, &c. Thus these two tribes were not only separated from each other, but even divided from themselves, according to this prediction of Jacob.