According to Num. x. 14, Judah led the march when they set forth from Sinai.
Balaam's prophecies, the genuineness of which is proved by so many weighty arguments (compare the enumeration of them in my work on Balaam), rest, in general, on the fundamental prophecies of Genesis, but especially on the blessing of Jacob upon Judah.
In Num. xxiii. 24, Balaam says: "Behold, a people, like a full-grown lion he rises, and like a lion he lifts himself up. Not shall he lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain." This conclusion of Balaam's second prophecy, which at once demolishes Balak's vain hopes of victory, by pointing out the dreadful power of Israel, unconquerable by all his enemies, and crushing them all, has an intentional reference to Gen. xlix. 9,—a reference specially suitable for such a conclusion. What was there ascribed to Judah is here transferred to Israel, whose fore-champion Judah is. "Dost thou think," says Balaam to Balak, "of being able to overcome them, to stop them in their course towards the mark held out to them? Behold, according to an old revelation of their God, they are a people destroying their enemies with the lion's strength. Therefore, get thee out of their way, lest such a fate befall thee."
In Num. xxiv. 9, Balaam says, "He couches, he lies as a lion, and as a great lion, who shall stir him up?" As in the preceding prophecy he had pointed out Israel's dreadful power which secures to him victory in the battle, so here he shows how, even after having finished the battle, this power so intimidates his enemies, that they do not venture to disturb his peace. That which Jacob had said of Judah, is, with intended literality, here transferred to Israel.
In Num. xxiv. 17, we read: "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh: a star goeth out of Jacob, and a sceptre riseth out of Israel, and smiteth the borders of Moab, and destroyeth all the sons of the tumult."—As the two preceding utterances carry us back to Gen. xlix. 9, so this one refers to ver. 10, where the sceptre, the emblem of dominion, denotes, just as it does in this passage, dominion itself, and where to Judah, and in him to all Israel, the kingdom is promised which shall at last be consummated in the Shiloh. The meaning of the words, "A sceptre riseth out of Israel," is explained in ver. 19 by the words, "Dominion shall come out of Jacob." Jacob has in view the internal relations among his descendants, and hence he speaks specially of Judah; but Balaam, in accordance with his object, speaks of Israel only. Jacob points, at the close, to Shiloh's just and peaceful dominion; but Balaam, who has to do with the enraged and obstinate enemies of Israel, points out, from among the effects produced by the star and sceptre, only the victorious might, and destructive power which these will display in the conflict with the enemies of Israel.
In the blessing of Moses, Deut. xxxii.
7, it is said of Judah: "Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people; with his hands he fights for himself, and be Thou an help to him from his enemies." Even the remarkable brevity of this utterance points back to the blessing of Jacob. With this brevity, the length of the blessing upon Levi, who had been treated too summarily by Jacob, forms a striking contrast. In the case of Reuben also, the attempt to pour oil into the wounds then inflicted is visible. The whole announcement is based upon the supposition that Judah is the fore-champion of Israel; and this supposition refers us back to Gen. xlix. This appears especially in the words, "Bring him to his people," on which light is thrown only by Gen. xlix. It is for his people that Judah engages in foreign wars, and the Lord, fulfilling the words, "From the prey, my son, thou goest up," brings him safely to his people.[16]
There can be no doubt that in Shiloh, as the name of a place, there is a reference to Gen. xlix. 10. They who rightly denied that Shiloh could, in that passage, be understood as the name of the place, could, nevertheless, not feel satisfied as long as they allowed a twofold Shiloh to exist unconnected with each other. The agreement in the very rare and peculiar form, which nowhere else occurs, cannot well be a matter of accident.
In the Pentateuch, Shiloh does not occur at all as the name of a place. In the passage where Shiloh is first mentioned—in Josh. xvi. 6—another name is beside it, and prefixed to it. According to that passage, the former name was Taanah. (They who are of opinion that this place was different from Shiloh, can find no support from the authority of Eusebius; it is not said Taanah by Shiloh, but Taanath-Shiloh.) After that place had become the seat of the Sanctuary, the holy name Shiloh took the place of the former natural one. The reason why this name was given to it is indicated in Josh. xviii. 1: "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there; and the land was subdued before them." Compare also xxi. 44, xxii. 4, where it is remarked that at that time "the Lord gave them rest round about." (See Bachiene, Palestina ii. 3, S. 409 ff.) In the subjection of the country,—in the rest which the Lord had given them from all round about, they saw an earnest of, and a prelude to, the obedience of the nations in general, and to the state of perfect rest which should take place at some future time with the appearing of Shiloh. Victory, peace! (Siegfried!) such was the watchword corresponding to the elevated consciousness of the people. It is an elevation quite similar to that which we so often perceive in the Psalms. "Sometimes there rises the hope that the Gentiles shall, at some future period, be received among the people of God—a hope based upon the experience of the Lord's victorious power in the present, in which faith perceives a pledge of the future subjection of the world's power under His sceptre. Thus, in vers. 29-32 of Ps. lxviii., which was composed by David on the occasion of his having, by the help of the Lord, conquered his most dangerous enemies, the Aramites and Ammonites; in Ps. xlvii., written on the occasion of Jehoshaphat's victory over several heathen nations; and in Ps. lxxxvii., composed on the ground of the joyful events under Hezekiah, the germ of the hope for the conversion of the heathen, which had all along lain dormant in the people, was developed."[17]
After the main power of the Canaanites had been broken by the expeditions of all Israel under Joshua, Judah begins, at the command of God, to expel the Canaanites from the territory assigned to him. In Judges i. 1, 2, we read: "And the children of Israel asked the Lord, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites at the beginning to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up; behold, I deliver the land into his hands." They were concerned to find out the tribe who, by the decree of God, had been destined to be the fore-champion for his brethren, and with whom they might be sure of a happy commencement of the war. The short answer, "Judah shall go up," would scarcely have been justified, had it not had a foundation in a previous declaration of God's will. It indicates that Jacob's blessing upon Judah still possessed its power.