49:9. Juda is a lion's whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?
A lion's whelp, etc... This blessing of Juda foretelleth the strength of his tribe, the fertility of his inheritance; and principally that the sceptre and legislative power should not be utterly taken away from his race till about the time of the coming of Christ: as in effect it never was: which is a demonstration against the modern Jews, that the Messiah is long since come; for the sceptre has long since been utterly taken away from Juda.
49:10. The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.
49:11. Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.
49:12. His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
49:13. Zabulon shall dwell on the seashore, and in the road of ships, reaching as far as Sidon.
49:14. Issachar shall be a strong ass, lying down between the borders.
49:15. He saw rest that it was good: and the land that it was excellent: and he bowed his shoulder to carry, and became a servant under tribute.
49:16. Dan shall judge his people like another tribe in Israel.
Dan shall judge, etc... This was verified in Samson, who was of the tribe of Dan, and began to deliver Israel. Judges 13.5. But as this deliverance was but temporal and very imperfect, the holy patriarch (ver. 18) aspires after another kind of deliverer, saying: I will look for thy salvation, O Lord.