left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.

14. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.

15. And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,

16. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

17. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.

18. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.

19. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.

20. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

21. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.

22. Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

We cannot for a moment doubt, that when Jacob thus, in this most solemn transaction of his life, advisedly 'preferred Ephraim to Manasseh; in conferring his dying blessing, he was inspired to act thus, immediately by God himself: who often appears, in the Old Testament, to have selected the younger for temporal mercies, to the exclusion of the elder; perhaps to demonstrate his own sovereignty, and to prove that in this sense, also, "God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy." In the present instance, the future history of the children of Israel proves that the blessing was fulfilled; since the tribe of Ephraim so far exceeded his brethren, that the whole of the ten tribes, after their separation, are, in the prophets, frequently denominated Ephraim.

How striking is the reference made by Jacob, at this season, to the second Person of the everblessed Trinity, under the name of "The Angel, which redeemed me from all evil;" how evidently did he think of him as his Saviour, his Redeemer, his friend, and trace his own safety through all the many perils of his troubled life, and his calm and happy state of mind at the close of it, to the continual care and watchful guardianship of the

great Redeemer. Let us, by Divine grace, be once truly brought to see, experimentally, that every blessing we enjoy comes to us, primarily, through the one great blessing of redemption, and our hearts will open, if we may so say, spontaneously, to the true, deep, grateful, and abiding love of that uncreated angel, of whom Jacob spake," in whose presence is the fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

EXPOSITION LXXV.

GENESIS xlix. 1—17.

1. And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

2. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

4. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

5. Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

6. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.

7. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

8. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.

9. Judah is a lion's whelp from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

11. Binding his fole unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

12. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

13. Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.

14. Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens :

15. And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute,

16. Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

17. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

We have been previously informed by the inspired historian that "the time drew nigh that Israel must die." We have beheld him privately blessing Joseph, and constituting his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, the heads of tribes, taking rank, therefore, with their uncles, the sons of Jacob; and now we are privileged to stand once more at the patriarch's dying bed, and behold his family gathered around him, for the last time, to receive his final and prophetic blessings. In this remarkable portion of Scripture there is much, very much, that cannot be satisfactorily explained, possibly in most cases because we do not know sufficiently of the after history of the Israelites to be enabled to mark distinctly its fulfilment; some portions of the blessing also may be unintelligible to us, because they remain, in all probability, even yet to be accomplished. We shall speak, therefore, only of what is, at least, comparatively clear and intelligible.

It is evident, then, that Jacob disinherited his three elder sons, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, for