The fceptre fhall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him fhall the gathering of the people be. The promise to Abraham was, that he fhould be the father of many nations: and of Sarah it is faid, She fhall be a mother of nations; kings of people fhall be of her. To Jacob it is faid, God multiply thee, that thou mayeft be a multitude of people'. The fucceffion in the house of Abraham was preserved in fingle perfons till Jacob's time; he is the firft who had a numerous iffue, and all of them entitled to the promifes made to their forefathers. The fons of Jacob lived with him, as children of his family only, till his going into Egypt; for when the account is given of their removal to Egypt, they are reckoned not as heads of tribes, but as fo many perfons only, belonging to the family of Jacob: All the fouls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, befides Jacob's fons' wives, all the fouls were threefcore and fix; to which Jacob and Joseph, and his two fons, born in Egypt, being added, it is faid, All the fouls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threefcore and ten". Hitherto there is no mention of any tribe, or of any house, but the houfe of Jacob. This ftate of things continued during the seventeen years of Jacob's life in Egypt, in all which time there is no appearance of any power or authority in any rulers, or elders, or heads of tribes, 1 Gen. xvii. 5. a Gen, xlvi. 27. * Gen. xvii. 16. Gen. xlvi. 26. but in Jacob only. And how fhould there, before any tribes were appointed, or any form of government was fettled? When Jacob drew near his end, he fummoned all his family, in order to appoint the form of government which fhould take place after his death, and continue as long as his pofterity held poffeffion of the land of Canaan. The xlixth chapter of Genefis is commonly called, Jacob's blefling of his fons; but it might as well be called, Jacob's appointment of twelve rulers or princes to govern the house of Ifrael. For tell me, how came this form of government, by a distribution of the people into twelve tribes, with heads and rulers over them, to be pitched upon rather than any other? There is no defignation of this form of government in any other place of Scripture and it could not be fettled tacitly, by a mere devolution of Jacob's power among his fons after his decease; for had that been the cafe, Ephraim and Manaffeh could not have been heads of tribes, for their father Jofeph was living, and he must have been head of one tribe, as the reft of his brethren were. Nor is it to be imagined, that fo confiderable a part of the ftory, as the founding and fettling the government of Ifrael, fhould be paffed over by Mofes in filence; and his reader left to fupply by imagination fo material a part of the history. It must therefore be allowed, that the government of Ifrael is fettled by Jacob, in the xlviiith and xlixth of Genefis. All the circumstances reported in these two chapters answer to this idea. In the first place, Jacob gives the birthright, as to the temporal inheritance, to Jofeph, by giving him a double portion, and rais 1 1 H 1 ing out of his family two princes or heads of tribes in Ifrael: Ephraim and Manaffeh are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. And because other iflue from Jofeph would have ftood upon a level in point of descent with Ephraim and Manaffeh, and it might have been doubtful whether they might not claim to be rulers themselves, and equal to their brothers, Jacob directs, that they should be reckoned in the tribes of their two brothers: They fhall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance P. By this defignation of Jacob, the two fons of Joseph were appointed each to be the head of a feparate people; for this Jacob, fpeaking of these two grandchildren, declares, He (Manaffeh) fhall become a people, and he also shall be great: but his brother Ephraim fhall be greater than he, and his feed fhall become a multitude of nations. In the following chapter, Jacob speaks to his fons as the reprefentatives of so many diftinct people; which is expressly remarked by Moses, All these are the twelve tribes of Ifrael; and it is evident likewife from hence, that the things foretold and ascribed to them are by no means capable of being understood of fingle perfons. Here the promise to Abraham, That he should be father of many nations; and to Sarah, That kings of people should be of her; began to take effect: for from this time forward the people of Ifrael are reckoned by their tribes, which were fo many distinct people, or (in the language of the book of Genefis) nations, independent of each other, and fubfifting under ru • Gen. xlviii. 5. P Gen. xlviii. 6. Gen. xlix. 28. lers and judges of their own, but confederated for mutual defence, and the maintenance of one law to be given equally to all. It ought to be no wonder to hear the tribes of Ifrael called nations, and their heads princes; for the fame language is used of Ishmael's twelve fons: Thefe are the fons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their cafiles; twelve princes according to their nations. These princes could be no more than heads of tribes'; and fuch princes likewife were the dukes and the kings of Edom ". Ishmael was the fon of Abraham, and Esau was fon of Ifaac; and their families could not be much more numerous than Jacob's; and yet they are reckoned according to their princes, and their dukes, and by their feveral nations. In truth, all the governments of the Eaft feem at this time to have been of this fort. What were the four kings, think you, whom Abraham overthrew with three hundred and eighteen of his own fervants, and the affistance of his three friends, who might perhaps make as many more? What were the thirty-two kings, whose country was divided among the twelve tribes? The princes of the tribes of Ifrael were furely equal in power and dignity to fuch kings; and fuch were the kings of those days. This obfervation will teach us to restrain and limit our ideas within due bounds, when we read of kings and princes, and fceptres and judges, and nations, in thefe early times; and not to imagine, because the words are the fame which we • Gen. xxv. 16. t Vide Clericum in locum. Gen. xxxvi. Vide Clericum ad verfum decimum quintum. now use, that they muft neceffarily fignify as high degrees of power as now they do. What kind of power Jacob fettled upon these heads of tribes, may appear from what he himself says of Dan; Dan fhall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Ifrael. All the people of Ifrael were not Dan's people; and therefore it is abfurd to imagine any power given to Dan, or any of his defcendants, over the whole houfe of Jacob. Befides, nothing peculiar is given to Dan in this grant: he was to judge his own people indeed; but how? Why, as one of the tribes of Ifraely. From whence it is evident, that every tribe had its own princes and judges; and that every prince, or head of a tribe, judged his own people confequently every tribe had a fceptre, and lawgiver, as well as the tribe of Judah. That this power in the heads of tribes took place immediately upon the death of Jacob, may be collected from hence, that from this time all applications and meffages are not to the people, but to the elders of Ifrael 2. The command of God fent to the houfe of Jacob, and the children of Ifrael, in Egypt, was delivered by Moses to the elders of the people *. The people and their rulers are diftinguished plainly in Exod. xxxiv. Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Mofes talked with * Gen. xlix. 15. y Quia penes ejus fobolem in communi politia pars gubernationis et imperii erit, ut tribus ista caput unum efficiat. Vatablus in locum. Exod. iii. 16. xii. 21. • Exod. xix. 3, 7. R |