Genesis 49:27

Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Benjamin	בִּנְיָמִין֙ bin.ya.Min	H1144	Binjamin · proper noun, a man's name
ravin	יִטְרָ֔ף yit.Raf	H2963	to pluck off or pull to pieces · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wolf	זְאֵ֣ב ze.'Ev	H2061	a wolf · noun, common masculine singular absolute
morning	בַּבֹּ֖קֶר ba.Bo.ker	H1242	properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
devour	יֹ֣אכַל Yo.khal	H398	to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
prey	עַ֑ד 'Ad	H5706	booty · noun, common masculine singular absolute
night	וְלָעֶ֖רֶב ve.la.'E.rev	H6153	dusk · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
divide	יְחַלֵּ֥ק ye.cha.Lek	H2505	to be smooth (figuratively) · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
spoil	שָׁלָֽל sha.Lal	H7998	booty · noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Judges 20:21 And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand m…
Judges 20:25 And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen…
Genesis 35:18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.
Genesis 46:21 And the sons of Benjamin were Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard.
Numbers 23:24 Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and d…
Ezekiel 22:27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
Deuteronomy 33:12 And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall d…
Judges 3:15-29 But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthande…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 49:22-27

He closes with the blessings of his best beloved sons, Joseph and Benjamin; with these he will breathe his last. I. The blessing of Joseph, which is very large and full. He is compared (Gen 49:22) to a fruitful bouth, or young tree; for God had made him fruitful in the land of his affliction; he owned it. Gen 41:52. His two sons were as branches of a vine, or other spreading plant, running over the wall. Note, God can make those fruitful, great comforts to themselves and others, who have been looked upon as dry and withered. More is recorded in the history concerning Joseph than concerning any other of Jacob's sons; and therefore what Jacob says of him is historical as well as prophetical. O…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 49:27

BENJAMIN (Gen 49:27-33) shall ravin like a wolf--This tribe in its early history spent its energies in petty or inglorious warfare and especially in the violent and unjust contest (Jdg. 19:1-20:48), in which it engaged with the other tribes, when, notwithstanding two victories, it was almost exterminated.

Adam Clarke on Genesis 49:26

The blessing of thy father, etc. - The blessings which thy father now prays for and pronounces are neither temporal nor transitory; they shall exceed in their duration the eternal mountains, and in their value and spiritual nature all the conveniences, comforts, and delicacies which the everlasting hills can produce. They shall last when the heavens and the earth are no more, and shall extend throughout eternity. They are the blessings which shall be communicated to the world by means of the Messiah. The Jerusalem Targum paraphrases the place thus: "The blessing of this father shall be added unto the blessings wherewith thy fathers Abraham and Isaac, who are likened to mountains, have blesse…

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John Gill on Genesis 49:27

Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf,.... All the three Targums apply this prophecy to the priests offering the daily sacrifice, morning and evening, in the temple, which stood in the lot of Benjamin, and dividing what was left, and eating it. But it respects the tribe itself, compared to a wolf for its fortitude, courage, and valour, as well as for its rapaciousness, it being a warlike tribe; and the Jewish writers (q) say, that it is compared to a wolf, because of its strength. Wolves, said to be devoted to Mars, are called "martial" wolves by Virgil (r) and Horace (s); and we have an early instance of the valour and success of this tribe in a war waged with all the other tribes, and in two pitc…

The Church Fathers

[This refers to] Paul, who was a wolf to the wolves and snatched all souls away from the evil one. And "in the evening he will divide what he seizes," that is, at the end of the world he will also rest with a reward greater than his labors.
— Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 43:11

This thoroughly suits Paul, who was of the tribe of Benjamin. For when he was young, he was a ravening wolf; but when he believed, he "apportioned" food. This also is shown us by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the tribe of Benjamin is among the first persecutors, which is the sense of "in the morning." For Saul, who was of the tribe of Benjamin, persecuted David, who was appointed to be a type of the Lord.
— Hippolytus of Rome, Hippolytus Exegetical Fragments

"At evening he will divide the food." The evening is that final time when Paul is converted. Thus we also call evening the time of our conversion in which we are now. Then he will divide the food, then he understands that in the law it is necessary to divide the letter from the spirit and will know that "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." Since after being enlightened by the grace of the Lord, Paul begins to divide and separate in the law the spiritual realities from the corporeal ones, he is said to divide the food at evening. In fact, although meditating all day long on the law, he had not done that before.
— Tyrannius Rufinus, THE BLESSINGS OF THE PATRIARCHS 2.29

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Benjamin — Son of my right hand. (1.) The younger son of Jacob by Rachel (Gen. 35:18). His birth took place at Ephrath, on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem, at a short distance from the latter place. His…
Wolf — Heb. zeeb, frequently referred to in Scripture as an emblem of treachery and cruelty. Jacob’s prophecy, “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf” (Gen. 49:27), represents the warlike character of that tribe…
B · Unclean: Wolf — Unclean: Wolf
Benjamin · .Prophecy concerning — .Prophecy concerning
Benjamin, Tribe Of · Predictions respecting — Predictions respecting
Children · Male: Received the blessing of their father before his death — Male: Received the blessing of their father before his death
Patriarchal Government · Exercised in: Blessing and cursing their children — Exercised in: Blessing and cursing their children
Tribes Of Israel, The · Predictions respecting each of — Predictions respecting each of
Wolf · Ravenous — Ravenous
Wolf, The · Rapacious nature of — Rapacious nature of

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Genesis 49:27

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 49:22-27

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 49:27

Adam Clarke on Genesis 49:26

John Gill on Genesis 49:27

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Genesis 49:27

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 49:22-27

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 49:27

Adam Clarke on Genesis 49:26

John Gill on Genesis 49:27

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Genesis 49:27

Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 49:27

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 49:27

Rashi on Genesis 49:25