Genesis 49:7
in Genesis 49Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Genesis 49
Commentary
11 notes on this verse(Verse 7) Cursed be their fury, for it is stubborn; and their anger, for it is harsh. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. For Levi did not receive his own inheritance, but had a few cities to dwell in among all the tribes. As for Simeon, it is written in the Book of Joshua (19) that he did not even receive a portion of land as his own, but received something from the tribe of Judah.
This site's exposition
Simeon and Levi are brothers
on Genesis 49:5-7
Simeon and Levi are taken together for what they did at Shechem in Genesis 34. Their swords are called weapons of violence, and the curse falls on their anger and their wrath. The sentence on both is to be dispersed in Jacob and scattered in Israel. Joshua 21 gives Levi towns among every tribe.
This site's exposition
Cursed be their anger
The curse falls on the anger and the wrath, and the two brothers go uncursed. Simeon's lot lay inside Judah's territory at Joshua 19:1 and 19:9. Levi's scattering became the priestly service that began at Exodus 32:26 to 29.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Read the gospel and you will find it written down; the scribes were from the tribe of Simeon, and the high priests from that of Levi. Since the decision to arrest the Christ and to execute him was taken in their council, the prophet foreknowing that said, "O my soul, come not into their council!" In this passage he talks about the council where they took their decisions by searching for a reason through which they might accuse Christ, so that "they took counsel together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him." And Isaiah says the same: "Woe to their soul, for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying, 'Let us bind the just one, for he is burdensome to us.'
God forbid, Jacob is saying, that I should share their evil intent or associate myself with their unjust doings. "Because in the heat of their passion they slew people"; their rage turned irrational.… After all, even if Shechem had sinned, there was no need to turn their thirst for blood against everyone. "And in their fury they cut down a bull"; there is reference here to the son of Hamor, calling him a bull because of his hot-blooded maturity.
Then, in a reference to their crimes Jacob applies a curse in the words "Cursed be their rage for its ferocity and their frenzy for its willfulness": this touches on the stratagem they employed in deceiving the inhabitants of Shechem and imposed on them by guile. Their rage was "ferocious," he says, headstrong, irrational. "Their frenzy is cursed for its willfulness." When the Shechemites came to believe they had won great favor with them, then it was that Simeon and Levi vented their baleful frenzy and deployed the tactics of a foe against them. Referring to their exploit as sins, he foretells as well the punishment for it that awaits them: "I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." They will be scattered in all directions so that this very thing will be obvious to everyone, namely, that they had persisted in committing this crime out of bravado.
Likewise, when he said to Simeon and Levi, "I will divide you in Jacob and scatter you in Israel," he revealed that they were to be redeemed in the gathering together of the nations. For when the shepherd has been struck down, the flock that was previously brought together is scattered; thus one who did not belong could enter in and all Israel could be saved.
As for the historical account, it seems that in this passage [Simeon and Levi] are reproached because, through deceit and fraud, they slaughtered Shechem, the son of Hamor, who after sleeping with their sister had tried to associate himself with the family of Israel. They also destroyed the whole people [of Shechem], so that Israel himself, their father, said to them, "You made me odious in this world." Therefore he curses their cruelty and their recklessness and declares he will scatter them amid the people of Israel, and that from them the Levites and the priests who do not have their own inheritance of land will descend.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Cursed be their anger - Not their persons. We ought always in the expressions of our zeal carefully to distinguish between the sinner and the sin, so as not to love or bless the sin for the sake of the person, nor to hate or curse the person for the sake of the sin.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce,.... It was sinful anger in the nature of it, and so criminal and detestable; it was strong, fierce, and furious in its operation and effects, and so justly cursed; not their persons, but their passions: and their wrath, for it was cruel; it issued in the cruel and barbarous slaughter of the inhabitants of Shechem; the same thing as before in other words repeated, to express his great abhorrence of their wrath and rage.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Cursed was their anger - The first motions of their violence were savage; and their excessive or overflowing wrath, עברה ebrah, for it was inflexible - neither the supplications of the males, nor the entreaties, tears, cries, and shrieks of the helpless females, could deter them from their murderous purpose; for this, Gen 49:5, they are said to have accomplished. I will divide them out, אחלקם achallekem, I will make them into lots, giving a portion of them to one tribe, and a portion to another; but they shall never attain to any political consequence. This appears to have been literally fulfilled. Levi had no inheritance except forty-eight cities, scattered through different parts of the land of Canaan: and as to the tribe of Simeon, it is generally believed among the Jews that they became schoolmasters to the other tribes; and when they entered Canaan they had only a small portion, a few towns and villages in the worst part of Judah’s lot, Jos 19:1, which afterwards finding too little, they formed different colonies in districts which they conquered from the Idumeans and Amalekites, 1Ch 4:39, etc. Thus these two tribes were not only separated from each other, but even divided from themselves, according to this prediction of Jacob. 8. Judah! thou! Thy brethren shall praise thee. Thy hand, in the neck of thine enemies: The sons of thy father shall bow themselves to thee. 9. A lion’s whelp is Judah: From the prey, my son, thou hast ascended, He couched, lying down like a strong lion And like a lioness; who shall arouse him? 10. From Judah the scepter shall not depart, Nor a teacher from his offspring, Until that Shiloh shall come, And to him shall be assembled the peoples. 11. Binding his colt to the vine, And to the choice vine the foals of his ass, He washed his garments in wine, His clothes in the blood of the grape.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָר֤וּר | ʾarur | [be] cursed | H779 → | 63 times |
| אַפָּם֙ | ʾapam | anger their | H639 → | 276 times |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| עָ֔ז | ʾaz | fierce | H5794 → | |
| וְעֶבְרָתָ֖ם | veevratam | and wrath their | H5678 → | |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| קָשָׁ֑תָה | kashatah | it is hard | H7185 → | 28 times |
| אֲחַלְּקֵ֣ם | ʾachalekem | I will divide them | H2505 → | 65 times |
| בְּיַעֲקֹ֔ב | beyaako | in Jacob | H3290 → | 350 times |
| וַאֲפִיצֵ֖ם | vaafitzem | and I will scatter them | H6327 → | 67 times |
| בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ ס | beyisrael | in Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
אָר֤וּר[be] cursed
ʾarurH779 →63 times
אַפָּם֙anger their
ʾapamH639 →276 times
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
עָ֔זfierce
ʾazH5794 →
וְעֶבְרָתָ֖םand wrath their
veevratamH5678 →
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
קָשָׁ֑תָהit is hard
kashatahH7185 →28 times
אֲחַלְּקֵ֣םI will divide them
ʾachalekemH2505 →65 times
בְּיַעֲקֹ֔בin Jacob
beyaakoH3290 →350 times
וַאֲפִיצֵ֖םand I will scatter them
vaafitzemH6327 →67 times
בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ סin Israel
beyisraelH3478 →2507 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
2 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Samuel 13:15Then Amnon hated Tamar with such intensity that his hatred was greater than the love he previously had. “Get up!” he said to her. “Be gone!”
it leads to
- Ezekiel 23:17
Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. But after she had been defiled by them, she turned away in disgust.
- Ezekiel 23:17
Through
1 Chronicles 6:65They assigned by lot the cities named above from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.
it leads to
- 1 Chronicles 6:57–60
So the descendants of Aaron were given Hebron (a city of refuge), Libnah, Jattir, Eshtemoa,
- 1 Chronicles 6:57–60
Where this verse is studied
About Genesis
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, On the Blessings of the Patriarchs; Hippolytus of Rome, ON THE BLESSINGS OF ISAAC AND JACOB 14; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON GENESIS 67.7; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Tyrannius Rufinus, THE BLESSINGS OF THE PATRIARCHS 2.7.