De benedictionibus Jacob patriarchae. Aliud exemplar.

On the Blessings of the Patriarch Jacob. Another Copy. The sacrosanct and prophetic blessing of the holy Patriarchs, which was distributed through the Holy Spirit and the mouth of the blessed Jacob to each according to his fitting quality, cannot be understood entirely in a literal sense, especially since the same blessed Patriarch says, “That I may announce to you what is to come in the last days” (Gen. 49:1); nor should it be so diminished through an allegorical sense that the historical sense must be entirely voided, because certain things, as we shall see later, were predicted to them in such a way that some came to pass soon after, some much later; yet many of them have been reserved for the end. Therefore, what we can understand historically in the words themselves, first laying foundations, as it were, with the Lord’s gift, let us set forth briefly; but those things that utterly shun the letter, let us discuss through spiritual understanding, as they are to be grasped with a spiritual intellect.

Concerning Reuben. Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my sorrow: first in gifts, greater in command (Gen. 49:3). The literal sense is clear, because the blessed Jacob received Reuben as his first son from his wife Leah; if he had conducted himself worthily of such a father, the primogeniture and the kingdom would have pertained to him. Hence he calls him his firstborn, as one to whom the firstborn gifts were owed; but he also names him his strength, because the power of rule ought to have devolved upon him. He did not, however, utter these things indicatively because he either foresaw or willed that they would be so, but in order to exhort him through these words to repentance, when he recalled from how great a dignity he had fallen by sinning. Hence he says, "and the beginning of my sorrow" (Gen. 49:3); for the beginning of that sorrow was he who, having broken the reins of chastity, rushed unbridled to defile his father's wife—a matter which is believed to have stung him with no small grief. It is well said that this one is the beginning of sorrow, because the other brothers were also accused by the blessed Joseph before their father of a most wicked crime. As for what he says, "first in gifts" (Gen. 49:3), this pertains to the primogeniture which was owed to him as firstborn; and what he adds, "greater in command" (Gen. 49:3), clearly declares that it pertained to him that kings of the remaining brothers should be created from his seed. As for what he says, "you have poured forth like water" (Gen. 49:4).

4), this is the sense: Just as water not contained by a vessel flows in every direction, and where a lower place offers itself as more humble, it falls with its full force, so you restrained your conjugal lust by no measure, but wherever the impulse of pleasure enticed you, there you poured out the bilge of your concupiscence. When he adds, "you shall not increase" (Ibid.), he forbids him from such and similar turpitude in the future. Whence also the Lord to Cain: "You have sinned, be still" (Gen. 4:7, according to the LXX). But whither these things tend, the following words testify: because you ascended your father's bed and defiled his couch (Gen. 49:4). For by these words the crime of incest, which he had committed against Bala, his father's concubine, is clearly exaggerated, lest it seem violent to anyone because of what was set forth above. I will announce to you what is to come in the last days: let him hear what the book of Chronicles says about this matter: "The sons also of Reuben, this firstborn of Israel" (1 Chron. 5:3): he indeed was his firstborn; but when he had violated his father's bed, his firstborn rights were given to the sons of Joseph, the sons of Israel, and he was not counted as firstborn. Typologically, however, this Reuben, the firstborn, designates the Jewish people, who were the firstborn of God, according to what the Lord said to Moses about him: "My firstborn son is Israel" (Exod. 4:22). And blessed Jeremiah: "Israel is holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest" (Jer.

II, 3): That was his strength, when among the patriarchs and prophets and all other most valiant men he fought bravely against idolatry and the impure throng of all vices, which nevertheless preexisted as the beginning of his grief 3, when, with the Savior arriving, he remained in unbelief and, with a swollen mind, refused to accept his teaching. Hence the Lord, seeing the city of Jerusalem, is said to have wept; and at the raising of Lazarus, he is reported to have shed tears for the blindness of that people. But when it is said, "first in gifts," it is shown that this same people preceded in gifts bestowed by God, while the Church of the Gentiles was to follow, which would be granted the same and much greater charisms. When he adds, "greater in authority," it is not surprising that this same people, which first believed by the prerogative of the fathers, is honored: since the blessed apostle Paul declares that the Jew is much more in every way. Meanwhile, he adds, "you have poured forth like water," considering in his mind the unbridledness of that people, who were by no means restrained by the measure of the law and divine precepts 4, but, having cast off all the bonds of God's commandments, poured forth the streams of their speech with full effort into the murder of the Savior. For that water signifies good or evil speech, divine Scripture is witness, which says in a good sense: "Deep water, words from a man's mouth" (Prov. 18:4), and likewise in an evil sense: "He who lets water loose is the head of quarrels.

What he adds, "Do not increase," shows that this same people, as we see with our own eyes, is diminished to a very small number among all nations. But why it has suffered this, the following words testify: "because you ascended the bed of your father and defiled his couch." By "the bed of your father" he intimates the flesh of the Savior; nor is it surprising that "the bed of his father" means the Gentiles and the Lord's body, because this same people was created by him. For it is written of him, "All things were made through him" (John 1:3). By "couch," however, the same body is understood, which was defiled, as it were, by the Jews when, at their outcry, the Lord was suspended on the cross, pierced through with a lance, and drenched with his own blood. THE SECOND PATRIARCH, SIMEON. "Simeon and Levi are vessels of iniquity, warlike" (Gen. 49:5). The literal sense is clear, because these two brothers, to avenge their sister's rape, having feigned peace and false friendships, deceived Shechem and his father Hamor, whom he calls "vessels of iniquity, warlike," because it was very iniquitous to have pretended friendship and afterwards to have betrayed it. "Let my soul not come into their council" (ibid. 6), that is, cursing every feigned peace. Whence also the blessed David imprecates such things against all such false persons, "who speak peace with their neighbor, but have evil in their hearts. Give them according to their works" (Ps. 27:3-4). What he adds, "and in their assembly let there be no glory for me" (Gen.

(Gen. 49:6) he certainly did not wish to glory in such a victory, which was more a slaughter, in which the virtue of a warrior could not be praised, but rather the deceit of a deceiver could be exposed. "Because in your fury they killed the Syrian, and in their will they undermined the wall" (Ibid.). By the man Shechem must be understood, and through him all those who were killed on his account (Gen. 34 ff.). The undermining of the wall, however, is not read in the book of Genesis to have been perpetrated there.