Genesis 49:22

Gen. 49:22. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even," etc. The word which is translated "branches," properly signifies "daughters," and the word which is translated "wall," signifies both a "wall" and an "enemy;" so that the words may be translated either, "whose branches run over the wall," or, "whose daughters go over to the enemy." But let it be translated either of the ways, the event referred to, doubtless, is the tribe of Benjamin's being supplied with wives. For their wives that they were supplied with from Jabesh-Gilead were of this tribe, for Jabesh-Gilead was in the half-tribe of Manasseh; and the daughters of Shiloh, which they catched when they came out in dances, were of the tribe of Ephraim, for Shiloh was in that tribe. Thus their daughters went over to the enemy, or tribe of Benjamin, who were enemies to the other tribes of Israel, in that war in which their women and most of the men were destroyed. Thus, also, the branches or daughters of this fruitful bough or vine ran over the wall. As the whole people of Israel are several times in Scripture compared to a vineyard, so here a particular tribe in Israel seems to be compared to a distinct enclosure of fruit-trees or vineyard that was walled in (as vineyards were wont to be), and so separated from other vineyards. Joseph is compared here to an exceeding flourishing bough or vine, whose daughters or branches run over the wall and get out of the enclosure and run into another vineyard. In that it is said his branches run over the wall, and the same word that signifies branches, also signifying (and more properly signifying) daughters; it seems to show which way his branches shall run over the wall - viz., by his daughters breaking over the enclosure or limits of the tribe and going to another tribe.

Gen. 49:24