Genesis 49:18

I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord— Various have been the reasons assigned by commentators, for the introduction of this ejaculation. Some suppose, that the good old patriarch's spirits growing faint, he sighed for a happy deliverance out of this world. Some, that, referring to Samson in the former verse, his ideas were carried to a better salvation, even that of the Messiah: and others think, that, foreseeing the oppressions under which this tribe was to labour, he breathed out this prayer for their deliverance. The ingenious interpretation, which Bishop Sherlock has given of it, (Dissert. 3:) seems perfectly satisfactory, and is therefore subjoined: "The difficulty here, at least the main difficulty, is, to give an account of the propriety of this passionate wish for salvation, in the present connection. It has evidently relation to the prophecy concerning Dan, and the exposition ought to shew and preserve the relation: and yet, according to the common interpretations, this passage might as well stand after the blessing of Gad, Asher, Naphtali, or any other of the tribes, as after this prophecy concerning the tribe of Dan. They who refer the salvation here mentioned to the deliverance wrought by Samson descended from the house of Dan, do also expound the prophecy to relate to him and his victory; so far judging right, that the prophecy and the epiphonema ought to terminate in the same point of view. But how comes Samson to be thus distinguished? Israel had many other judges and deliverers descended from other tribes, many of them, in all respects, bodily strength only excepted, preferable to this strong Danite: of them there is no notice taken in the prophecy of Jacob, nor of the salvation which God, by their means, wrought in Israel. Besides, in what sense had Jacob waited for this salvation? and how, for this, rather than twenty others of the same kind, which happened to his posterity? The words plainly imply him to speak something which had been long the object of his heart's desire; the thought of which came strong upon him, when he prophetically beheld the fortune of this tribe. Further, the images here used, of serpent and adder, are odious, and very improper to describe a brave or gallant man in any circumstance of life; nor are they, as I remember, ever so used in the sacred writers. It cannot be reasonable therefore to look for the accomplishment of this prophecy among the actions of the tribe of Dan, deserving honour and praise; for the ideas, by which the prediction is conveyed, point out actions of another kind, and lead us to expect, in the history of this tribe, an account of some very dishonourable and perfidious transaction. The history will justify this expectation: for though the house of Israel stands recorded for a wilful and disobedient people, whose heart was not right with their God, yet it is the peculiar infamy of the house of Dan, to be the ringleaders in idolatry, the first who erected publicly a molten image in the land of Promise, and, by their example and perseverance in this iniquity, infected all the tribes of Israel. This idolatry began soon after the days of Joshua, and continued until the day of the captivity of the land, Judges 8:30. compared with Archbishop Usher's Annals.

Supposing this to be the view before the prophets eyes, in what terms more proper could he describe this new tempter and seducer, than by those which were commonly used to describe the first? If the first Tempter deserved the name of serpent, for drawing Adam and Eve from their obedience to the original law, in virtue of which they held the possession of Paradise; did Dan deserve it less, for drawing the people of Israel from obedience to the Divine law, in virtue of which they had but even then taken possession of the land of Promise? If the mischiefs brought upon the race of Adam, were justly represented by the serpent's bruising the heel of the woman's seed; did not the mischiefs brought upon the house of Israel by the idolatry of Dan, well deserve to be painted in colours of the same kind? and, when Jacob saw that the venom of the old Serpent would work in one of his own sons even to the utter ruin of his posterity, could he help looking back upon God's promise of deliverance, and the hope given that the serpent's head should be bruised? could this view, and this reflection together, be attended with any other sentiments than those which close this prophecy? I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!

This prophecy, considered in this light, affords a very ancient evidence of the expectation of deliverance from the curse of the fall. The hope of salvation, here, manifestly relates to the mischief wrought by a serpent biting the heels: and though this image is used to foretel a mischief then to come, yet the hope was older than Jacob, had been his comfort all along, and was his comfort under the sad prospect he had of his children's iniquity.

Lay these circumstances together, and it is impossible to conceive any salvation which can answer to these ideas, but that only which arose from the promise, that 'the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head.'"