Genesis 49:22

22. The son of a fruitful (vine) is Joseph;

The son of a fruitful (vine) by the fountain:

The daughters (branches) shoot over the wall.

23. They sorely afflicted him and contended with him;

The chief archers had him in hatred.

24. But his bow remained in strength,

And the arms of his hands were made strong

By the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob:

By the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.

25. By the God of thy father, for he helped thee;

And God All-sufficient, he blessed thee,

The blessing of the heavens from above,

And the blessings lying in the deep beneath,

The blessings of the breasts and of the womb

26. The blessings of thy father have prevailed

Over the blessings of the eternal mountains,

And the desirable things of the everlasting hills.

These shall be on the head of Joseph,

And on his crown who was separated from his brethren.

Verse Genesis 49:22. The sum of a fruitful vine] This appears to me to refer to Jacob himself, who was blessed with such a numerous posterity that in two hundred and fifteen years after this his own descendants amounted to upwards of 600,000 effective men; and the figures here are intended to point out the continual growth and increase of his posterity. Jacob was a fruitful tree planted by a fountain, which because it was good would yield good fruit; and because it was planted near a fountain, from being continually watered, would be perpetually fruitful. The same is used and applied to Jacob, Deuteronomy 33:28: The FOUNTAIN of JACOB shall be upon a land of corn, and wine, c.

The daughters, בנות banoth, put here for branches, shoot over or run upon the wall.] Alluding probably to the case of the vine, which requires to be supported by a wall, trees, c. Some commentators have understood this literally, and have applied it to the Egyptian women, who were so struck with the beauty of Joseph as to get upon walls, the tops of houses, c., to see him as he passed by. This is agreeable to the view taken of the subject by the Koran. Genesis 39:6.