The son of Jacob, by Leah. (Genesis 30:14-18) His name signifies a price of hire; and so it is rendered in the margin of our Bibles, derived from Shachar, a price. The most remarkable circumstance in the history of Issachar, is his father's prophetical blessing of him. (Genesis 49:14-15) "Issachar (said the dying patriarch) is a strong ass, couching down between two burthens; and he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and become a servant into tribute." If the sense of this passage (as most of the other blessings Jacob when a-dying bequeathed to his children are) be spiritual, there is much of Jesus, and his person and salvation in it. Issachar, like all true Israelites, bends between the two burthens of sin and sorrow, for they are inseparable; and no rest but Jesus can be found, to deliver from the dreadful pressure. He is, indeed, "the rest wherewith he causeth the weary to rest" from the burden. Easy will be the tribe of a redeemed heart to the Lord, to bless him for his mercy. We find similar beauties in the blessing of Moses, the man of God, over Issachar, if explained in the same gospel-sense. (See Deuteronomy 33:18-19)