49:9 couched. That is, “crouched down” or “laid down.”

49:10 not depart from Judah. This important prophecy has been strikingly fulfilled. Although Judah was neither Jacob’s firstborn son nor his favorite son nor the son who would produce the priestly tribe, he was the son through whom God would fulfill His promises to Israel and to the world. The leadership, according to Jacob, was to go to Judah, but this did not happen for over six hundred years. Moses came from Levi, Joshua from Ephraim, Gideon from Manasseh, Samson from Dan, Samuel from Ephraim and Saul from Benjamin. But when David finally became king, Judah held the sceptre and did not relinquish it until after Shiloh came. Shiloh, of course, is a name for the Messiah, probably related to the Hebrew word for “peace” (shalom) and meaning in effect “the one who brings peace.”