On the Blessings of the Patriarchs

1. Jacob Calls His Sons to Prophesy Their Future

This blessing being celebrated, he also called his sons. And he who before had preferred the younger to the elder, began now with the firstborn, so that in the former case he might grant the grace of mystery, in this he might preserve the order of age; and likewise, whereas before in the two he had blessed all together with the whole posterity and progeny of those to come, lest either the repeated blessing of the people should seem superfluous, or the earlier one should be reckoned as weak. And rightly does he say that he confers rather a renewed announcement of things to come in later times than a blessing.

2. Reuben Rebuked for Defiling His Father's Bed

Thus he began: “Reuben, my firstborn, thou art my strength, and the beginning of my sons, hard to be borne, hard and rash, thou hast afflicted me with contumely; boil not over like water. For thou didst go up upon thy father’s bed; then didst thou defile the couch when thou didst go up”. Does this not seem rather a rebuke than a blessing? And therefore it is prophecy rather than blessing. For prophecy is the announcement of things to come, but blessing is the votive bestowal of sanctification and of graces.

3. Refuting the Concubine Interpretation of Reuben's Words

And the Jews think that the old man says this to his son Reuben for this reason, because he lay with Bala, his father’s concubine, and defiled his father’s couch. But they are easily refuted; for that had already been done before: whereas Jacob promises that he will tell what shall come to pass in the latter days, not what had already been done. Therefore the sentence is fitting and consistent with the Patriarch, who, foreseeing, in the persecuting Jews, the future passion of the Lord, execrates the monstrous audacity of the firstborn people, who, unbelieving and not subject to the law of God, and, not knowing how to bear the yoke of Christ with stubborn neck, inflicted upon the Author of life not only the crime of murder, but also the injury of sacrilegious insult.

4. The People's Violence Against Christ Foretold

“Boil not over,” he says, “like water,” lest it break forth into greater madness, and the fervor of fury and insanity not permit sinners to come to their senses; but let them do penance for their sins; since the hard-necked people went up upon their father’s couch, and defiled the sacred bed—that is, fastening to the gibbet of the cross the flesh of the Lord Jesus our Creator, in which, as it were in a certain bed and paternal couch, His saints may rest in salutary refreshment. Who, then, would deny that this was spoken of the people, since all these things agree with the people? For it itself is called the firstborn of Israel; it itself is of stiff neck. Of it Moses said: “But you are a stiff-necked people”.

And indeed who was ever so hard and rash and contumelious as the people of the Jews, who scourged with whips and fastened with nails the Lord Jesus, by whom they had seen the dead raised, the blind given sight—when they could not deny his divine works? Which the sequence of the Gospel declares was committed with the scribes and the chief priests as authors, and the prince of priests, Caiaphas, likewise raging. And therefore the holy Prophet shrinks from the headship of so great a crime, lest through succession of race they should dare to arrogate to themselves fellowship with so great a Patriarch.

1. Jacob Condemns the Violence of Simeon and Levi

The just man protests, and disowns the posterity that would not preserve fatherly affection; and because he foresaw the crime, he shudders at the contagion of their counsel: “Into their counsel,” he says, “let not my soul come, and into their assembly let not my heart be joined; for in their wrath they slew a man, and in their self-will they houghed an ox”. What he says, he says indeed concerning the sons Simeon and Levi; but under their names he signifies the Tribes, which were called by a similar appellation.

Which most beautiful interpretation the Jews derive; so that they think he rebukes the sons of Jacob for this reason: that, because of the outrage on their sister, these two, above the other brothers, desiring to take vengeance on the Sichemites, pretended that they wished to enter into friendship with them, and therefore persuaded them that they ought to be circumcised; so that by a concord of religion peace might be established between them, and the fellowship of an alliance to be received might be confirmed: but attacking them when circumcised, while their wounds were still fresh and their strength weakened, which the pain had dissolved, on the third day following they slew them, broken as they were. And perhaps for this reason these two were avengers before the rest, because they are the authors of the scribes and priests. For none more than the wise and the priests ought to vindicate chastity.

2. A Defense of Simeon and Levi's Vengeance

But in this too the Jews err. For these gave their father causes for his grief, asserting that they, even at that youthful age, had been avengers of wounded piety, and vindicators of violated chastity. Which surely the saint could not condemn, since they did not suffer their sister to remain, unavenged, in the place of a harlot, who had both lost her virginity and had no solace of vengeance; especially since he himself so approved the deed as to take possession of Sichem, and at his death to bestow it upon his most beloved son Joseph, saying to him: “I give thee Sichem as a special portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow”. Which deed cannot be denied. Yet we may interpret that by Sichem the shoulders are signified, and by the shoulders, works. Therefore he chose holy Joseph, before the rest, as heir of good works, whose works his brothers could not equal. For who could match the deeds of Christ?

3. Sichem Transformed from Vice to Chastity

Then besides, unstained and chaste, he carried off spoils from this earthly lodging and from the authors of impurity, seizing with heavenly words and spiritual sword a place vacant for debaucheries and crimes, for the dwelling of saints; so that where before dwelt the abodes and princes of wantonness, where had been the incitements of lust and the fomentations of wickedness, there now holy priests might teach the disciplines of chastity, and very many examples of virginal integrity might shine forth with a certain radiance of heavenly light.

4. Simeon and Levi as Types of the Scribes and Priests

Tribes, then, are designated by the names of the Patriarchs, since from the Tribe of Simeon come the scribes, from the Tribe of Levi the chief priests, who fulfilled their wickedness in the Passion of the Lord, filling up the whole measure of their fathers’ impiety. They took counsel against the Lord Jesus that they might slay him, as Isaiah says: “Woe to their soul; for they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the just man, for he is unprofitable to us”. They slew the prophets and the apostles who announced the coming of the Lord the Saviour, preaching the glory of his Passion and Resurrection.

They afterward, in their own self-will, by which they desired earthly wickednesses, fleeing from divine fellowship, houghed the ox—that is, chastity of body, sobriety of mind, contempt of money, the gain of grace—that ox, namely, putting forth horns and hoofs, whom the poor see and rejoice; for by the word of God he has exalted the horn of his people, whereby he has both repelled enemies and earned the reward of the heavenly crown. This is the ox by which the Church is figured in the moon, when, fuller, resting as it were upon horns like a bull's, she encloses the whole space of the world.

5. Levi's Scattering as a Promise to the Gentiles

Nevertheless he seems also to join the grace of blessing to this prophecy. For, in saying to the firstborn Reuben: “Boil not over like water,” he sets forth the sin; because water is rather wont to cleanse sins, and to recall our minds from every ferment of vice. And again, saying to Simeon and Levi: “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel,” he shows that they are to be redeemed by the gathering-in of the gentiles. For, the shepherd being struck, that flock which had before been gathered was scattered; so that he who was not a people might enter in, and thus all Israel might be saved. And we ought to believe this especially concerning the Tribe of Levi; because from that Tribe the Lord Jesus appears to derive his lineage according to the assumption of his body. From which tribe are the priests Levi and Nathan, whom holy Luke, in the book of the Gospel which he himself wrote, reckoned among the ancestors of the Lord.

For the Priest of the Father and Prince of all priests, as it is written: “Thou art a priest for ever”, was bound to claim the succession of a priestly origin.

6. Moses Confirms the Blessings of Levi and Reuben

Whence also Moses blessed this Tribe, saying: “Give to Levi his lot of his suffrage, and his truth to the holy one”. Moses also blessed the Tribe of Reuben, as you have it written: “Let Reuben live and not die, and let him be many in number”. For he would not have blessed him, had he known him unworthy of blessing according to the sentence of the Patriarch. Certainly what the one passed over briefly, the other completed.

1. Judah's Blessing as King and Priest Foretold

And because, through the intermixture of lineage, the Tribes of Judah and Levi were joined, therefore Matthew describes his family from the Tribe of Judah. And the Apostle says: “For our Lord sprang out of Judah”. So that from the Tribe of Levi a priestly and full-of-sanctity inheritance might be reckoned; and from the Tribe of Judah, from which David and Solomon and the rest of the kings sprang, the splendor of royal succession might shine forth; so that the same one might be shown, by the testimony of the Scriptures, to be both king and priest. And rightly did holy Jacob pour himself out concerning the grace of Judah, saying: “Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hands shall be upon the back of thine enemies; the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the shoot, my son, thou art gone up. Reposing, thou hast slept as a lion, and as a lion’s whelp; who shall rouse him up?

There shall not fail a ruler out of Judah, and a prince from his loins, until he come to whom it is reserved; and he shall be the expectation of nations, binding his ass’s colt to the vine, and his ass’s foal to the choice vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his mantle in the blood of the grape. His eyes shall be more cheerful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk”.

2. Christ's Triumph Over His Enemies Prefigured in Judah

To Judah the patriarch indeed the address seems to be directed, but that later Judah, the true confessor, is expressed, who was born of that Tribe, who alone is praised by his brothers, of whom he says: I will declare thy name to my brethren. Lord by nature, brother by grace, whose hands he spread out to the unbelieving people, upon the back of his enemies. For with those same hands, and by that same passion, he covered his own, and subjugated the adversary powers, and made subject to himself all who are without part in faith and piety. Of whom the Father says to the Son: And thou shalt rule in the midst of thy enemies: whom their own malice made enemies, not the will of Christ. In this is the great grace of the Lord.

For the spiritual wickednesses which used to bend our neck before under the yoke of captivity, so that David himself wrote that he felt, as it were, the hands of those triumphing over him, saying: Upon my back have the sinners wrought, these same, now made subject to the triumph of Christ, and subjected to certain hands of his, that is, to his deeds and works, undergo the hardship of perpetual captivity. He indeed who is adored by the sons of his father, is adored also by us, to whom he himself has permitted that we call him Father, whose servant it is a virtue to be.

3. Lion and Whelp as Signs of the Son's Equality

Judah is a lion's whelp. Has he not clearly both expressed the Father and declared the Son? What is so evident, by which the Son of God is taught to be of one nature with the Father? He is the lion, this one the lion's whelp. By a lowly comparison the unity of the same nature and power is understood. King has come forth from king, the strong from the strong. Because he foresaw that there would be those who would assert the Son to be of a younger age, he meets them, adding: From the shoot, my son, thou hast gone up. Reclining thou hast slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp. And elsewhere you have it, that the whelp himself is the lion of the Tribe of Judah. Therefore, because he had said whelp, he rightly at once set down lion, that is to say: Let not your ears be taken, because they have heard "whelp"; I expressed the Son, I did not say lesser.

And he himself is a lion just as the father. Let them hear that he called him both lion and whelp: lion as of perfect and full virtue; whelp, as Son; lest anyone, when hearing him called equal to the Father, should not think him Son. The Son is not so praised that he be separated from the Father. He proves him equal, who confesses him Son.

4. The Rod of Jesse and Christ's Birth from the Virgin

Wonderfully too has he expressed his incarnation, saying: From the shoot, my son, thou hast gone up; for that as a shoot of the earth he sprouted in the womb of the Virgin, and as a flower of good odor, for the redemption of the whole world, he went up, sent forth from the maternal womb by the splendor of a new light, as Isaiah says: There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. The root is the family of the Jews, the rod is Mary, the flower of Mary is Christ. Rightly a rod, which is of royal stock, of the house and country of David, whose flower is Christ, who abolished the stench of the world's filth and poured in the odor of eternal life.

5. Christ's Death and Self-Wrought Resurrection

You have then the incarnation, receive now the passion: Reclining, he says, thou hast slept as a lion: when he lay in the tomb, at rest as it were in a kind of sleep of his body, as he himself says: I slept, and took my rest, and rose up; because the Lord upheld me. Whence also Jacob says: Who shall rouse him up? That is, whom the Lord will take up. Who else is there to raise him up again, except that he raises himself by his own and the Father's power? I see him born by his own authority, I see him dead by his own will, I see him sleeping by his own power. He who did all things at his own pleasure—of what other's help would he stand in need in order to rise again? He himself, therefore, is the author of his own resurrection, who is the arbiter of death, who is awaited by the nations.

6. The Unbroken Royal Line Until Christ's Coming

And therefore, until he comes, a ruler out of Judah shall not fail; so that up to his rising the faith of the royal succession may be kept uncorrupted. Afterward indeed, as we have taught in the treatise made upon the Gospel, through Herod the adulterated succession lost the prerogative of its dignity. For because they denied the true king, they began to have false ones. Therefore this which the Patriarch says will be preserved among the judges or kings of the Jews—the inheritance of unblemished succession carried through the kings: until he comes to whom it has been laid up; that he may gather the Church of God out of the assembly of all nations, and the devotion of the peoples of the Gentiles—that is, this awaits him alone, to him alone is the debt reserved, to him alone is the prerogative of so great a grace deferred.

7. Christ as the Bridegroom Awaited by the Nations

And he himself is the expectation of the nations. He said more than if he had said that the nations await him, in that the whole hope of the Church rests upon him. Therefore it is said to Moses: Loose the shoe from off thy feet, lest he himself should be believed to be the Bridegroom of the Church, who was being chosen as leader of the people. Therefore Jesus the son of Nun loosed his shoe, that he too might keep for the one who was to come the grace of so great a gift. Therefore John says: After me comes a man whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to loose. Therefore he says: He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy, that is, he alone is the Husband of the Church, he is the expectation of the nations. Deferring to him the union of nuptial grace, the prophets loosed their shoe.

There he is the bridegroom, I am the friend of the bridegroom: I rejoice because he has come, because I hear the nuptial voice, because now we have heard not the harsh punishments of sinners, the harsh torments of the Law, but the remission of crimes, the voice of gladness, the sound of joy, the exultation of the wedding feast.

8. The Ass's Colt Bound to the Vine of Christ

This is he who binds his ass to the vine, and to the tendril of the vine the colt of his ass; that the congregation of the nations, before careless and negligent, but now devoted through Christ, may have the fervor of the Holy Spirit, and to that everlasting Vine, that is, to the Lord Jesus, who says: I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman, we may be bound as fruitful branches by certain bonds of unbreakable faith. This is that mystery, that he ordered the colt of the ass to be loosed in the Gospel, and the Lord Jesus himself sat upon it, that, bound to the vine, it might rest in the perpetual sweetness of the saints.

9. Christ's Baptism and Passion as Robe Washed in Wine

He shall wash, it says, his robe in wine. A good robe is the flesh of Christ, which covered the sins of all, took upon itself the offenses of all, hid the errors of all. A good robe, which clothed all with the garment of gladness. He washed this robe in wine, when, being baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove, and remained upon him. By which it is signified that the fullness of the Holy Spirit was in him undivided, nor did it withdraw. Whence also the evangelist says: Because full of the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus returned from the Jordan. Jesus therefore washed his robe, not to cleanse his own filth, which was not his, but to wash away ours, which was ours. Then he added: And his cloak in the blood of the grape: that is, in the passion of his body he washed the nations with his blood.

For the nations are the cloak of the Word, as it is written: As I live, saith the Lord, unless I clothe them all as with a garment. And elsewhere: As a covering thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed. Therefore not his own sins, which were not, but our offenses, which we committed, did he cleanse with his own blood. And rightly did he say grape, because as a grape he hung upon the wood. He himself is the vine, he himself the grape. Vine, as clinging to the wood; grape, because the soldier's spear opened his side and sent forth water and blood. For thus John says, that there went out from him water and blood. Water for the washing, blood for the price. Water washes us, blood redeems us.

10. The Prophets and Apostles as Eyes and Teeth of Christ

And therefore the prophet says: His eyes are more cheerful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk, signifying the prophets and apostles. For some, as the eyes of Christ, foresaw and announced his coming, of whom he himself says: Abraham saw my day, and was glad. And one of the prophets says: I saw the Lord of Sabaoth: who, seeing him, were filled with spiritual joy. Others indeed, that is the apostles, whom the Lord cleansed from every stain of sins, were made whiter than milk, whom no blemish afterward darkened. For milk is temporal; but the grace of the apostles remains perpetual, who, preparing for us those spiritual and heavenly foods, fattened the inward parts of the mind. There are also those who think that the bright commandments of the Lord, which were brought forth from the divine mouth, were made for us like milk, being nourished by which we arrive at the sustenance of the heavenly bread. Whence also Paul says: I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for as yet you were not able.

He imbued the Corinthians at the beginning of their faith with a drink of milk. And those saints whose faith is proclaimed in the whole world, as if weaned, are strengthened with more solid food.

1. Zabulon by the Sea and His Name's Meaning

Zabulon shall dwell by the sea. And he himself is beside the landing-place of ships, and shall stretch even to Sidon. The very interpretation of the name promises better things; for the Latin rendering signifies deliverance from nocturnal things, which is certainly a good, and belongs to him who hopes under the wings of the Lord, whom his truth compasses about, that he fear not from the terror of the night, nor from the business that walketh about in darkness.

2. Zabulon's Dwelling by the Sea as a Figure of the Church

Here then Zabulon, he says, shall dwell by the sea; that he may see the shipwrecks of others, being himself free from danger, and may watch others tossed about in the strait of this world, who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, while he himself remains unmoved, rooted in faith, as the most holy Church is rooted and founded in faith, watching the storms of heretics, and the shipwrecks of the Jews, since they denied the pilot whom they had had. She dwells therefore about the waves, not moved by the waves, and is more prepared to bring help than liable to danger, so that if any, driven by heavy tempests, wish to flee to the harbor, the Church may be at hand as a harbor of safety, which, with outstretched arms, calls those in peril into the bosom of her tranquillity, showing them the place of a faithful anchorage.

Therefore Churches in this world, like harbors of the sea spread along the shores, meet those who labor, telling those who believe that a refuge is prepared, into which ships battered by the winds may draw themselves.

3. Princes of Zabulon and Nephthalim Bringing Light

In these Churches there are the princes of Zabulon, and the princes of Nephthalim, as the sixty-seventh psalm teaches, of whom some are liberators from the tempest of night, crying: Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light: others are of the apostolic breadth, who can say: Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged. These are they who, when they were in darkness, saw a great light, as the prophet testifies, saying: The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea beyond Jordan: the people that sat in darkness have seen a great light: to them that sat in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.

4. The Watch Extended to Sidon and the Forgiveness of Sinners

The Lord our God, therefore, has set as watchmen beside the landing-places of ships the heirs of this patriarch, whose wakeful care and spiritual succession stretches even to Sidon, that is, reaches even to the nations, that the mercy of the Lord may wash away the sins of the nations. For Sidon is the firstborn son of Ham, that Ham who, on account of irreverence toward his father's piety, was condemned by his father's curse. Therefore the nocturnal deliverance, set as it were on watch in a spiritual bulwark, that no one might strike upon the rocks of this life, stretches even to the sinners of the gravest crimes, and to the Sidonians themselves, who before, by fierce superstition, were called hunters of crimes, and, as the interpretation teaches, having loosed the inheritance of the curse, and being granted the inheritance of blessing, he absolved them; that where the guilt was greater, there now the grace might be more abundant.

1. Issachar's Desire for Rest and Good

Issachar desired that which is good, resting between the two lots, and seeing that rest is good, and that the land is fat: he put his shoulder to labor, and became a husbandman. Issachar is said to mean "reward," and therefore he is referred to Christ, who is our reward; because we purchase him for ourselves, for the hope of eternal salvation, not with gold, not with silver, but with faith and devotion. Whence also David says of him: Behold the inheritance of the Lord, sons are a reward, the fruit of the womb. And Moses says of him: A reward for those dwelling about the sea. This is he who desired the good from the beginning, and knew not how to desire that which is evil. Of whom Isaiah also says: Before the child shall know how to call father or mother, he did not believe in malice, choosing that which is good. He rested between the lots of the Old and New Testament, or in the midst of the prophets.

And therefore he appeared in the middle between Moses and Elias; that he might show us that he has his rest in their words, through whom very many, renouncing sins, believe in the living God: or that they themselves are witnesses of his resurrection and blessed rest.

2. Issachar's Shoulder Bent to the Cross

And so, that he might call the nations to the grace of his resurrection (for she herself is the rich and fertile earth, which brings forth eternal fruits, fruits a hundredfold and sixtyfold), he put his shoulder under the labor, subjecting himself to the cross, that he might bear our sins. And so the Prophet says: Whose beginning is upon his shoulder, that is, the power of divinity above the passion of the body, or the cross rising above the body. He set therefore his shoulder, bending to the plough, patient in undergoing all insults, so subjected to labor that he was wounded for our iniquities, and was made weak for our sins. And he became a husbandman, knowing how to sow his land with good grain, and to plant fruitful trees with deep root.

1. Dan as Judge and the Serpent in the Path

Dan shall judge his people, as also one of the tribes of Israel. And Dan became a serpent sitting in the way, and biting the heel of the horse in the path, and the rider shall fall backward, waiting for salvation from the Lord. The simple sense of this indeed is that Dan too gave a judge to the tribes of Israel. For after Joshua the son of Nun there were judges of the people from various tribes. And Samson was of the tribe of Dan, and he judged Israel twenty years. But prophecy does not signify this man, but the Antichrist who is to come from the tribe of Dan, a cruel judge and a savage tyrant, shall judge his people. Like a serpent in the way, sitting in the path, he will try to cast down those who walk the way of truth, desiring to trip up the truth.

For this is to bite the heel of the horse, that the horse, wounded by the outpouring of venom and injured by the serpent's tooth, might lift up its heel; just as Judas the traitor, tempted by the devil against the Lord Jesus, lifted up his heel, to cast down the rider, who cast himself down that he might raise up all. He fell, therefore, not prostrate upon his face as if slumbering, but backward, so that stretching himself from the higher things toward the former things, he might wait for salvation from the Lord. For he knew that he was to be raised again, and therefore he awaited raising up Adam who lay prostrate.

2. A Warning Against Spiritual Sleep and the Serpent's Bite

Whence we, when we run well on the way, should beware lest anywhere a serpent lie hidden in the path, and undermine the footstep of the horse, that is, of our body, and suddenly cast down the sleeping rider. For if we watch, we ought to be somewhat cautious, and avoid the bites of the serpent. Let not the sleep of negligence oppress us, then, the sleep of the world, let not the sleep of riches oppress us; lest of us too it be said: They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing. But there are also sleeping riders, of whom it is written: They that mounted the horses have slumbered. If avarice wounds your breast, if lust inflames it, you sleep, O rider, and therefore you cannot rein in your body, that is, your horse. Watch, therefore, so that even if you should be cast down, that is, should die, you may not fall asleep. For they who sleep their sleep find nothing.

But do you wait for salvation from the Lord, look for it as coming, that you may find the grace of the resurrection. Judas was sleeping: for indeed he did not hear the words of Christ. Judas was sleeping, and indeed the sleep of riches, he who sought a reward from betrayal. The devil saw him sleeping, and oppressed by the heavy sleep of avarice: he cast himself into his heart, wounded the horse, cast down the rider, whom he separated from Christ.

3. Dan's Deliverance from Confusion Through Confessing Christ

This tribe Moses blessed, saying: Dan is a lion's whelp, and he shall flee out of Basan, that is, out of confusion. Whence according to the Greek we ought rather to understand, from which the Latin translated, that Dan himself became a serpent sitting in the way. Dan is interpreted judgment. And therefore this tribe underwent the grave danger of judgment, into which the serpent Antichrist crept in, who would wound with his poisons him that runs. But yet this same tribe will be freed from confusion, when it shall have confessed the rider rising again, who says: Whoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.

1. Gad as a Figure of Christ's Temptation

Gad is temptation; he tempted him, and he himself tempted them close upon the heels. Temptation is the gathering and cunning of the scribes and priests who tempted the Lord Jesus concerning the tribute to Caesar, and concerning the baptism of John, as Scripture teaches; on whom the Lord Jesus, by his own justice, turned back the temptation. Close upon the heels, that is, replying at once without any deliberation, whereby he might all the more entrap those who tempted him. For when they said: By what authority do you do these things? He did not answer to what was asked; but he himself even proposed a question, saying: I also will ask you one word; if you tell me, I too will tell you by what authority I do these things. Again, when they said: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? He said: Why do you tempt me, hypocrites? Show me the coin of the tribute. And when they offered it, he asked again: Whose is this image and inscription?

They say to him: Caesar's. There, then, he bound them by their own words, constrained them by their own admission. Then he said to them: Render therefore the things that are Caesar's, to Caesar; and the things that are God's, to God, so that they could not come against his own words. In the end, marveling, they went away from him. But it is no wonder if he answered close upon the heels, he who saw before the feet.

2. Moses' Blessing of Gad and the Resting Lion

Moses set forth evidently that this prophecy of holy Jacob is about Christ. For thus he says: Blessed is he who enlarged Gad. As a lion he rested, tearing the arms and the princes, and he saw from his beginning that there the land of the princes gathered together was divided, together with the princes of the peoples. The Lord did justice, judgment with Israel.

3. The Earth's Judgment on Those Who Tempt

We recognize, therefore, who it is that rested like a lion, who broke the arms of the powerful, who saw from the beginning the divisions of those who tempt. There, then, is the gaping of the earth, which swallows up the calumniators, where the temptation of the faithless is.

1. Aser's Rich Bread as a Figure of Christ

Aser, his bread is rich, and he shall give food to princes. Aser, by Latin interpretation, signifies riches. Who then is rich, save where the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God is? Who is rich but the Lord Jesus, who abounds always, and never fails? He came poor into this world, and abounded to all, and filled all men. How great is he in riches, who by his own poverty made all men rich! But poor for our sake, rich with the Father. He was poor, that he might rescue us from want; as the Apostle teaches, saying: Because for your sake he became poor, when he was rich; that by his want you might be enriched. By whose want he enriches, by whose fringe he heals, by whose hunger he satisfies, by whose death he gives life, by whose burial he raises up again. This, then, is the rich treasure, this his rich bread. And rightly rich, since he who has eaten of it can never hunger.

This bread he gave to the apostles, that they might divide it to the believing people; and today too he gives it to us, which he himself, the priest, daily consecrates by his words. This bread, then, has become the food of the saints.

2. Christ as the Living Bread from Heaven

We can also understand this of the Lord himself, who gave us his flesh, as he himself says: I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert, and are dead: but this is the bread which comes down from heaven, that if any man eat of it, he may not die. And lest anyone should think that he spoke of that death which comes through the separation of soul and body, and rightly doubt, since he knows that the holy apostles died by this death, he added: I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this, he shall live forever: that is, I did not speak above of temporal life, nor of the death of this life, whereby even if a man should die, yet if he has received my bread, he shall live forever. For he receives it who proves himself: but he who receives it shall not die the death of the sinner, because this bread is the remission of sins.

3. Moses' Blessing of Aser and the Help of God

Moses too prophesied most beautifully in his blessings, saying: Blessed among the sons is Aser, and he shall be accepted by his brothers; and he shall dip his foot in oil, and his shoe shall be iron and brass. And as your days are, so shall your strength be. There is none like the God of Jacob, your helper in heaven, and the great Lord of the firmament: and the God of the beginning protecting you, and by the power of his mighty arms he has cast out your enemy from before your face, saying: Let him perish. And Israel shall dwell in confidence alone upon the earth: Jacob in a land of grain and wine; and heaven shall be over you with a mist of dew.

1. Nephthalim as a Vine Let Loose

Nephthalim is a vine let loose, sending forth beauty in its budding. Of the vine's shoot, one part is cut away, which seems useless, lest the vine, barren, should run riot in the exultation of shoots; and another part is trimmed back a little and let loose, that it may bear fruit, whose beauty is extended in its growth; for while it raises itself toward what is above, it embraces the vine, and, climbing to the top, clothes as it were the necks of the yoked vines with a certain precious necklace of the branch. There too is beauty in its growth, since with full branches it pours forth much fruit.

2. The Branch That Abides in the Vine

This is beautiful, but far more beautiful is that which signifies the branch clinging to the spiritual vine, of which we are the shoot, and can bear fruit, if we remain in the vine: but if not, we are cut off.

3. Nephthalim's Abundance and the Liberty of Faith

The holy patriarch Nephthalim was an abundant branch. Whence Moses says: Nephthalim is the satisfaction of those who receive, he shall be filled with blessing from the Lord, he shall possess the sea and the south, explaining what Jacob had said, what a vine let loose might be, that is, stripped of the bonds of death through the grace of faith: in which is signified the people of God called to the liberty of faith, and to the abundance of grace, spread throughout the whole world, who clothe the yoke of Christ with good fruit, and the wood of that overturned vine; that is, embrace the mysteries of the Lord's cross, and not fear the peril of confessing him, but rather, even set in persecutions, glory in the name of Christ.

4. Freedom from Fear Through the Sacraments of Regeneration

This one is truly loosed from bonds, who is bound by no knot of fear. Whence the prophet also says: They shall go forth, and shall leap for joy like calves loosed from their bonds. And so in his budding he sends forth beauty, because, set in a place of pasture, and brought up beside the water of refreshment, through the sacraments of his regeneration he sends forth the good beauty of the word, and is taken up into that most beautiful grace of Christ, who is able to increase the loveliness of your beauty.

5. The Beauty of the Church Put On by the Lord

Finally, beautiful above all, he gives what he has; for no one can give what he does not have. And so it is said: The Lord shall reign, he has put on beauty. For he put on the beauty of the Church's grace, which, in that washing, laying aside the foulness of all sins, shone forth with the splendor of heavenly grace. And so the bridegroom says of her: Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, chosen like the sun, beautiful like the moon, a wonder like the ordered array?

1. Jacob's Prophecy on the Enlargement of Joseph

Now, that we may conclude the history as it were with a certain epilogue, just as Scripture itself has concluded it, let us go through the prophecy of holy Jacob concerning the name of holy Joseph: My son to be enlarged, Joseph my son to be enlarged, my son to be envied, come back to me, more youthful. Against whom, taking counsel, they cursed him, and bent the bow of the Lord against him, and their bows were broken with strength, and the sinews of the arms of their hands were loosed, by the hand of the mighty one of Jacob; whence Israel prevailed, from the God of your father. And my God helped you, and blessed you with the blessing of heaven from above, and the blessing of the earth having all things.

Because of the blessing of the breasts and of the womb, the blessings of your father and your mother prevailed above the blessings of the enduring mountains; and the desires of the everlasting hills shall be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of him among his brothers, over whom he was set.

2. Joseph's Increase as a Figure of Christ

What is the reason that the father pursued his son Joseph more abundantly than all his sons, unless because he already saw prefigured in him the mysteries of Christ? Whence blessing him more as one who was awaited than one who was seen, he says: My son Joseph is to be enlarged. Who is to be enlarged, if not Christ, whose grace is always increased, and whose glory has no end to its advancement? Of whom John also says: He must increase, but I must decrease; because through that saving and perfect name of his, grace was heaped up and abounded in this world. My son is to be enlarged; and therefore because his brothers saw him growing, they began to envy him. But the spiritual Joseph also incurred zeal from those whom he cherished more. For he used to say: I have come only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And they said: We know not whence he is. He was healing them, and they were denying him.

3. Joseph the Younger Son and Christ's Late Birth

My son, he says, is the younger. Truly the younger, who was almost the last-born. For Scripture also says: Jacob loved him, because he was the son of his old age. This too is referred to Christ. For to a world growing old and now setting, the Son of God, shining forth through the birth of the virgin Mary, came late, as it were the son of old age; according to the sacrament he took up a body, he who before the ages was always with the Father.

4. The Father's Call to Return and the Refutation of Enemies

Whence the Father says to him: Return to me, calling to heaven from the earth him whom he had sent for our salvation. Thus, raising up his only-begotten Son, he emptied the counsel of those who cursed. Whence Isaiah also says: Vain is the counsel of your spirit. And having refuted those who, as if shooting arrows, aimed them, he dissolved everything: he crushed the power of those who trusted in their own strength and not in God. Thence, he says, Israel prevailed from the God of your father, and my God helped you. Who is it that strengthened Israel and helped the son, if not God the Father alone, who said: Jacob my servant, I will uphold him: Israel my chosen, my soul shall receive him.

5. The Blessing of Heaven and Earth Given to Christ

And he blessed him with the blessing of the heaven above, and the blessing of the earth having all things. For he subjected all things to him, the heavenly things as the blessing of heaven, and the earthly things as the blessing of earth, so that he might have dominion over both men and angels.

6. The Blessing of the Breasts and the Womb

And so in him, as it were in a contemptible body: You have prevailed, he says, because of the blessing of the breasts and the womb, the blessings of your father and your mother. By breasts he meant either the two Testaments, by one of which he was announced, by the other shown forth. And rightly “breasts,” since he nourished us, having reared us as it were on a certain spiritual milk, and the Son offered us to God: or he speaks of the breasts of Mary, which were truly blessed, with which the holy Virgin gave the drink of milk to the people of the Lord. Whence also that woman in the Gospel says: Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked! But as to what he says: The blessing of the womb of your father and your mother, if we wish to understand the womb as Mary’s alone, it will remain hidden why he joined both blessings together. For he could have spoken of the mother’s womb alone.

But I think it more fitting that we understand, according to the spiritual mystery, both generations of the Lord Jesus, both according to divinity and according to the flesh; because he was begotten of the Father before the ages. Whence also the Father says: My heart has belched forth a word; because he proceeded from that inmost and incomprehensible substance of the Father, and is always in him. Whence also the evangelist says: No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. Just as, then, the bosom of the Father is spiritually understood as a certain inmost secret of paternal charity and nature, in which the Son always is: so also the womb of the Father is spiritual, the secret of what is within, from which, as from a begetting womb, the Son proceeded.

Accordingly we read variously now of the womb of the Father, now of his heart from which he belched the word, now of his mouth from which justice proceeded, from which wisdom came forth, as he himself says: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High. Thus the mystery here is the same as that prefigured in Joseph according to the mystery: since it is not defined as one thing, and all these terms sound as one, signifying rather the spiritual mystery of the paternal generation than any bodily member. But just as we understand that generation from the Father: so also, for the completion of faith, let us understand the generation of Mary, when the womb of the mother is blessed—that is, of course, the virginal womb of Mary, who brought forth the Lord Jesus for us. Of whom the Father says through the prophet Jeremiah: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from your mother's womb, I sanctified you.

The prophet therefore declared a twofold substance in Christ, of divinity and of flesh: the one from the Father, the other from the Virgin; yet in such a way that he was not without his own divinity when he was born of the Virgin, and was in a body.

7. Christ's Preeminence Above the Mountains and Hills

Whence also he prevailed above all mountains, and the desires of the eternal hills. For above all those men lofty in merit, patriarchs and prophets and apostles; but also beyond the sun, the moon, the archangels, he shone forth like the light of heaven, as he himself says: The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord. For which of them was there to whom all things were subjected, to whom he himself gave what they were? In him all his saints are blessed, because he himself is above the heads of all, head of all. For the head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ. And upon the tops of the mountains, because he himself is the surpassing summit of all things: but of the just he is the highest summit. Whom he calls brothers, acquired through grace, and a certain fellowship of regeneration.

Whence also, concerning the brothers of Joseph, we understand rather those brothers of whom he says in the psalm: I will declare your name to my brothers, in the midst of the Church I will sing to you.

8. Moses' Blessing on the Tribe of Joseph

Finally, Moses too, about to complete the course of this life, when he blessed the Tribe of Joseph, was not blessing that Joseph now dead, but Christ, as you have it written concerning Joseph: From the blessing of the Lord be his land, from the bounds of heaven, and from the dew, and from the depths of the springs below, and according to the fitting course of the sun, and from the agreeing months, and from the summit of the mountains, from the beginning, and from the summit of the eternal hills, and unto the hour of the fullness of the earth, and from him who was seen in the bush, may the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon his summit. Let him be honored among his brothers. The firstling of a bull is his glory, the horns of a unicorn. With these he shall push the nations together, even to the ends of the earth. He is the myriads of Ephraim, and he the thousands of Manasses.

9. The Blessing of Joseph Fulfilled in Christ

The blessing is the same, which has the whole fullness both of heavenly and earthly things, and the special grace of Christ: who, seen in the bush, said to Moses himself: Loose the shoe from your feet: who is God over all; because he himself is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that he might hold the primacy in all things; since in him it pleased that all fullness should dwell. And therefore to him alone is granted the prerogative of this blessing, from the summit of heaven even to the end of the earth. For he himself is before all, in whom all things consist: who also, through the blood of his cross, made peace for all things, whether in heaven or on earth. Bearing whose figure, holy Joseph is beautifully blessed, that he might be honored among his brothers.

10. The Bull's Horn as a Figure of Christ

The firstling of a bull is his glory, having the horns of a unicorn, with which he shall push the nations. And a good bull, as it were a victim for sins, and the sacrifice of the whole world, that he might make peace for all things. Whose glory is holy; for every firstborn is holy, as we have shown elsewhere. Whence also Levi deserved to be called firstborn, not by order of age, but by the prerogative of sacred succession. And truly holy is his glory, of whom it is written concerning his resurrection: Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men; because he himself is the firstborn from the dead, having the horns of a unicorn. But since he said “horns,” how could this be sought of a unicorn, since the unicorn itself, among the generations of wild beasts, as the learned say, is not found? And therefore we ought rather to think of the unique Word, because the substantive Word of God is one, not many words.

Whence also Hannah says: The Lord judges the ends of the earth, and he will give strength to his king, and will exalt the horn of his Christ. And Isaiah says: A vineyard was made for the beloved on a horn, in a fruitful place; since for the only-begotten Son of God the Church flourishes, holding the unique Word of God, in whom is the fullness of power and wisdom, by whose fruitfulness the crop of faith has sprung up. Which Word the saints follow.

11. The Horns of Ephraim and Manasses

Ten thousands, he says, of Ephraim, and thousands of Manasses, that is, let him rule both Jews and Gentiles, and from both peoples let him acquire for himself the fullness of the Church. And therefore holy Jacob placed his right hand upon Ephraim; because we read her saying in the Song of Songs: My brother is white and ruddy, chosen out of ten thousand. Finally, David too, the author of the young maiden Mary, from whose lineage Christ was born through the birth of the Virgin, they proclaimed in ten thousands: but Saul in thousands, though out of reverence for the king they ought rather to have outweighed toward him. Whoever, therefore, exalting the horn of Christ, has confessed his glory, he too shall receive horns. Whence also the saints are called unicorns in the verse of the psalm: And the beloved is like the son of unicorns.

For just as such an animal, when horns arise on it, signifies the advance of a fuller age: so, when horns begin to sprout from a certain head of our soul, they seem to signify the progress of the perfection of virtue, and they grow so long until they are completed. With this horn the Lord Jesus struck down the nations, that he might crush superstition, restore salvation, as he himself says: I will strike, and I will heal. And therefore, as an imitator of this bull, the Prophet says: In you we will push our enemies with a horn, that is, tearing down every height that raises itself against the knowledge of God. And therefore, according to the Law, clean animals have horns: for the Law is spiritual. For those who can repel the enticements of this age by the word of God, and by the observance of virtue, seem to be fortified with horns as with certain weapons of their head.

And rightly is the strength of the wondrous word also called a horn trumpet, which kindles good soldiers of Christ to battle, that we may carry off spoils from the enemy, the devil. We are therefore in the battle line, and we see very many of us to be captives in the camp of the adversary: these must be stripped by us of the heaviest yoke of servitude.

1. Benjamin the Wolf as a Figure of Paul

The devil has very many wolves, which he directs against the sheep of Christ; and therefore the spiritual Joseph, in order to keep his sheep, snatched up the very enemy wolf coming to tear apart the sheep, namely Paul, making of a persecutor a teacher. Of whom Jacob speaks, as it is written: Benjamin is a ravening wolf, in the morning he shall still eat the prey, and at evening he shall divide the spoil among the princes. He was a wolf when he was scattering and devouring the sheep of the Church. But he who had come as a wolf was made a shepherd. He was a wolf when he was Saul, when he was entering into houses, and dragging men and women into prison. He was a wolf when, breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, he sought letters from the chief priests, that he might attack the servants of Christ. Him, wandering like a wolf in the darkness of night, Jesus blinded, pouring forth light.

Therefore Rachel, when she bore Benjamin, called his name The son of my sorrow, prophesying that from that Tribe would come Paul, who would afflict the children of the Church in the time of his persecution, and would vex his mother with heavy grief. But nevertheless the same man afterward, in a later time, divided the food among the princes, evangelizing the word of God to the Gentiles, and calling very many to the faith; while he was disputing, as we read, Paul the proconsul, and Publius the chief man, received the grace of the Lord.

2. Paul as the Beloved, Vessel of Election

Beautifully also did Moses, when he blessed the Tribe of Benjamin, say: The beloved of the Lord shall dwell trusting, and God shall overshadow him all the days, and he shall rest between the shoulders, the beloved of the Lord, who also was made a vessel of election. For he was converted by no other means than the mercy and love of the Lord. Whence he himself, attributing nothing to his own merit, but referring all to Christ, says: For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace in me has not been in vain. He shall dwell trusting in the house which before he was laying waste, he shall dwell in the tabernacles of Christ, he who before wandered like a wolf in the woods. And God overshadowed him, when Christ appeared to him. Though with open eyes he saw nothing, yet he saw Christ.

And rightly did he see him present, whom he also heard speaking. That overshadowing is not of blindness, but of grace. Finally, it is said to Mary: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.

3. Resting Between the Shoulders in Good Works

And he shall rest between the shoulders, that is, between good deeds and precious works. For above also you have that Issachar put his shoulder to labor, and became a husbandman. Whom Paul imitated, planting the new shoots of faith, and therefore, as a good husbandman, said: I planted, Apollos watered.