01.21.2016 Old Testament: Gen 49.16–18

To read the Bible in a year, read Genesis 49–50 on January 21, In the year of our Lord 2016

By Don Ruhl

As Jacob prepared himself to die, the Lord wanted the patriarch both to bless his sons and to foretell how each of them would turn out as tribes. Of Dan, Jacob said,

“Dan shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse’s heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!”
(Genesis 49.16–18) 

Evidently, the tribe of Dan would figure in as prominent among the judges. That would include attacking the armies, shown by the reference to horses, and waiting for the salvation of the Lord.