Genesis 49:8, commentary and pictures

Jacob's words to Judah belong to his inspired prophetic testimony spoken to his sorrowing sons in his dying hours. They were not spoken from an unforgiving spirit or resentment over past wrongs, for he had forgiven his children and loved them to the last. He had mourned deeply the loss of Joseph and had grieved while Simeon was kept in Egypt, longing for his children to return safely with him. His own fatherly feeling would have led him to speak only love and tenderness, but by the Spirit of prophecy God lifted his mind above his natural feelings. Angels were around him in his last hours and the power of grace shone upon him, so that he spoke God's truth even when it was painful.

While he set forth God's view of the deeds of violence of Simeon and Levi and that God would visit them for their sins, his words to Judah and to his other sons were not as gloomy. Unlike that gloomy judgment pronounced on Simeon and Levi, the future foretold for Judah is joyful. The name Judah means praise, and the verse foretells that his brothers will praise him. It foretells also that his hand will prevail in the neck of his enemies in victory, and that his father's children will bow down before him in honored leadership.

In this blessing Judah receives the chief blessings of the birthright as his allotted portion among Jacob's sons. Those allotted blessings are namely the kingdom and the Messianic promise. The prophecy unfolds in the history of the tribe of Judah and, together with the promise of the scepter and Shiloh in the following verses, foreshadows the blessed hope of the coming Redeemer from Judah's royal line to whom the peoples will gather. Its royal preeminence is fulfilled through David and supremely through Shiloh, the Son of David, the true Lion of the tribe of Judah, to whom all powers will bow and all nations will render homage.