Genesis 49:4

Pouring out like the waters - This is an obscure sentence because unfinished. It evidently relates to the defilement of his father's couch; and the word פחז pachaz , here translated pouring out, and in our Version unstable, has a bad meaning in other places of the Scripture, being applied to dissolute, debauched, and licentious conduct. See Judges 9:4 ; Zephaniah 3:4 ; Jeremiah 23:14 , Jeremiah 23:32 ; Jeremiah 29:23 .

Thou shalt not excel - This tribe never rose to any eminence in Israel; was not so numerous by one third as either Judah, Joseph, or Dan, when Moses took the sum of them in the wilderness, Numbers 1:21 ; and was among the first that were carried into captivity, 1 Chronicles 5:26 .

Then thou didst defile - Another unfinished sentence, similar to the former, and upon the same subject, passing over a transaction covertly, which delicacy forbade Jacob to enlarge on. For the crime of Reuben, see Clarke on Genesis 35:22 ; (note).

1. Simeon and Levi, brethren: They have accomplished their fraudulent purposes.

Into their secret council my soul did not come; In their confederacy my honor was not united: For in their anger they slew a man, ( איש ish , a noble), And in their pleasure they murdered a prince.

7. Cursed was their anger, for it was fierce! And their excessive wrath, for it was inflexible! I will divide them out in Jacob, And I will disperse them in Israel.