Genesis 49:8-10

"Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up: He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come; And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be."

As frequently in this prophecy, there is word play called by the scholars paronomasia. The meaning of the word Judah is "praise"; so Jacob said, "Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise."

The figure of a lion as a symbol of bold strength and courage is common throughout history, even until the days of Richard the Lionhearted of England. Significant is the change of gender from masculine to feminine; but this too is common in Scripture.

"Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee ..." This is a prophecy that the right of rulership shall pertain to the tribe of Judah; but this did not come to pass at once. Moses was from Levi, Joshua from Ephraim, Gideon from Manasseh, Samson from Dan, Samuel from Ephraim, and Saul from Benjamin. However, in the long sweep through history the prophecy was completely fulfilled only in Judah and the house of David, one of his descendants whose reign prefigured the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah. The mention of "thy father's sons" indicates that not merely the children of Judah's natural brothers (the other sons of Leah) would be subject to him, but that all of Israel would likewise be.

UNTIL SHILOH COME

We confidently hail this as one of the greatest Messianic prophecies in the entire Bible. We shall begin with a comment from Peake: "This verse (Genesis 49:10) is extremely difficult!"[15] This is wrong, for, from Peake's point of view the verse is absolutely impossible. The critics are powerless to get the Messiah out of this passage. Of course, they would pervert the translation if that would do any good, but that A PERSON is implied here is proved by the last clause in the verse: "Unto HIM shall the obedience of the peoples be," which has the meaning that all nations shall obey THAT PERSON, a reference which no one would dare apply to Judah! (Except the Good News Bible!). That the Lord Jesus Christ is the person here spoken of is not subject to doubt or question. The passage is simply incapable of being referred to any other.

It is true that some versions leave Shiloh out of their renditions, substituting, "Until he comes whose it is" for "Until Shiloh come"; and of all the dozens of proposed renditions, these are the only two that have anything whatever to commend them, but as Peake admitted, if "Until he come whose it is" is used, "The point would then be that Judah was to hold the sovereignty until its true possessor, the Messiah comes."[16] As for us we prefer unequivocally the rendition of the ASV "Until Shiloh come." We believe there is the very strongest Biblical support for this rendition, as outlined herewith.

SHILOH. This word occurs (with slight variations) three times in the Bible, and in every one of them, the reference is to JESUS CHRIST. As far as this passage goes,

Believing Shiloh to be the name of a person, the majority of commentators, both Jewish and Christian, the ancient as well as modern, agree that the Messiah is the person referred to, and Jacob here foretold that the appearance of that Messiah would not occur until the staff or regal power had dropped from his hands.[17]

SHILOAH (Isaiah 8:6). "This people have rejected the waters of Shiloah that go softly." Here the benign and peaceful government of God is compared to waters that go softly, called in this place SHILOAH! Thus, in this usage the peaceful government reaching its zenith in the Messiah is definitely meant.

SILOAM (John 9:7). "And Jesus said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation `Sent')." That the reference here is to Christ is certain. The bringing of a pitcher of water from this particular pool and pouring it out ceremoniously upon the Great Day of the Feast of Lights demonstrates that the Jews so received it as a symbol of the coming Messiah; and the apostle's reference here confirms that.

However, NOTE: These three words, while not identical, are definitely variations of the same word, the unanimous testimony of all three being that they are witnesses of Christ and his kingdom.

The sincere student should avoid accepting any of the critical renditions of this place, concerning which there is no authority whatever. Good News Bible, for example, has:

Judah will hold the royal scepter, And his descendants will always rule. Nations will bring him tribute, And bow in obedience to him.

Moffatt has, "The scepter never passes from Judah, nor ever the staff of sway, until he comes into his own and makes the clans obey." The Revised Standard Version has, "Till he come to whom it belongs." Of course, Moffatt's and the Good News Bible's renditions here are simply corrupted translations without any authority whatever, Good News Bible, in particular, being the statement of an outright falsehood, because the descendants of Judah did not always rule, and nations do not bring tribute to him. There are literally dozens of translations of this place available in the works of commentators, most of which, alas, are intent on finding any possible meaning that omits the undeniable Messianic message. As Peake said, "It is most difficult!" Of such renditions, we may say of all of them that they do not result from scholarship, but from prejudice.

The Revised Standard Version's "Till he come to whom it belongs" is certainly acceptable, because the Messianic thrust of the passage is not blunted by that rendition. Ezekiel has this: I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he comes whose right it is (Ezekiel 21:27).

Payne thought that Ezekiel here was referring to (and clarifying) this passage.[18] Certainly, this rendition is a thousand times preferable to the wild and irresponsible guesses of imaginative critics. Even Payne, however, admitted that "The Hebrew text appears to say, "Till Shiloh come."[19] It is our conviction that this is what it does say. The dependability, accuracy, and integrity of both the King James Version and the American Standard Version should be trusted here.

Shiloh here must be interpreted personally and Messianically.[20] "All, from the days of the Septuagint (LXX, 250 B.C.) onward felt very strongly the Messianic implications of this text."[21] All of the comment on this passage must not obscure the fact that the the Hebrew text of the O.T. here has SILOH[22] - a name which is certainly a proper name in every other instance of its use in the entire O.T.[23] Also, the personal pronoun "him" in the next line absolutely requires this passage to be understood as a reference to the Messiah, of whom alone, could it ever be said that, "Unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be."