Genesis 49:24

Hebrew Bible

23 The archers will attack him, they will shoot at him and oppose him. 24 But his bow will remain steady, and his hands will be skillful; because of the hands of the Powerful One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25 because of the God of your father, who will help you, because of the Sovereign God, who will bless you with blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and womb.

Isaiah 49:26

Hebrew Bible

25 Indeed,” says the Lord,“ captives will be taken from a warrior; spoils will be rescued from a conqueror. I will oppose your adversary and I will rescue your children. 26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. Then all humankind will recognize that I am the Lord, your Deliverer, your Protector, the Powerful One of Jacob.

 Notes and References

"... It makes more sense to take the first word as the name of the deity and translate these two verses as “El, the God of Israel” and “El, the God of your father,” in which case these two verses indicate that El was the original name of the deity worshiped by the group(s) who preserved these stories. This is reinforced by an allusion to El in Genesis 49:24. The second line refers to blessings from what is usually translated as “the Mighty One of Jacob,” but the Hebrew word translated as “Mighty One” contains the exact consonants as the word for “bull.” “The Bull” was another title for El in the Ugarit texts, and since early Hebrew wrote only the consonants, either “mighty one” or “bull” is a possible translation since they look the same without the vowels. However, the cluster of El titles in the next verse supports taking it as bull: Genesis 49:25 speaks of “blessings by El, your father” (not “God of your father”; see “the blessings of your father,” verse 26) and by Shaddai. Moreover, “the blessings of the breasts and of the womb” (verse 25) allude to the fertility associations of Asherah, El’s wife, yet more evidence of an Ugarit background to this passage. In sum, the chief Canaanite god is present in a number of biblical texts dealing with the patriarchs and matriarchs. Eventually, as El and Yahweh came to be seen as a single deity, Yahweh in turn became equated with these early texts. For instance, in Exodus 3:6 he says that Moses’ ancestors knew him as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” and Exodus 6:3 states that they knew him as El Shaddai. Similarly, all other instances explicitly identify “the bull of Jacob” as Yahweh (see Isaiah 49:26; 60:16; Psalm 132:2, 5; and “the bull of Israel,” Isaiah 1:24) ..."

McLaughlin, John L. The Ancient Near East: An Essential Guide (p. 111) Abingdon Press, 2012

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.