us as a map of the region which Joseph was to possess in Canaan for the two tribes of his posterity. The patriarch describes it in a picture of the life of Joseph. His branches spring up luxuriently over a fountain where the boughs reach over the wall. He is an invincible archer, whose arms and hands are only rendered the more active by the assault of the bravest enemies. He is crowned with the peculiar blessing of high mountains, where the heavens are expanded above and the sea spreads beneath, in which image the wish of the father aspires even to the heights of the primitive world. What, then, were these ancient mountain heights? Moses explains the matter in his benediction. 'He shall trample the nations even to the extremity of the land.' Ephraim, therefore, the mighty unicorn, with his paternal tribe, was to dwell, probably on the highest northern elevations of the country, on the skirts of Mount Lebanon. Here was Phiala, the fountain of the river Jordan, by which the fair fruit-tree was to be nourished, and here it might shoot its branches upon the wall, and beyond the wall or boundary of the land, and exhibit the active and untiring boldness for which the father of the tribe was renowned. Here they had the heavens above, and the sea stretching beneath; here the blessings of the everlasting hills, the mountains of the primeval world, from which were to be brought spices and precious things, as a diadem and an unction for the head of him who was crowned among his brethren. In this way, every particular of this pregnant benediction becomes, not only consistent, but picturesque and local. As Lebanon, like a mountain of the primeval world, overlooks the land of Canaan, crowned with white, and lifts itself to the clouds; as the everlasting cedars, those trees which the Lord hath planted, stand upon it, and its deep valleys beneath are filled with vineyards around the numerous fountains which flow from them; so shall this tribe flourish fresh and lively as the vine upon Lebanon,* as a fruit tree by the fountains of water. The mountains abound in trees which yield odorous gums (from which the Greek name was taken), spices for the head of Joseph, balsams for the head of him that was crowned. The smell of Lebanon occurs in the Song of Solomon and the Prophets,† as a poetical expression for precious odours and spices. The pass of Hamath, in which Joseph is here placed, as the strongest and most expert archer, is the most important for the safety of the whole country, and, according to the figure employed by Moses, Ephraim and Manasseh were to guard it with the strength and vigour of a wild bullock. And who can deny the wisdom exhibited in these conceptions of the patriarch? The children of his Egyptian son he removed to the greatest distance from Egypt. Those who held this most difficult pass he furnished with all the blessings pertaining to royal dignity, bestowed upon them all the honours of heroism, and the *Hosea xiv. 8. + Hosea xiv. 7, Solomon's Song iv. 11. The flowers, the pastures, the fountains, the scenery of Lebanon, are in like manner praised in Nahum i. 4, Isaiah xl. 16, Sol. Song iv. 15, &c. invocation of all good from the great and mighty God, the guardian of Israel upon his rocky pillow. There, indeed, he placed the chief reliance for the defence of the country. Below, in the south, a lion, the heroic Judah, was to be the watchman. On the northern frontier, the wild bullock was to stand in the passes of the mountains. And Benjamin, also, a tribe most nearly related by blood, was to be at the side of Joseph.' • Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, vol. ii. pp. 151-3. CHAPTER XVII. The benediction pronounced upon Benjamin. WE come now to Jacob's last prophetic blessing. Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: In the morning he shall devour the prey, "This last tribe," says Dr. Hales, "is compared to a wolf for its ferocious and martial disposition, such as was evinced by their contests with the other tribes, in which, after two victories, they were almost exterminated."* Jacob compares several of his sons to animals, thus signifying the national character of their descendants. The lion, to which Judah is compared, characterizes the courage and unflinching determination of that tribe. The ass symbolizes the patience and laborious industry of the sons of Issachar. The serpent represents the cunning and foresight of the Danites; the hind, the freedom and prosperous condition of the tribe of Napthali. Benjamin is, lastly, compared to a ravenous wolf, to signify the sanguinary character of his posterity, who were not only a warlike, but likewise a cruel and profligate race, as may Judges xix. 20. be seen in the twentieth chapter of Judges. They were noted alike for their courage and cruelty, for their licentiousness and want of social integrity as well as for their ferocity in battle, and could not, therefore, have been better represented than by a ravenous animal, notorious for its indomitable treachery, and for the fierce determination with which it assaults its prey in defiance of danger, when stimulated by hunger. For some time the Benjamites maintained a successful war against all the other tribes, overcoming their united forces in two sanguinary engagements, though their enemies were nearly sixteen times more numerous, and destroying more men of the combined tribes than they themselves numbered in their whole army. Nothing more strongly characterizes the intractable disposition of this tribe than their conduct to the concubine or secondary wife of the Levite, as related in the nineteenth chapter of Judges. Here was an instance of licentiousness where the indulgence of the vilest passions was followed by murder; and although these were the acts of a few abandoned men, yet those acts were justified by the whole tribe, who waged a war, which ended in their almost entire extermination, in vindication of a crime that should have subjected the perpetrators of it to capital punishment. When the tribes of Israel sent a deputation to the sons of Benjamin, requiring that the criminals who had murdered the Levite's concubine should be delivered up to the demands of justice, instead of yielding to so just a requisition, they gathered their armies toge |