43. Also, you are helped from your father's God, and you are blessed from the Almighty, that is, from the God [or, faith] of Abraham, which helped Abraham, you have got wisdom and understanding, and that helps you against your enemies, and against their arrows. And you art blessed from the Almighty, with blessings from heaven above, and with blessings from the deep beneath; with blessings of the breasts and womb; that is, from waiting on the Lord you shall receive good things, honour and sustenance, he will bless you in body and soul, in goods and estate, and in all your ways, and give you sufficient, so that you will not need nor dare to use subtle cunning deceit to pervert that which is right; you wilt not dare to say of anything it is your own to use as you will, and yet you wilt have sufficient and plenty.
44. For one that fears God, and leaves selfhood or appropriating anything for his own, he gets instead thereof all, in the kingdom of Christ; the heaven and the world is his; whereas, on the contrary, the wicked must supply himselfwith a piece of that which he has stolen in subtlety and acquired to himselfwith deceit, and take nothing of it away with him but the hell only, and his wicked unrighteousness, and the curse of miserable people whom he has tormented upon earth; they have kindled hell fire with their curse in him, and that he takes along with him.
45. Also, The blessing of your father has prevailed more than the blessing of my ancestors according to the desire of the lofty in the world; and it shall come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of his head that was separated from his brethren:
That is, Jacob's blessing has therefore prevailed more than his ancestors, because in him the ens of faith was sprouted forth and come into many boughs and branches: for the fruit did show forth itself more than by Abraham and Isaac. For Abraham generated but one twig out of the line of the Covenant, viz. Isaac; so also Isaac generated but one twig out of the line of the Covenant, viz. Jacob, on whom the spirit looked. Seeing Jacob generated twelve sons, which all stood in the root of the line of the Covenant, and grew out of it as twigs (but in Judah stood the stock), therefore he said, his blessing prevailed more; as a tree which is grown into branches from the stock.
46. But that he says, According to the desire of the lofty in the world, he signifies under it the prosperity of the blessing to those that are blessed; for as the rich of the world desire only highness and good things, so these in the blessing of God receive temporal and eternal good things; these shall from the blessing of Jacob come upon the head of Joseph, that is, upon his children, so that they shall in this sprouting bear good fruit: for the head signifies the blossoms and fruit of this tree.
47. Also, Upon the crown of his head that was separated from his brethren:
that is, the blessing shall not press forth alone out of the line of the Covenant, so that it alone among Jacob's children stood in the blessing, viz. the stock of Judah, but upon the crown of his head that was separated, viz. upon the ground of the natural root of the Adamical tree in them all; that they all of them together should be as a fruitful tree. But concerning their states and worldly offices, wherein they would live wickedly in the future, he represents the figure in Dan, and the four brethren from Jacob's wives' maid- servants, signifying how in the end the Serpent would manage the government in the
Adamical nature, and how their successors would live in their offices, and what kind of world would rise up therein: as it has come to pass among the Jews and the Christians.
XII
THE TESTAMENT of BENJAMIN
43. Also, you are helped from your father's God, and you are blessed from the Almighty, that is, from the God [or, faith] of Abraham, which helped Abraham, you have got wisdom and understanding, and that helps you against your enemies, and against their arrows. And you art blessed from the Almighty, with blessings from heaven above, and with blessings from the deep beneath; with blessings of the breasts and womb; that is, from waiting on the Lord you shall receive good things, honour and sustenance, he will bless you in body and soul, in goods and estate, and in all your ways, and give you sufficient, so that you will not need nor dare to use subtle cunning deceit to pervert that which is right; you will not dare to say of anything it is your own to use as you will, and yet you will have sufficient and plenty.
44. For one that fears God, and leaves selfhood or appropriating anything for his own, he gets instead thereof all, in the kingdom of Christ; the heaven and the world is his; whereas, on the contrary, the wicked must supply himselfwith a piece of that which he has stolen in subtlety and acquired to himselfwith deceit, and take nothing of it away with him but the hell only, and his wicked unrighteousness, and the curse of miserable people whom he has tormented upon earth; they have kindled hell fire with their curse in him, and that he takes along with him.
45. Also, The blessing of your father has prevailed more than the blessing of my ancestors according to the desire of the lofty in the world; and it shall come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of his head that was separated from his brethren:
That is, Jacob's blessing has therefore prevailed more than his ancestors, because in him the ens of faith was sprouted forth and come into many boughs and branches: for the fruit did show forth itself more than by Abraham and Isaac. For Abraham generated but one twig out of the line of the Covenant, viz. Isaac; so also Isaac generated but one twig out of the line of the Covenant, viz. Jacob, on whom the spirit looked. Seeing Jacob generated twelve sons, which all stood in the root of the line of the Covenant, and grew out of it as twigs (but in Judah stood the stock), therefore he said, his blessing prevailed more; as a tree which is grown into branches from the stock.
46. But that he says, According to the desire of the lofty in the world, he signifies under it the prosperity of the blessing to those that are blessed; for as the rich of the world desire only highness and good things, so these in the blessing of God receive temporal and eternal good things; these shall from the blessing of Jacob come upon the head of Joseph, that is, upon his children, so that they shall in this sprouting bear good fruit: for the head signifies the blossoms and fruit of this tree.
47. Also, Upon the crown of his head that was separated from his brethren:
that is, the blessing shall not press forth alone out of the line of the Covenant, so that it alone among Jacob's children stood in the blessing, viz. the stock of Judah, but upon the crown of his head that was separated, viz. upon the ground of the natural root of the Adamical tree in them all; that they all of them together should be as a fruitful tree. But concerning their states and worldly offices, wherein they would live wickedly in the future, he represents the figure in Dan, and the four brethren from Jacob's wives' maid- servants, signifying how in the end the Serpent would manage the government in the
Adamical nature, and how their successors would live in their offices, and what kind of world would rise up therein: as it has come to pass among the Jews and the Christians.
XII
THE TESTAMENT of BENJAMIN
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