Commentaria in Genesim
Prophecy and Blessing of Dan
16. DAN SHALL JUDGE.—In Hebrew it is Dan jadin, as if to say: “The judge shall judge.” For he was called Dan by Rachel, because God, as it were, had decided in her favour, by the birth of Dan, her cause with Lia contending about fruitfulness, Genesis 30, 6.
Here Jacob confirms the name Dan to his son; but for another reason, namely that Dan, by Samson who was to be born of him, will judge, that is, will vindicate and deliver Israel from the servitude of the Philistines. For Samson was a judge, that is, vindicator, of his people: for so all who in the book of Judges are called Judges were vindicators of Israel. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Gennadius, Rupert and the Chaldee (1).
AS ALSO ANOTHER TRIBE,—which gave Israel its judge; for not all the tribes gave judges: for it is truer that Ruben, Gad, Simeon and Aser gave no judge. For those whom some adduce, Jephte and Barac, the one was of Nephtali, the other of Manasses. So Pererius.
17. LET DAN BE A SNAKE IN THE WAY, A CERASTES IN THE PATH.—Gennadius thinks Dan is in the dative case, and the sense is, as if to say: Let Dalila be to Dan himself, namely to Samson to be born of Dan, like a snake, because she will deceive him with serpentine cunning.
But in the Hebrew and Greek Dan lacks the article of the dative, and is put absolutely; it is therefore in the nominative case, and the sense is as if he said: Let Dan, that is Samson the Danite, be, that is, shall be, or will be, like a snake and cerastes. For first, as serpents lurking in ways and paths under foliage or sands attack and bite a man from their hiding-places unexpectedly: so Samson secretly by arts and wiles attacked, laid waste and slew the Philistines, as is plain in the three hundred foxes, to whose tails Samson, tying burning firebrands, set fire to the corn of the Philistines: again in the collapse of the pillars of the house, in which he overwhelmed their leaders with himself, and so slew more in dying than in life. So also the Danites took Lais by cunning, which was afterwards called by them Dan, Judges 18, 27. Secondly, a serpent, unless it stops its ear, is charmed: so Samson, because against the blandishments of the Siren, namely his Dalila, he did not, with Ulysses, who passed by with ear stopped, stop his ear, was therefore captured by her, and thrust into the mill and into death.
A CERASTES IN THE PATH, BITING THE HORSE’S HOOFS (the hoofed heel), THAT HIS RIDER MAY FALL BACKWARD.—The cerastes, says Pliny, book VIII, chap. 29, is a serpent having four horns, very like those of rams (whence it is called cerastes, that is, horned, from keras, that is, horn), which when it cannot reach the horseman bites the horse’s heel, that it may cast down the horse, and consequently the rider, and so attack and kill him when cast down. In like manner Samson not only by his strength but by wiles and ambushes attacked, supplanted and slew the Philistines, as I said (2).
Note: Jacob literally predicted these things of Samson, allegorically of Antichrist, Samson’s antitype; or rather Jacob said and meant these things both of Antichrist and literally of Samson, so that there is here a double literal sense, one of Samson, the other, to which Jacob rises on the occasion of Samson, of Antichrist (for Samson was not a type of Antichrist, but rather of Christ); for from Dan Antichrist will be born, as the Fathers commonly hand down. Wherefore Oleaster and Abulensis rashly laugh at this tradition, as if it were a fable.
For even now the Jews, though dispersed, preserve their divisions and the origins of the tribes, so that one says that he is from the tribe of Judah, another from Levi, another from Dan, etc., whether he says it truly or is deceived: see what was said at Apocalypse chap. 7.
Antichrist himself, however, though privately among his own Danites he will say he is of Dan, will perhaps publicly profess and falsely claim to descend not from Dan but from Judah, to persuade his own that he is the Messiah promised here to Jacob and Judah, verse 10. Antichrist therefore will have the horns and ways of the snake and cerastes, because by his wiles, arts, blandishments, hypocrisy, knowledge, eloquence, feigned miracles, power and torments he will, like a snake and cerastes, deceive, cast down, bite and slay very many men. So St. Augustine, St. Irenaeus, St. Ambrose, Prosper, Hippolytus, Rupert, Aretas, Haymo, Richard and Anselm, whom Pererius cites and follows. See St. Gregory, book XXXI Morals, chap. 18. Indeed Theodoret holds that these things are said literally not of Samson but of Antichrist alone. Certainly these things about the snake and cerastes agree rather with Antichrist than with Samson, who was more like a lion than a snake.
VERSE 18. THY SALVATION I WILL WAIT FOR, O LORD.—For thy salvation, the Hebrew is yeshuatecha, that is, thy salvation, which our Saviour Silo, namely Christ, will bring; whence the Septuagint and our Interpreter everywhere by yesha, that is, salvation, understand Christ the Saviour.
Note: Jacob foreseeing that the deliverance of Israel to come through Samson would be slight and of short duration, after which the Israelites would again be subdued by the Philistines: moreover, foreseeing that through this snake and cerastes Antichrist is above all signified, and the slaughter which he will bring upon all the Danites and the whole world; grieving to the very marrow, he looked to the perpetual saviour of Israel and of the world, of whom Samson was only a type and shadow. Him therefore I will wait for, both as born in the world, and as returning a second time to the fight with Antichrist, to slay him and from him bring back and save the remnants of Israel. Whence the Chaldee renders: “I do not wait for the salvation of Gedeon, son of Joas, whose salvation is temporal; nor the salvation of Samson, son of Manue, which salvation is transitory; but I wait for the redemption of Christ, son of David, who is to come to summon to himself the sons of Israel, whose redemption my soul desires.” So also Procopius explains this, St. Gregory, hom. 21 on Ezechiel; Origen, last tract on Matthew; Ambrose in the prologue of book II On the Holy Spirit, and Augustine, serm. 107 On the Season: among whom see how Samson, avenger and saviour of Israel, was a beautiful type of Christ the avenger and saviour of the world (1).