Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise: your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's children shall bow down before you.
All Commentaries on Genesis 49:8 Go To Genesis 49
Hippolytus of Rome
AD 235
But, one may say, why did it seem right to the prophet to impose on Judah such a blessing, when he had done nothing like that for the first ones? Now learn the reason …. In fact David had to be born from the tribe of Judah and Christ from David with regard to the flesh. [Therefore] the prophet foreknowing the future events in their spiritual sense has blessed there David, who descended from Judah, and the Christ who, according to the flesh, had to be born from David, so that he might receive from God not only the blessing according to the spirit but also the blessing according to the flesh.
