Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
All Commentaries on Genesis 49:19 Go To Genesis 49
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
“Gad, trial shall try him, and he shall try them at their heels.” The trial is the cunning assembly of scribes and priests who tried the Lord Jesus about Caesar’s tribute and John’s baptism, as Scripture teaches. In his holiness, Jesus turned the trial back upon them. “At their heels,” that is, replying immediately without any deliberation, so that he might rather corner those trying him. For when they said, “By what authority do you do these things?” Christ did not respond to their inquiries but rather he himself inquired, saying, “I also will ask you one question, and if you answer me this, I in turn will tell you by what authority I do these things.” Again, when they said, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” he said, “Why do you try me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin of the tribute.” And when they offered it, again he asked, “Whose are the image and inscription?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” And thereupon he bound them in their own words and tied them in their own entanglement. For then he said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s,” so that they could not contradict their own words. Indeed they marveled and departed from him …. Moses explained clearly that this prophecy of holy Jacob was in reference to Christ, for he spoke thus: “Blessed is he who enlarged Gad. He has rested like a lion, breaking arms and chiefs. And he saw from his beginning that the land of the chiefs assembled with the leaders of the tribes was there divided; the Lord executed justice and judgment for Israel.” Consequently we recognize him who rested like a lion, when he broke the arms of the powerful, because he saw from the beginning the divisions among those who were trying him.
