The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Read Chapter 49
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Yes, because they denied the true king, they began to have false kings. And so the patriarch is saying this: The inheritance of an unblemished line of succession, traced through the kings, will be kept among the judges and kings of the Jews, “until he comes for whom it has been reserved,” reserved that he may gather together the church of God out of the assembly of all the nations and the devotion of the Gentile peoples. That is, this awaits him, this is kept for him as his due—the prerogative of such great grace is given to him. “And he is the expectation of the nations.” Jacob spoke more meaningfully than if he had said, “The nations are expecting him,” for in Christ lies the entire hope of the church. Therefore it is said to Moses, “Remove the sandals from your feet.” Otherwise Moses, who was chosen as leader of the people, might be thought to be the bridegroom of the church. It was for that reason that Joshua, son of Nun, removed his sandals, in order that he also could preserve th...
The sceptre. Almost every word in this verse has been explained in a different manner. But all the ancient Jews agree with Christians, that it contains a prediction of the Messias, and points out the period of his coming. Whether this was verified when Herod, a foreigner, got possession of the throne, and was acknowledged by the Jews, just about the time of our Saviour's nativity, as most of the fathers suppose; or it only took its full effect when Agrippa II lost all his power, the temple and the city were laid in ruins, and the whole nation dispersed for ever, it is not perhaps so easy to determine. In either supposition, the Messias has long since come. Jacob foretels, either that Christ would make his appearance as soon as the Jews should fall under a foreign yoke, and in this sense he was born about the 37th year of Herod the great
or he should come just before the kingdom of Juda should have an end, which took place in the 70th year of the Christian era, or about 37 years after ...
“And he will be the expectation of nations.” Since we propose to investigate once and for all the moral meaning of the text, we need to look inside ourselves for those nations who expect from confession such purification and perfection of the senses. We can certainly see the nations inside ourselves as all the passions of our soul, which are more restless in our youth and, in a sense, act like pagans.
This passage clearly refers to Judah. It appears that until the birth of Christ there was no lack of princes from the family of Judah or of heads from its sides, until Herod came, who according to the history written by Josephus was a foreigner and usurped the throne of Judea through his plots. As soon as this happened and a head from the sides of Judah was lacking, the one to whom the kingdom had been reserved immediately came.
