Abstract
Genesis 49 shows the scene that takes place at the deathbed of the patriarchJacob. In the face of his upcoming death, Jacob calls all of his sonsthat they may listen to and accept his words of valediction. The patriarchaddresses each of them individually. This piece of text serves an exampleof the Biblical poetry in which metaphors play an important role. In theHebrew text there are words and phrases that raise many doubts and questions.Not only contemporary translators and biblical scholars contendwith these difficulties, but ancient and medieval commentators did as well.The Aramaic Targums testify to the early Jewish exegesis and interpretationof Gen 49. This article presents the paraphrase and discusses a fewselected verses of the Aramaic version of Torah (Tg. Onq., Tg. Neof., Frgm.Tg., Tg. Ps.-J.). Based on the above examples, the development of principalJewish views on eschatology (49:1-2) and of Messianic expectations incontext of Jacob’s blessing of the tribe of Judah (49:8-12) is portrayed. Thelast part of this article comprises the rendering and the meaning of theTargumic animal metaphors based on the examples of Issachar (49:14-15)and of Benjamin (49:27) that significantly differ from the Hebrew text.
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