Genesis 49:17
Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth the horse's heels that his rider may fall backward.
Open Genesis 49:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Fiat Dan coluber in via, cerastes in semita, mordens ungulas equi, ut cadat ascensor ejus retro.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ γενηθήτω Δὰν ὄφις ἐφ᾽ ὁδοῦ, ἐνκαθήμενος ἐπὶ τρίβου· δάκνων πτέρναν ἵππου, καὶ πεσεῖται ὁ ἱππεὺς εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- יְהִי דָן֙ נָחָ֣שׁ עֲלֵי דֶ֔רֶךְ שְׁפִיפֹ֖ן עֲלֵי אֹ֑רַח הַנֹּשֵׁךְ֙ עִקְּבֵי ס֔וּס וַיִּפֹּ֥ל רֹכְב֖וֹ אָחֽוֹר
The Fathers on this verse
St Hippolytus On Genesis, Section I
Gen. xlix. 16-20 Dan shall judge his people, as himself also one tribe in Israel. And let Dan become a serpent by the way, lying on the path, stinging the horse’s heel; and the horseman shall fall backward, waiting for the salvation of the Lord. Gad, a robber’s troop shall rob him; and he shall spoil it at the heels. Aser, his bread shall be fat, and he shall furnish dainties to princes.
St Hippolytus Treatise on Christ and Antichrist
14. Thus did the Scriptures preach before-time of this lion and lion’s whelp. And in like manner also we find it written regarding Antichrist. For Moses speaks thus: “Dan is a lion’s whelp, and he shall leap from Bashan.” But that no one may err by supposing that this is said of the Saviour, let him attend carefully to the matter. “Dan,” he says, “is a lion’s whelp;” and in naming the tribe of Dan, he declared clearly the tribe from which Antichrist is destined to spring. For as Christ springs from the tribe of Judah, so Antichrist is to spring from the tribe of Dan. …
Pseudo-Hippolytus Appendix to the Works of Hippolytus. Containing Dubious and Spurious Pieces, Section XVIII
As the Lord Jesus Christ made His sojourn with us in the flesh (which He received) from the holy, immaculate Virgin, and took to Himself the tribe of Judah, and came forth from it, the Scripture declared His royal lineage in the word of Jacob, when in his benediction he addressed himself to his son in these terms: “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hands shall be on the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from a sprout, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lion’s whelp: who shall rouse him up? A ruler shall not depart from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until what is in store for him shall come, and he is the expectation of the nations.” Mark these words of Jacob which were spoken to Judah, and are fulfilled in the Lord. …