Genesis 49:7

Cursed was their anger - The first motions of their violence were savage; and their excessive or overflowing wrath, עברה ebrah, for it was inflexible - neither the supplications of the males, nor the entreaties, tears, cries, and shrieks of the helpless females, could deter them from their murderous purpose; for this, Genesis 49:5, they are said to have accomplished.

I will divide them out, אחלקם achallekem, I will make them into lots, giving a portion of them to one tribe, and a portion to another; but they shall never attain to any political consequence. This appears to have been literally fulfilled. Levi had no inheritance except forty-eight cities, scattered through different parts of the land of Canaan: and as to the tribe of Simeon, it is generally believed among the Jews that they became schoolmasters to the other tribes; and when they entered Canaan they had only a small portion, a few towns and villages in the worst part of Judah's lot, Joshua 19:1, which afterwards finding too little, they formed different colonies in districts which they conquered from the Idumeans and Amalekites, 1 Chronicles 4:39, etc. Thus these two tribes were not only separated from each other, but even divided from themselves, according to this prediction of Jacob.

8. Judah! thou! Thy brethren shall praise thee. Thy hand, in the neck of thine enemies: The sons of thy father shall bow themselves to thee.

9. A lion's whelp is Judah: From the prey, my son, thou hast ascended, He couched, lying down like a strong lion And like a lioness; who shall arouse him?

10. From Judah the scepter shall not depart, Nor a teacher from his offspring, Until that Shiloh shall come, And to him shall be assembled the peoples.

11. Binding his colt to the vine, And to the choice vine the foals of his ass, He washed his garments in wine, His clothes in the blood of the grape.

12. With wine shall his eyes be red, And his teeth shall be white with milk.

49:7 Cursed be their anger — Not their persons. We ought always in the expressions of our zeal carefully to distinguish between the sinner and the sin, so as not to love or bless the sin for the sake of the person, nor to hate or curse the person for the sake of the sin.

I will divide them — The Levites were scattered throughout all the tribes, and Simeon's lot lay not together, and was so strait that many of that tribe were forced to disperse themselves in quest of settlements and subsistence. This curse was afterwards turned into a blessing to the Levites; but the Simeonites, for Zimri's sin, Numbers 25:6-14, had it bound on.