49:19 Gad will be raided by marauding bands,
but he will attack them at their heels. 1
49:20 Asher’s 2 food will be rich, 3
and he will provide delicacies 4 to royalty.
49:21 Naphtali is a free running doe, 5
he speaks delightful words. 6
1 tc Heb “heel.” The MT has suffered from misdivision at this point. The initial mem on the first word in the next verse should probably be taken as a plural ending on the word “heel.”
2 tc Heb “from Asher,” but the initial mem (מ) of the MT should probably be moved to the end of the preceding verse and taken as a plural ending on “heel.”
3 tn The Hebrew word translated “rich,” when applied to products of the ground, means abundant in quantity and quality.
4 tn The word translated “delicacies” refers to foods that were delightful, the kind fit for a king.
5 tn Heb “a doe set free.”
6 tn Heb “the one who gives words of beauty.” The deer imagery probably does not continue into this line; Naphtali is the likely antecedent of the substantival participle, which is masculine, not feminine, in form. If the animal imagery is retained from the preceding line, the image of a talking deer is preposterous. For this reason some read the second line “the one who bears beautiful fawns,” interpreting אִמְרֵי (’imre) as a reference to young animals, not words (see HALOT 67 s.v. *אִמֵּר).