NAPHTALI, or Nephtali, the sixth Son of Jacob by Bilhah, Rachel’s Hand-Maid. The Word Naphtali comes from the Hebrew Phatal, which signifies to struggle, to strive, to wrestle, to supplant. When Rachel gave him this Name, she said,1 With great Wrestlings have I wrestled with my Sister, and I have prevailed. ” I have ” strove with her after the Manner of ” wrestlers, who endeavour to throw one ” another down; I have made great Ef- ” forts and at last have obtained the Victory.” We know but few of the Particulars of the Life of Naphtali. His Sons were Jahzeel, Guni, Gen. xlvi. 24.Jezer and Shillem. The Patriarch Jacob, when he gave his Blessing to his Son Naphtali, Gen. xlix. 21.said to him; Naphtali is a Hind let loose; he giveth goodly Words. Most of the Rabbins and Commentators apply this to Barak, who was of the Tribe of Naphtali, and who having at first shew’d the Fear of a Hind, by refusing to march against the Canaanites, unless the Prophetess Deborah would go along with him; afterwards shewed that he imitated the Judg. iv. 5.Swiftness of a Hind in pursuit of the Enemy. He signalized his Eloquence also in that sublime Canticle he composed with Deborah, to give Thanks to God for their Victory.
The Septuagint give another Explication to this Text of Genesis,e Naphthali is as a Tree that puts forth young Branches, the Shoots of which are fine. This Sense seems to me as good at least as that which is commonly follow’d. Jacob commends the great Fertility of Naphtali, and the Beauty of his Race. Naphtali had but four Sons, and yet at the coming out of Egypt his Tribe made up fifty three thousand four hundred Men able to bear Arms. Moses in the Blessing he gave to the Deut. xxxii. 23.same Tribe, says, O Naphthali, satisfied with Favour, and full with the Blessing of the Lord, possess thou the West and the South. [The Vulgate reads it, The Sea and the South, and the Hebrew will admit of either Interpretation.] That is, the Sea of Gennesaret, which was to the South of the Inheritance of this Tribe. His Soil was very fruitful in Corn and Oil. His Limits were extended into upper and lower Galilee, having Jordan to the East; the Tribes of Asher and Zebulun to the West, Libanus to the North, and the Tribe of Issachar to the South.
The Tribe of Naphtali encamped in the Wilderness on the North-side of the Tabernacle, between the Tribes of Dan and Manasseh.Numb. ii. 25, 26, 27, &c. After the Division that Joshua made of the Land of Promise, the Children of Naphtali did not destroy all the Canaanites that they found in the Country, but contented Judg. i. 33.themselves with making them tributary. The Naphtalites being on the Frontiers to the North, were first invaded, and first made Captives by the Kings of Assyria.2 Isaiah foretold to them, that they should see the Light of the Isai. ix. 1.Messiah, and should be first illuminated by the Light of the Gospel. And indeed our Saviour preached oftener and longer in Galilee, and particularly in the Matth. iv. 13, 15.Tribe of Naphtali, than in any other Part of Judea. In the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs may be read several Circumstances of the Life of Naphtali, and some Prophecies ascribed to him: But this Book is accounted apocryphal, and is of no Authority among the Learned.
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