Genesis 49:18 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord These words may be considered in two lights; 1st, As connected with the preceding prophecy concerning Dan, according to the explanation given in the last note. Under a foresight of their dishonourable, perfidious, and serpent-like conduct, and the general idolatry which should be introduced among his descendants through their means, Jacob says, I have waited for, expected and desired, thy help, O Lord, to save my posterity from the manifold sins and temporal calamities which I foresee are coming upon them, and especially from spiritual and eternal miseries, by that Messiah whom thou hast promised, that seed of the woman which is to bruise the head of him that bruises the heel of thy people. Or, 2d, They may be considered as an unconnected sentence, an ejaculation, in which he interrupts the thread of his discourse, and breathes out his desires after God. And the pious ejaculations of a warm and lively devotion, though sometimes they may be incoherent, yet are not impertinent. It is no absurdity, when we are speaking to men, to lift up our hearts to God. The salvation he waited for was, 1st, Christ, the promised seed, whom he had spoken of, Genesis 49:10; now he was going to be gathered to his people, he breathes after him to whom the gathering of the people shall be. 2d, Heaven, the better country, which he declared plainly that he sought, Hebrews 11:13-14, and continued seeking now he was in Egypt.