Dan is a lion’s whelp. — Jacob compared him to a serpent and an adder. The lion of the tribe of Dan is not like the lion of the tribe of Judah.
He shall leap from Bashan. — The taking of Laish is probably referred to. It was a sudden, treacherous surprise, like the spring of a lion on his prey (Judges 18:27-28). The “hill of Bashan” is opposed to God’s hill in Psalms 68:15. The “king of Bashan” are reproved (Amos 4:1). The “bulls of Bashan” represent the enemies of Christ in Psalms 22:12.
O Naphtali... possess thou the west (literally, the sea) and the south. — This is not easy to interpret literally. The only sea in Naphtali’s inheritance was the Sea of Galilee. If we look on to the days when that sea becomes famous in Holy Scripture, we find our Saviour dwelling in “the land of Zeoulun and the land of Naphtali,” and through his Galilean followers possessing the west and the south, taking the “nations for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for His possession.”