In Genesis 49, before Jacob ben Isaac’s death, he blessed his 12 sons. Jews and Christians generally interpret Jacob’s blessing as a prophecy about his descendants, the Israelites. It’s not so much about Jacob’s literal sons as it is about the tribes descended from them.
Fr’instance, Jacob said he’d disperse Simeon and Levi throughout Israel. (49.7) Which sounds really odd unless these are people-groups instead of individuals. So we interpret this as Jacob foretelling how Simeon’s tribe would be swallowed up by Judah over time, and how Levi’s tribe would have no territory of their own.
There wasn’t a lot of blessing in what Jacob had to say about his eldest three sons, who disappointed him one way or another. But when he got to his fourth son, Judah, it sounds like he considered Judah their leader—and if we’re talking about Judah’s tribe, it of course includes David, all the kings of Jerusalem until the Babylonian conquest, and Jesus. Here Jacob described Judah’s role.
The staff won’t turn away from Judah,
a scepter between his feet
until Shiloh comes,
and obedient people
go to him.—Jacob, Genesis 49.10 KWL
That’s a very literal translation. Most bible translations are a lot less vague about how this verse has to do with kingship. Here’s the English Standard Version, by way of comparison.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
—Jacob, Genesis 49.10 ESV
Now, it looks like—and your average skeptic would immediately say—the translators of the ESV skewed their version in a Messianic direction. One might even accuse them of wanting so much for this to be a Messianic prophecy that they simply picked kingly language. Note how shevét, “staff,” also becomes “scepter” (though indeed shevét and mekhoqéq are meant to be parallel ideas.) Shiloh—the proper name of a city—becomes “tribute,” and “obedient people” doesn’t describe Shiloh’s particular people, but the people of every nation under the King of Kings.
They’d be right—if the translators of the ESV were only making a straight translation of the Hebrew text of Genesis. But translators don’t just read the Hebrew text: They look at the way other Jews and Christians have interpreted the bible over the centuries. One of the more important interpretations was the Septuagint, the first-century Greek translation of the bible, which translated this verse like so:
Judah’s leader, the governor from his thighs, won’t leave till the thing that’s stored up for him—that which the nations are expecting—comes.
—Jacob, Genesis 49.10 LXX (KWL)
Another would be the targums, the first-century Aramaic translations of the bible, which translated it thus:
One who executes rule shall not pass away from those of the house of Judah, nor a scribe from the sons of his sons, forever, until the Messiah comes, whose is the kingdom, and whom the nations will obey.
—Jacob, Genesis 49.10,
Aramaic Targums, trans. by Stephen A. Kaufmann.
Yep, that’s what first-century Pharisees believed it meant. They were certain this blessing is a Messianic prophecy.
Here’s the thing. Lots of Christians claim a verse from the bible is a Messianic prophecy, not because the scriptures describe it as one, but because the Pharisees described it as one. They figure the Pharisees of the first century were looking rather intently for the Messiah, and had amassed a bunch of bible verses which would point him out to them, and those are the Messianic prophecies which the writers of the New Testament quote freely. So really it’s the Pharisees who’ve determined the canon of what is, and isn’t, a Messianic prophecy.
Considering how the bulk of the Pharisees missed Jesus altogether, this isn’t a wise way to go. The Pharisees made the same mistake overeager Christians do today: We try to find Jesus all over the Old Testament, and the Pharisees tried to find Messiah everywhere as well. That includes taking some verses, which have little to nothing to do with Messiah, pull ’em out of context, and claim they’re Messianic prophecies when they’re not. Is every verse of the Pharisee list a Messianic prophecy? No.
Is this a Messianic prophecy? Yes. It’s predicting Judah will have a ruler as one of his descendants. This is a Messianic prophecy in that it predicts a king of Israel. Any such prophecy is automatically Messianic. And since Jesus is also king of Israel, it automatically refers to him too.
But sometimes that’s not as big a deal as we make it out to be. While Messianic prophecies all apply to Jesus, and are fulfilled by Jesus, they’re not all specifically about Jesus. This one is more of an indicator as to where Jacob expected his nation’s leaders to come from: He saw leadership qualities in Judah which he didn’t so much see in the other sons; Joseph included. He expected great things of Judah’s descendants. And this expectation is fulfilled, both in David, and finally in Jesus.
As for the reference to Shiloh, that’s confused interpreters for a good long time. Shiloh, in northern Israel, wasn’t a major city in Jacob’s day, and doesn’t really come up in the bible till the Levites put the Tabernacle there. (Js 18.1) Various Dispensationalists claim it’s an End Times prophecy: Messiah will conquer “Shiloh” then, and they have all sorts of odd guesses as to what Shiloh is. Others have figured “Shiloh” can mean “[that] which he has,” so what ad khi yavó Shilóh means is, “until the coming of the one to whom it belongs,” as the NLT has it. But when you correct a few vowels and read it ad khi yuvá shai leh, you have the ESV’s “until tribute comes to him,” which is a much better parallel idea to “and obedient people go to him.” For that reason I’m inclined to go with the ESV’s interpretation.
How does tribute and obedience come to Jesus? Well, as it does to every king: We pay him tribute by honoring and worshiping Jesus, and doing as he wants—which is likewise our obedience to him. Every king gets honor and obedience, though not every king deserves it anywhere close to the degree Jesus does. It’s because other kings are so lacking and unworthy that we Americans decided to do away with them. Our ideal of kingship comes from Jesus, because he fulfills the idea best. And that’s how he fulfills every prophecy of a king in the scriptures.