Jacob Gathered his Tribe

prophet jacob, peace be upon him (pbuh), before his death summoned his twelve sons and their families at his deathbed (genesis 49). he blesses them and told the future of his whole tribe.

prophecy

this prophecy may be regarded as the nucleus of these scriptures which can be found in genesis (49:10):

"the scepter shall not depart from judah, nor the ruler's staff from

between his feet, until he (shiloh) comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

"in many versions of the bible, shiloh is written instead of the pronoun he.

incidentally, shiloh is also a name of a town, but it is interesting to note that another meaning of it is peace, tranquility, e.g. islam. shiloh refers to a person who would come and bring peace to the people. so the israelite prophethood would stop as soon as the he (shiloh) comes. another warning to israelites to cease as a nation before god is foretold in the book of jeremiah (31:36):

 "if this fixed order departs from before me, says the lord, then shall the descendants of israel cease from being a nation before me forever." in fact, the above prophecies were corroborations of god's threat to the israelite nation prophesied in the book of deuteronomy (32:21):

 "they have stirred me to jealousy with what is no god; they have provoked me with their idols. so i will stir them to jealousy with those who are no people; i will provoke them with a foolish nation."

the jews who regard themselves as the chosen people and like to think of themselves as a superior race were, in fact, described by moses (pbuh) as stiffnaked, arrogant and rebellious people in deuteronomy (31:27).

they have been chauvinistic, unyielding and idol worshippers. the truth was that the jews have been jealous of ishmael (pbuh) because they knew very well that in him, the covenant of god was made, concluded and sealed through his circumcision (deuteronomy 17:13, 17:24-26).

 it was out of this rancor that their scribes and doctors of law have corrupted the scriptures. they have intentionally removed the name ishmael and inserted isaac instead, thus, denying the existence of the former and depriving him of his legitimate right as the firstborn. however, the descriptive epithet "thy only son" in genesis (22:2 and 22:12), has unveiled the truth. it was ishmael who was "the only son" of prophet abraham (pbuh) when isaac was not yet born. in fact, prophet ishmael (pbuh) was 14 years older than prophet isaac (pbuh) according to genesis (16:16 and 21:5).