Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 49:24

24 But his bow abode in strength, and the armes of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob : from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel .

Wherewith he opposed his enemies, which was no military bow, but that which he opposed to all their injuries, to wit, his own vertue, his innocence, his patience, his temperance, his faith and hope in God, whereby he res[illegible: 1+ letters]sted and vanquished all the temptations and difficulties, which he met with, so that all his enemies co[illegible: 1+ letters] neither detile, nor destroy, him.

(i. e.) Of my God, the noun for the pronoun, which is frequent. When men forsook and persecuted him, my God and his God stood by him, He sheweth, that it was not Iosephs Wisdom or Courage, but Gods gracious assistance, that made him conquerour.

Either 1. From that great deliverance vouchsafed by God to Ioseph it is, that Israel or Iacob hath a shepherd to feed him, a stone to lay his head upon, as once he did, Gen. 28. 11. or a rock of refuge to flie to in his great distresses, or a foundation stone or corner stone or pillar to sustain and preserve Iacobs house. Or rather 2. from the hands of the mighty God of Iacob, last mentioned, or from the God of his father, as it follows the next verse. So the sence is this, Though Ioseph was a blessed instrument in this wonderful work, yet the God of Jacob was the chief authour of it, by whose wise and merciful providence it was so ordered that Joseph should be first sold, and afterward advanced, and all in order to this end, that his Israel, with whom he hath been pleased to make a gracious and everlasting Covenant, should have a shepherd to feed him in the time of Famine, and a stone or rock to support him.

Marginal references: Job 29. 20.