ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף בראשית 49:17

A Midrashic approach: the word לראות, “to see,” means “to see and to be seen.” We read in verse six: ויצא חמור אבי שכם אל יעקב לדבר אתו, Chamor the father of Shechem went out to Yaakov to speak with him.” About this the Tanchuma 7 Vayishlach writes: He said to him: ‘I know that your grandfather Avraham was a prince as the Hittites had acclaimed him as: “you are a prince in our midst” (23,6). I, however, am a prince in the land also. Give the daughter of a prince to a prince (my son) as a wife.” Upon hearing this Yaakov replied: “The title ‘prince’ is applicable only to a שור, ox” (not to a donkey, meaning of the name Chamor.) The Torah had written that Avraham ran to the cattle, (ox) (18,7) and it is written in Proverbs 14,4: ורב תבואות בכח שור, “a bountiful harvest is due to the strength of the ox.” An ox and a donkey cannot mate together. The Torah writes expressly: “you shall not plough with an ox and a donkey together.” In the Book of Prophets (Kings II 14,9) we find the following statement: “The thistle in Lebanon sent the following message to the cedar in Lebanon. ‘give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ But a wild beast in Lebanon went by and trampled down the thistle.” The wild beasts in that parable are the sons of Yaakov who have been compared to wild beasts. In the blessings bestowed on Yaakov’s sons by their father, Yehudah is compared to a lion (49,9); Dan is compared to a snake (49,17); Binyamin is compared to a wolf (49,27); Naftali to a gazelle (49,21). When the Book of Kings spoke about the wild beasts trampling the thistle, the reference was to the sons of Yaakov Shimon and Levi killing the male inhabitants of Shechem. The prophet Hoseah also complains about a similar occurrence in Hoseah 6,9 where he wrote about what would happen to the people of Shechem in his own time because they encouraged depravity. The people would be murdered because they had been guilty of sexual misconduct.

Ibn Ezra believes that it is derived from שפיים, meaning “a high place.” The word אל was omitted. We have a parallel construction in Numbers 11,35 נסעו העם חצרות, “the people journeyed to Chatzerot,” where the word אל is also absent.
The Torah reveals that Bileam made desperate efforts to find a spot from which he could see at one and the same time the entire Jewish camp; the fact that they were arranged in different directions made this impossible. He moved in the manner of someone trying to find clues on the ground. The word שפי would indicate the fact that the people were scattered (מפוזרות) in different directions. שפ"י is thus an acronym for שה פזורה ישראל "Israel is like scattered sheep" (Jeremiah 50,17).
A Midrashic approach (Sotah 10): Bileam was lame on one foot and could not walk upright, dragging one foot behind, his posture making him appear as constantly being at a slant. Samson was lame on both feet, as evidenced by the fact that he is described as שפיפון (Genesis 49,17), while Bileam is described here as שפי.

And here I have a place to resolve the difference in language, and this is: Because the serpent is a large snake that is exceedingly dangerous, as it is written The venom of serpents is their wine (Deuteronomy 32:33). We learn from this that its venom is greater than that of an ordinary snake. Now, Moses and Aaron performed all the miracles through the utterances of their mouths, like this snake whose main power is in its mouth. And it appears that most of the miracles were performed through the staffs of Moses and Aaron. So that no opponent would have an opening to dispute and say that all the miracles were performed by the power of the staffs, and perhaps they might erroneously claim that there was an element of sorcery in their staffs, therefore they were transformed into snakes to say: just as the snake bites without enchantment with its mouth, so too Moses and Aaron’s power was in their mouths, and the staffs performed all those actions through the power of their spoken words, for the righteous decree and it is established for them. Therefore, both of their staffs became snakes, as it is said Dan shall be a serpent on the way (Genesis 49:17), likewise the staffs of Moses and Aaron would be like burning snakes to harm Pharaoh and all his servants.
And know and understand that Moses was a shepherd and leader for Israel with his staff of strength, as a shepherd leads his flock, and he was a ruler and governor also over Pharaoh. But Aaron was only a ruler over Pharaoh and his people alone. Therefore, God commanded that in front of Israel, Moses should cast his staff and it would become a snake on the way to Pharaoh and all his people, biting the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward — a hint to the horse of Egypt and its rider. And Moses fled from it, because he thought that his staff would always be destructive and harmful like a snake, and this is not consistent with His good nature. Therefore, it was said to him Grasp it by its tail, and it became a staff in his hand. For only its face, meaning the place of the head and mouth, is dangerous to harm and destroy the enemies of the Holy One, blessed be He. Its tail, however, is the opposite of this, for its end is to shepherd Israel, not to harm or destroy, like the tail of a snake that does not harm but is merely like an ordinary staff. So shall this power of the snake be a staff in his hand, as if to say that it would be a harmful snake to Egypt and a staff of strength for Israel at once. Or if you prefer to say that even for Israel it would be both a staff and a snake at once — a staff of strength for the good and a burning snake for the evil, for the bite of the wise is like the bite of a snake — this also explains well why this miracle was performed specifically with Moses’s staff in front of Israel.