Jacob reveals his sons’ destinies

¹Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the coming days.

²Assemble yourselves and listen, sons of Jacob;

³Reuben, you are my oldest son,

my strength and my first contender,

superior in status and superior in might.

⁴As wild as the waters, you won’t endure,

for you went up to your father’s bed,

you went up and violated my couch.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers,

⁶May I myself never enter their council.

May my honor never be linked to their group;

⁷Cursed be their anger; it is violent,

I’ll divide them up within Jacob

⁸Judah, you are the one your brothers will honor;

⁹Judah is a lion’s cub;

He lies down and crouches like a lion;

¹⁰The scepter won’t depart from Judah,

Gifts will be brought to him;

¹¹He ties his male donkey to the vine,

He washes his clothes in wine,

¹²His eyes are darker than wine,

¹³Zebulun will live at the seashore;

¹⁴Issachar is a sturdy donkey,

¹⁵He saw that a resting place was good

He lowered his shoulder to haul loads

¹⁶Dan will settle disputes for his people,[#49.16 Or he judges, or settles disputes]

¹⁷Dan will be a snake on the road,

biting a horse’s heels,

¹⁸I long for your victory, LORD .

¹⁹Gad will be attacked by attackers,[#49.19 Or he attacks or good fortune]

²⁰Asher grows fine foods,[#49.20 LXX, Syr, Vulg; MT from Asher]

²¹Naphtali is a wild doe

²²Joseph is a young bull,[#49.22 Heb uncertain]

²³They attacked him fiercely and fired arrows;

²⁴But his bow stayed strong,

²⁶The blessings of your father exceed

²⁷Benjamin is a wolf who hunts:

²⁸These are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them. He blessed them by giving each man his own particular blessing.

Jacob’s death and burial

²⁹Jacob ordered them, “I am soon to join my people. Bury me with my ancestors in the cave that’s in the field of Ephron the Hittite;

³⁰in the cave that’s in the field of Machpelah near Mamre in the land of Canaan that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial property.

³¹That is where Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and where Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and where I buried Leah.

³²It is the field and the cave in it that belonged to the Hittites.”

³³After he finished giving orders to his sons, he put his feet up on the bed, took his last breath, and joined his people.