Jacob Assembles His Sons

¹Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Gather together that I may tell you what will befall you in the last days.

²“Assemble together and hear, O sons of Jacob;

And listen to Israel your father.

³¶“Reuben, you are my firstborn;

My might and the beginning of my vigor,

Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in strength.

⁴“Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence,[#49:4 Or Boiling over ; lit Recklessness]

Because you went up to your father’s bed;

Then you defiled it —he went up to my couch.

⁵¶“Simeon and Levi are brothers;

Their swords are implements of violence.

⁶“Let my soul not enter into their council;

Let not my glory be united with their assembly;

Because in their anger they killed men,

And in their self-will they hamstrung oxen.

⁷“Cursed be their anger, for it is strong;

And their wrath, for it is cruel.

I will divide them amongst Jacob,

And scatter them in Israel.

⁸¶“Judah, as for you, your brothers shall praise you;

Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

Your father’s sons shall bow down to you.

⁹“Judah is a lion’s whelp;

From the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He crouches, he lies down as a lion,

And as a lioness, who dares rouse him up?

¹⁰“The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

Until Shiloh comes,

And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

¹¹“He ties his foal to the vine,[#49:11 Lit Binding of]

And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine;

He washes his garments in wine,

And his robes in the blood of grapes.

¹²“His eyes are dark from wine,[#49:12 Or darker than]

And his teeth white from milk.

¹³¶“Zebulun will dwell at the seashore;

And he shall be a shore for ships,

And his flank shall be toward Sidon.

¹⁴¶“Issachar is a strong donkey,[#49:14 Lit a donkey of bone]

Lying down between the sheepfolds.

¹⁵“And he saw that a resting place was good

And that the land was pleasant,

So he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens ,

And became a slave at forced labor.

¹⁶¶“Dan shall render justice to his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷“Dan shall be a serpent in the way,

A horned snake in the path,

That bites the horse’s heels,

So that his rider falls backward.

¹⁸“For Your salvation I hope, O Yahweh.

¹⁹¶“As for Gad, raiders shall raid him,[#49:19 Lit a raiding band]

But he will raid at their heels.

²⁰¶“As for Asher, his food shall be rich,[#49:20 Lit From; #49:20 Or bread; #49:20 Lit fat]

And he will yield royal dainties.

²¹¶“Naphtali is a doe let loose,

He gives beautiful words.

²²¶“Joseph is a fruitful bough,[#49:22 Lit son]

A fruitful bough by a spring;

Its branches run over a wall.

²³“And the archers bitterly attacked him and shot at him ,

And they bore a grudge against him;

²⁴But his bow remained firm,[#49:24 In an unyielding position]

And his arms were agile,

From the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,

From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel,

²⁵From the God of your father who helps you,

And by the Almighty who blesses you

With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶“The blessings of your father

Have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors

Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills;

May they be on the head of Joseph,

And on the top of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.

²⁷¶“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;[#49:27 Lit a wolf that tears]

In the morning he devours the prey,

And in the evening he divides the spoil.”

Jacob Breathes His Last

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. So he blessed them. He blessed them, every one with the blessing appropriate to him.[#49:28 Lit according to his blessing]

²⁹Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial site.

³¹There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah—

³²the field and the cave that is in it, purchased from the sons of Heth.”

³³So Jacob finished commanding his sons. And he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.