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1Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather around, that I may tell you what will happen to you in days to come.[#Num 24.14]
2Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob;
listen to Israel your father.
3Reuben, you are my firstborn,[#Gen 29.32; Deut 21.17]
my might and the first fruits of my vigor,
excelling in rank and excelling in power.
4Unstable as water, you shall no longer excel[#Gen 35.22; Deut 27.20]
because you went up onto your father’s bed;
then you defiled it—you went up onto my couch!
5Simeon and Levi are brothers;[#Gen 34.25–30]
weapons of violence are their swords.
6May I never come into their council;[#Gen 34.26; Prov 1.15; Eph 5.11]
may I not be joined to their company,
for in their anger they killed men,
and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.
7Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,[#Josh 19.1, 9; 21.1–42]
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
8Judah, your brothers shall praise you;[#Deut 33.7; 1 Chr 5.2]
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
9Judah is a lion’s whelp;[#Ezek 19.5–7; Mic 5.8]
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?
10The scepter shall not depart from Judah,[#Num 24.17; Ps 60.7; Isa 2.2; 11.1; Lk 1.32]
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him,
and the obedience of the peoples is his.
11Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he washes his garments in wine
and his robe in the blood of grapes;
12his eyes are darker than wine
and his teeth whiter than milk.
13Zebulun shall settle at the shore of the sea;[#Deut 33.18, 19; Josh 19.10, 11]
he shall be a haven for ships,
and his border shall be at Sidon.
14Issachar is a strong donkey,
lying down between the sheepfolds;
15he saw that a resting place was good
and that the land was pleasant,
so he bowed his shoulder to the burden
and became a slave at forced labor.
16Dan shall judge his people[#Deut 33.22; Judg 18.1, 2]
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17Dan shall be a snake by the roadside,[#Judg 18.26, 27]
a viper along the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
so that its rider falls backward.
18I wait for your salvation, O Lord .[#Ex 15.2; Ps 25.5; 119.166, 174; Isa 25.9; Mic 7.7]
19Gad shall be raided by raiders,[#Deut 33.20; 1 Chr 5.18]
but he shall raid at their heels.
20Asher’s food shall be rich,[#Deut 33.24, 25; Josh 19.24; #49.20 Gk Vg Syr: Heb From Asher]
and he shall provide royal delicacies.
21Naphtali is a doe let loose[#Deut 33.23]
that bears lovely fawns.
22Joseph is a fruitful bough,[#Deut 33.13–17; #49.22 Meaning of Heb uncertain]
a fruitful bough by a spring;
his branches run over the wall.
23The archers fiercely attacked him;[#Gen 37.4, 24, 28]
they shot at him and pressed him hard.
24Yet his bow remained taut,[#Ps 18.34; 23.1; 132.2, 5; Isa 1.24; 28.16; 41.10; 1 Pet 2.6–8]
and his arms were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
25by the God of your father, who will help you,[#Gen 27.28; 28.3, 13; 32.9; 48.3]
by the Almighty who will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26The blessings of your father[#Deut 33.15, 16]
are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains,
the bounties of the everlasting hills;
may they be on the head of Joseph,
on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
27Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
in the morning devouring the prey
and at evening dividing the spoil.”
28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, blessing each one of them with a suitable blessing.[#Gen 23.16–20]
29Then he charged them, saying to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my ancestors in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,[#Gen 25.8; 47.30]
30in the cave in the field at Machpelah, near Mamre, in the land of Canaan, in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.[#Gen 23.16]
31There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried; there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried; and there I buried Leah.[#Gen 23.19; 25.9; 35.29]
32The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”
33When Jacob ended his charge to his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.[#v 29; Gen 25.8; Acts 7.15]