﻿Genesis.
Chapter 49.
Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the days to come. 
Gather together and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father. 
Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the first of my vigor, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. 
Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it. He went up to my couch! 
Simeon and Levi are brothers; their weapons are instruments of violence. 
Let my soul not enter their council; let my honor not be joined to their assembly. For in their anger they killed a man, and in their willfulness they hamstrung an ox. 
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. 
Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. 
Judah is a lion’s cub. From the prey you have gone up, my son. He crouched, he lay down like a lion, like a lioness; who shall rouse him? 
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. 
He binds his donkey’s colt to the vine, the foal of his female donkey to the choice vine. He washes his garment in wine, his robe in the blood of grapes. 
His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. 
Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the seas; he shall be a haven for ships, and his border shall reach to Sidon. 
Issachar is a sturdy donkey, lying down between the two sheepfolds. 
He saw that rest was good and that the land was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to bear a load and became a forced laborer. 
Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 
Dan shall be a serpent by the road, a viper by the path, biting the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward. 
I wait for your salvation, O LORD. 
Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. 
Asher’s bread shall be rich, and he shall provide royal delicacies. 
Naphtali is a doe let loose; he gives beautiful words. 
Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; its branches run over the wall. 
The archers caused him bitter grief, shot at him, and hated him. 
But his bow remained firm, and his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there comes the shepherd, the stone of Israel), 
by the God of your father, who will help you, and by the Almighty, who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 
Your father’s blessings have surpassed the blessings of my parents, reaching to the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they be on Joseph’s head, on the crown of the one set apart from his brothers. 
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil.” 
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with his own blessing. 
He commanded them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 
in the cave in the field of Machpelah, which faces Mamre in the land of Canaan. Abraham bought the field from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for burial. 
There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah; there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah. 
The field and the cave in it were purchased from the sons of Heth.” 
When Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people. 
