49
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. 2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. 3 Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power [should be thine]. 4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not have the excellence; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou the one who ascended my couch. 5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; weapons of violence are their swords. 6 Into their secret shall my soul not come; unto their assembly my spirit shall not be united; for in their anger they slew the man, and in their self-will they lamed the ox. 7 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. 8 Judah, thou art the one thy brothers shall praise, thy hand shall be on the neck of thy enemies; thy father's children shall bow down unto thee. 9 Like a lion's whelp, O Judah, from the prey, my son, thou risest: he stoopeth down, he croucheth as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him up? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet; until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 11 He bindeth unto the vine his foal, and to the vine-branch his ass's colt; he washeth his garments in wine, and in the blood of grapes his clothes; 12 His eyes shall be red from wine, and his teeth white from milk. 13 Zebulun shall dwell at the margin of the seas; and he shall be at the haven of ships; and his border shall be near to Zidon. 14 Issachar is a strong-boned ass, couching down between the stables. 15 And when he saw the resting-place that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant, he bent his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute. 16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder on the path, that biteth the horse in the heels, so that his rider falleth backward. 18 For thy salvation, I hope, O Lord. 19 Gad, troops will band against him; but he shall wound their heel. 20 Out of Asher cometh fat bread, and he shall yield royal dainties. 21 Naphtali is [like] a fleet hind; he bringeth pleasant words. 22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; the branches of which run over the wall. 23 And they embittered his life, and they shot at him, and they hated him, the men of the arrows. 24 But his bow abode in strength, and his arm and his hands remained firm; from the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, from there thou becamest the shepherd, the stone of Israel. 25 From the God of thy father, who will help thee; and from the Almighty, who will bless thee, with blessings of heaven above, with blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, with blessings of the breasts, and of the womb; 26 With the blessings of thy father that have excelled the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: these shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brothers. 27 Benjamin shall be as a wolf that rendeth: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at evening he shall divide the spoil. 28 All these are the tribes of Israel, twelve in number; and this is what their father spoke unto them, and wherewith he blessed them; every one according to his proper blessing blessed he them. 29 And he charged them and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me near my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which field Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite, for a possession as a burying-place, 31 (There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah,) 32 Purchasing the field and the cave that is therein from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed; and he departed this life, and was gathered unto his people.