Chapter 49
1
Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather together, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the end of the days."
2
Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father.
3
Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the firstfruits of my vigor, preeminence of might and preeminence of strength.
4
Unstable like water, do not excel, because you went up onto your father's bed; then you profaned it—his bed, where he went up.
5
Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are tools of violence.
6
May my nephesh not come in Sodom, may my glory not unite in their assembly, for in their anger they killed a man and in their will they uprooted an ox.
7
Cursed is their anger because it is fierce, and their wrath because it is cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel.
8
Judah, you—your brothers will praise you; your hand on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons will bow down to you.
9
Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. You have crouched. You have lain down as a lion and as a lion cub. Who will rouse him?
10
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him the peoples shall gather.
11
He ties his donkey to the vine, and his colt to the choice vine; he washes his garments in wine, and they dip them in the blood of grapes.
12
Crimson eyes from wine, and white teeth from milk.
13
Zebulun will dwell at a shore of seas, and he at a shore of ships, and his flank to her side.
14
Issachar is a strong-boned donkey lying down between the sheepfolds.
15
And he saw that a resting place was good and the land that it was pleasant, and he inclined his shoulder to bear and became a forced-labor servant.
16
Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
17
Dan shall be a serpent on the way, a horned viper on the path, the one biting the heels of a horse so that its rider falls backward.
18
I have waited for your salvation, LORD.
19
Gad—a troop will raid him, but he will raid at the heel.
20
From Asher: his bread is fat, and he will give the king's delicacies.
21
Naphtali is a doe let loose, a giver of words of beauty.
22
Joseph is a son of a fruitful cow, a son of a fruitful cow—a fruitful bough by a spring; its daughters stepped upon a fruitful bough—a bull.
23
And they embittered him and contended with him and shot at him, lords of arrows.
24
And it remained in strength—his bow, and his arms' Seed were let loose from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob; from there, Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.
25
from God your father and he will help you and with the LORD and he will bless you—blessings of the heavens from above, blessings of the primordial deep lying beneath, blessings of the breasts and womb.
26
The blessing of your father prevailed over the blessing of his parents, to the desire of the everlasting hill country. They will be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the Nazirite of his brothers.
27
Benjamin—a wolf that tears. In the morning he eats prey, and toward evening he divides spoil.
28
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each man according to his own blessing.