1Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather together, and I will tell you what will meet you in the latter days."2Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob; hear Israel your father.3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the beginning of my strength, the preeminence of dignity and the preeminence of power.4Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it when you went up.5Simeon and Levi are brothers; their weapons are instruments of violence.6Let not my soul enter their counsel; let not my glory be joined to their assembly, for in their anger they killed a man and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.7Cursed 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.8Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you.9Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up; he crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who dares rouse him?10The 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.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 dwell at the shore of the sea; he shall be a haven for ships, and his border shall extend to 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 bent his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor.16Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.17Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward.18I wait for your salvation, O LORD.19Raiders shall attack Gad, but he shall attack at their heels.20Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies.21Naphtali is a doe let loose; he gives beautiful words.22Joseph is a fruitful son, a fruitful son by a spring; his branches climb over the wall.23The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him.24Yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob; from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.25By the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.26The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the limit of the everlasting hills; may they rest on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.27Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at evening he shall divide the spoil.28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them; he blessed each with the blessing appropriate to him.