GEN 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 latter days.
GEN 49:2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father.
GEN 49:3 Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
GEN 49:4 Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
GEN 49:5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords.
GEN 49:6 O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hocked an ox.
GEN 49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.
GEN 49:8 Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee.
GEN 49:9 Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up: He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
GEN 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come: And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
GEN 49:11 Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; He hath washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes:
GEN 49:12 His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk.
GEN 49:13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; And he shall be for a haven of ships; And his border shall be upon Sidon.
GEN 49:14 Issachar is a strong ass, Couching down between the sheepfolds:
GEN 49:15 And he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under taskwork.
GEN 49:16 Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.
GEN 49:17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way, An adder in the path, That biteth the horse's heels, So that his rider falleth backward.
GEN 49:18 I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah.
GEN 49:19 Gad, a troop shall press upon him; But he shall press upon their heel.
GEN 49:20 Out of the Asher his bread shall be fat, And he shall yield royal dainties.
GEN 49:21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: He giveth goodly words.
GEN 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a fountain; His branches run over the wall.
GEN 49:23 The archers have sorely grieved him, And shot at him, and persecute him:
GEN 49:24 But his bow abode in strength, And the arms of his hands were made strong, By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),
GEN 49:25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
GEN 49:26 The blessings of thy father Have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
GEN 49:27 Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth: In the morning she shall devour the prey, And at even he shall divide the spoil.
GEN 49:28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
GEN 49:29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
GEN 49:30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.
GEN 49:31 there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah:
GEN 49:32 the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.
GEN 49:33 And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.