Genesis 49

¹ Jacob called his sons and said, ‘Gather together that I may declare to you what lies before you in time to come.

² ‘Gather round, sons of Jacob, and listen; listen to Israel your father.

³ Reuben, you are my first-born, my vigour, and the first-fruit of my manhood, foremost in pride, foremost in strength

⁴ uncontrolled as a flood: you shall not be foremost, for you mounted your father’s bed, and so defiled my couch, to my hurt.

⁵ ‘Simeon and Levi are brothers, they carried out their malicious plans

⁶ Let my soul not enter into their counsel nor my heart join in their company, for in their rage they have killed men; in their fury they hamstrung bulls.

⁷ Accursed be their rage for its ruthlessness, their wrath for its ferocity. I will divide them among Jacob, I will scatter them among Israel.[*a]

⁸ ‘Judah, your brothers shall praise you: you grip your enemies by the neck, your father’s sons shall do you homage,

⁹ Judah is a lion cub, you climb back, my son, from your kill; like a lion he crouches and lies down, or a lioness: who dare rouse him?

¹⁰ The sceptre shall not pass from Judah, nor the mace from between his feet, until he come to whom it belongs, to whom the peoples shall render obedience.

¹¹ He ties up his young ass to the vine, to its stock the foal of his she-ass. He washes his coat in wine, his cloak in the blood of the grape;

¹² his eyes are cloudy with wine, his teeth are white with milk.

¹³ Zebulun lives by the shore of the sea, he is a sailor on board the ships, he has Sidon close by him.

¹⁴ ‘Issachar is a strong ass, lying down in the midst of the sheepfolds.

¹⁵ He saw how good it was to take his ease, how pleasant was the country, so he bowed his shoulders for the load, he became a slave to forced labour[*b].

¹⁶ ‘Dan is judge of his people like each one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷ May Dan be a serpent on the road, a viper on the path, who bites the horse on the hock and its rider falls backward.

¹⁸ ‘I trust in your salvation, Yahweh.

¹⁹ ‘Gad, robbers rob him, and he, he robs and pursues them.

²⁰ ‘Asher, his bread is rich, he provides food fit for a king.

²¹ ‘Naphtali is a swift hind, dropping beautiful fawns.

²² ‘Joseph is a fruitful creeper near the spring, whose tendrils climb over the wall.

²³ Bowmen provoked him, they drew and assailed him.

²⁴ But their bow was broken by a mighty one, the sinews of their arms were parted by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Stone of Israel,

²⁵ by the God of your father who assists you, by El Shaddai who blesses you: with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep lying below, blessings of breasts and womb,

²⁶ blessings of grain and flowers, blessings of ancient mountains; bounty of the everlasting hills; may they descend on Joseph’s head, on the brow of the dedicated one among his brothers.

²⁷ ‘Benjamin is a ravening wolf, in the morning he devours his prey, in the evening he is still dividing the spoil.’

²⁸ All these make up the tribes of Israel, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them. He blessed them, giving to each one an appropriate blessing.

²⁹ Then he gave them these instructions, ‘I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me near my fathers, in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰ in the cave in the field at Machpelah, opposite Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial-plot.

³¹ There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. There Isaac was buried and his wife Rebekah. There I buried Leah.

³² I mean the field and the cave in it that were bought from the sons of Heth.’

³³ When Jacob had finished giving his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, and breathing his last was gathered to his people.