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.

2Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob;

And hearken unto Israel your father.

3Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength;

The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.

4Boiling 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.

5Simeon and Levi are brethren;

Weapons of violence are their swords.

6O 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.

7Cursed 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.