Genesis 48:1–49:33

¹And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. ²And one told Jacob and said, Behold, thy son Joseph is coming to thee. And Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. ³And Jacob said to Joseph, The Almighty •God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, ⁴and he said to me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a company of peoples; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. ⁵And now thy two sons, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt before I came to thee into Egypt, shall be mine: Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon. ⁶And thy family which thou hast begotten after them shall be thine: they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. ⁷And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was yet a certain distance to come to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.

⁸And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these? ⁹And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God has given me here. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, to me, that I may bless them. ¹⁰But the eyes of Israel were heavy from age: he could not see. And he brought them nearer to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. ¹¹And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face; and behold, God has let me see also thy seed. ¹²And Joseph brought them out from his knees, and bowed down with his face to the earth. ¹³And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near to him. ¹⁴But Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim’s head—now he was the younger—and his left hand on Manasseh’s head; guiding his hands intelligently, for Manasseh was the firstborn. ¹⁵And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day, ¹⁶the Angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land! ¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it was evil in his eyes; and he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn: put thy right hand on his head. ¹⁹But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know: he also will become a people, and he also will be great; but truly his younger brother will be greater than he; and his seed will become the fulness of nations. ²⁰And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee will Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh! And he set Ephraim before Manasseh. ²¹And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I die; and God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers. ²²And I have given to thee one tract of land above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

Chapter 49

¹And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, and I will tell you what will befall you at the end of days. ²Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob, And listen to Israel your father. ³Reuben, thou art my firstborn, My might, and the firstfruits of my vigour: Excellency of dignity, and excellency of strength. ⁴Impetuous as the waters, thou shalt have no pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father’s couch: Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my bed.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brethren: Instruments of violence their swords. ⁶My soul, come not into their council; Mine honour, be not united with their assembly; For in their anger they slew men, And in their wantonness houghed oxen. ⁷Cursed be their anger, for it was violent; And their rage, for it was cruel! I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah—as to thee, thy brethren will praise thee; Thy hand will be upon the neck of thine enemies; Thy father’s children will bow down to thee. ⁹Judah is a young lion; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stoopeth, he layeth himself down as a lion, And as a lioness: who will rouse him up? ¹⁰The sceptre will not depart from Judah, Nor the lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh come, And to him will be the obedience of peoples. ¹¹He bindeth his foal to the vine, And his ass’s colt to the choice vine; He washeth his dress in wine, And his garment in the blood of grapes. ¹²The eyes are red with wine, And the teeth are white with milk.

¹³Zebulun will dwell at the shore of the seas; Yea, he will be at the shore of the ships, And his side toucheth upon Sidon. ¹⁴Issachar is a bony ass, Crouching down between two hurdles. ¹⁵And he saw the rest that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And was a tributary servant. ¹⁶Dan will judge his people, As another of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁷Dan will be a serpent on the way, A horned snake on the path, Which biteth the horse’s heels, So that the rider falleth backwards. ¹⁸I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah. ¹⁹Gad—troops will rush upon him; But he will rush upon the heel. ²⁰Out of Asher, his bread shall be fat, And he will give royal dainties. ²¹Naphtali is a hind let loose; He giveth goodly words.

²²Joseph is a fruitful bough; A fruitful bough by a well; His branches shoot over the wall. ²³The archers have provoked him, And shot at, and hated him; ²⁴But his bow abideth firm, And the arms of his hands are supple By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel: ²⁵From the •God of thy father, and he will help thee; And from the Almighty, and he will bless thee—With blessings of heaven from above, With blessings of the deep that lieth under, With blessings of the breast and of the womb. ²⁶The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, Unto the bounds of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. ²⁷Benjamin—as a wolf will he tear to pieces; In the morning he will devour the prey, And in the evening he will divide the booty.

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them; and he blessed them: every one according to his blessing he blessed them. ²⁹And he charged them, and said to them, I am gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is opposite to Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite along with the field for a possession of a sepulchre. ³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah. ³²The purchase of the field, and of the cave that is in it, was from the children of Heth. ³³And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his peoples.