Genesis 49:2–27

²Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob;

And hearken unto Israel your father.

³Reuben, thou art ^cmy firstborn,

My might, ^dand the beginning of my strength,

The excellency of ^edignity, and the excellency of power:

⁴Unstable as water, ^†thou shalt not excel;

Because thou ^fwentest up to thy father’s bed;

Then defiledst thou it: ^||he went up to my couch.

^5gSimeon and Levi are brethren;

^||Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

⁶O my soul, come not thou into ^htheir secret;

Unto their assembly, ⁱmine honour, be not thou united:

For in their anger they slew a man,

And in their selfwill they ^||digged down a wall.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce;

And their wrath, for it was cruel:

I will ^kdivide them in Jacob,

And scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall ^lpraise:

Thy hand shall be in ^mthe neck of thine enemies;

ⁿThy father’s children shall bow down before thee.

⁹Judah is ^oa lion’s whelp:

From the prey, my son, thou art gone up:

^pHe stooped down, he couched as a lion,

And as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

^10qThe sceptre shall not depart from Judah,

Nor ^ra lawgiver from between his feet,

Until ^sShiloh come;

And unto him shall ^tthe gathering of the people be.

¹¹Binding his foal ^uunto the vine,

And his ass’s colt unto the choice vine;

He washed his garments in wine,

And his clothes in the blood of grapes:

¹²His ^xeyes shall be red with wine,

And his teeth white with milk.

^13yZebulun shall dwell at the ^zhaven of the sea;

And he shall be for an haven of ships;

And his border shall be unto Zidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong ass

Couching down between ^atwo burdens:

¹⁵And he saw that rest was good,

And the land that it was pleasant;

And bowed ^bhis shoulder to bear,

And became a servant ^cunto tribute.

¹⁶Dan shall ^djudge his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent by the way,

^†An adder in the path,

That biteth the horse heels,

So that his rider shall fall backward.

¹⁸I ^ehave waited for thy salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹Gad, ^fa troop shall overcome him:

But he shall overcome at the last.

²⁰Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,

And he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹Naphtali is a hind let loose:

He giveth goodly words.

²²Joseph is a fruitful bough,

Even a fruitful bough by a well;

Whose ^†branches run over the wall:

^23gThe archers have ^hsorely grieved him,

And ⁱshot at him, and ^khated him:

²⁴But his ^lbow abode in strength,

And the arms of his hands were made strong

By the hands of ^mthe mighty God of Jacob;

(From thence is ⁿthe shepherd, ⁿthe stone of Israel:)

^25oEven 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 lieth under,

Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

²⁶The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors

Unto the utmost bound ^pof the everlasting hills:

They shall be ^qon the head of Joseph,

And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

²⁷Benjamin shall ^rravin as a wolf:

In the morning he shall devour the prey,

And at night ^she shall divide the spoil.