Genesis 49

Jacob Blesses His Twelve Sons

49Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together so that I can tell you what will happen with you in days to come.^a

²Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob!

Listen to Israel your father!

³Reuben, you are my firstborn,

my strength, and the firstfruit of my vigor,

excelling in rank and excelling in power.

⁴Unstable^b as water, you shall not excel any longer,

for you went up upon the bed of your father,

then defiled it. You went up upon my couch!

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers;

weapons of violence are their swords.

Let me^c not come into their council.

⁶Let not my person^d be joined to their company.

For in their anger they killed men,

and at their pleasure they hamstrung cattle.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,

and their wrath, for it is cruel.

I will divide them in Jacob,

and I will scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah, as for you, your brothers shall praise you.

Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

The sons of your father shall bow down to you.

⁹Judah is a lion’s cub.

From the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He bowed down; he crouched like a lion and as a lioness.

Who shall rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff between his feet,

until Shiloh comes.

And to him shall be the obedience of nations.

¹¹Binding his donkey to the vine

and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,

he washes his clothing in the wine

and his garment in the blood of grapes.

¹²The eyes are darker than wine,

and the teeth whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun shall settle by the shore of the sea.

He shall become a haven for ships,

and his border shall be at Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey,

crouching between the sheepfolds.

¹⁵He saw a resting place that was good,

and land that was pleasant.

So he bowed his shoulder to the burden

and became a servant of forced labor.

¹⁶Dan shall judge his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent on the way,

a viper on the road

that bites the heels of a horse,

so that its rider falls backward.

¹⁸I wait for your salvation, O Yahweh.

¹⁹Bandits shall attack Gad,

but he shall attack their heels.

²⁰Asher’s food is delicious,

and he shall provide from the king’s delicacies.

²¹Naphtali is a doe running free

that puts forth beautiful words.

²²Joseph is the bough^e of a fruitful vine,

a fruitful bough^f by a spring.

His branches climb over the wall.

²³The archers^g fiercely attacked him.

They shot arrows at him and were hostile to him.

²⁴But his bow remained in a steady position;

his arms^h were made agile

by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.

From there is the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.

²⁵Because of the God of your father he will help you

and by Shaddaiⁱ he will bless you

with the blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,

blessings of the breasts and the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father

are superior to the blessings of my ancestors,

to the bounty of the everlasting hills.

May they be on the head of Joseph,

and on the forehead of the prince of his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a devouring wolf,

devouring the prey in the morning,

and dividing the plunder in the evening.

The Death and Burial of Jacob

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them; each according to his blessing he blessed them. ²⁹Then he instructed them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me among my ancestors^j in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah that is before^k Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. ³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. And there I buried Leah—³²the purchase of the field and the cave which was in it from the Hittites.” ³³When Jacob finished instructing his sons he drew his feet up to the bed. Then he took his last breath and was gathered to his people.