Genesis 49

CHAPTER 49

Jacob Assembles His Sons

¹Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Gather together that I may tell you what will befall you ^ain the last days.

²“Assemble together and hear, O sons of Jacob;

And ^alisten to Israel your father.

³“Reuben, you are my firstborn;

My might and ^athe beginning of my vigor,

¹Preeminent in dignity and ²preeminent in strength.

⁴“¹Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence,

^aBecause you went up to your father’s bed;

Then you defiled it—he went up to my couch.

⁵“^aSimeon and Levi are brothers;

Their swords are implements of violence.

⁶“^aLet my soul not enter into their council;

Let not my glory be united with their assembly;

Because in their anger they killed ¹men,

And in their self-will they hamstrung ²oxen.

⁷“Cursed be their anger, for it is strong;

And their wrath, for it is cruel.

^aI will divide them amongst Jacob,

And scatter them in Israel.

⁸“Judah, as for you, your brothers shall praise you;

Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

^aYour father’s sons shall bow down to you.

⁹“Judah is a ^alion’s whelp;

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

^bHe ¹crouches, he lies down as a lion,

And as a lioness, who ²dares rouse him up?

¹⁰“^aThe scepter shall not depart from Judah,

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

¹Until Shiloh comes,

And ^bto him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

¹¹“^1aHe ties his foal to the vine,

And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine;

^bHe washes his garments in wine,

And his robes in the blood of grapes.

¹²“His eyes are ¹dark from wine,

And his teeth ²white from milk.

¹³“^aZebulun will dwell at the seashore;

And he shall be a shore for ships,

And his flank shall be toward Sidon.

¹⁴“Issachar is ¹a strong donkey,

^aLying down between the ²sheepfolds.

¹⁵“And he saw that a resting place was good

And that the land was pleasant,

So he bowed his shoulder to bear burdens,

And became a slave at forced labor.

¹⁶“^aDan shall ^brender justice to his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷“Dan shall be a serpent in the way,

A horned snake in the path,

That bites the horse’s heels,

So that his rider falls backward.

¹⁸“^aFor Your salvation I hope, O Yahweh.

¹⁹“^aAs for Gad, ¹raiders shall raid him,

But he will raid at their ²heels.

²⁰“^1aAs for ^bAsher, his ²food shall be ³rich,

And he will yield royal dainties.

²¹“^aNaphtali is a doe let loose,

He gives beautiful words.

²²“^aJoseph is a fruitful ¹bough,

A fruitful ²bough by a spring;

Its ³branches run over a wall.

²³“And the archers bitterly attacked him and shot at him,

And they bore a grudge against him;

²⁴But his ^abow remained ¹firm,

And ^2bhis arms were agile,

From the hands of the ^cMighty One of Jacob,

From there is ^dthe Shepherd, ^ethe Stone of Israel,

²⁵From ^athe God of your father who helps you,

And ^1bby the ²Almighty who blesses you

With ^cblessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶“The blessings of your father

Have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors

Up to the ¹utmost bound of ^athe everlasting hills;

May they be on the head of Joseph,

And on the top of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.

²⁷“Benjamin is a ¹ravenous wolf;

In the morning he devours the prey,

And in the evening he divides the spoil.”

Jacob Breathes His Last

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. So he blessed them. He blessed them, every one ¹with the blessing appropriate to him.

²⁹Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am about to be ^agathered to my people; ^bbury me with my fathers in the cave that is in ^cthe field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰in the ^acave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial site.

³¹“There they buried ^aAbraham and his wife ^bSarah, there they buried ^cIsaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah—

³²the field and the cave that is in it, purchased from the sons of Heth.”

³³So Jacob finished commanding his sons. And he drew his feet into the bed and ^abreathed his last and was ^bgathered to his people.