Israel’s Prophecy concerning His Sons

1 Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you ain the 1days to come.

2 “Gather 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 strength,

1Preeminent in dignity and 1preeminent in power.

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 slew 1men,

And in their self-will they lamed 2oxen.

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

And their wrath, for it is cruel.

aI will 1disperse them in Jacob,

And scatter them in Israel.

8 “Judah, 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 1couches, he lies down as a lion,

And as a 2lion, who 3dares 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 1dull from wine,

And his teeth 2white from milk.