Genesis 48:1–49:33

¹After this Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill”; so he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. ²And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you”; then Israel summoned his strength, and sat up in bed. ³And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty^u appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, ⁴and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.’ ⁵And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. ⁶And the offspring born to you after them shall be yours; they shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. ⁷For when I came from Paddan, Rachel to my sorrow died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

⁸When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” ⁹Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, I pray you, that I may bless them.” ¹⁰Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him; and he kissed them and embraced them. ¹¹And Israel said to Joseph, “I had not thought to see your face; and lo, God has let me see your children also.” ¹²Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself 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 him. ¹⁴And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand upon the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the first-born. ¹⁵And he blessed Joseph, and said,

“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,

the God who has led me all my life long to this day,

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads;

and in them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;

and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; and he took 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 one is the first-born; put your right hand upon his head.” ¹⁹But his father refused, and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.” ²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying,

“By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying,

‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh’ ”;

and thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. ²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. ²²Moreover I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope^v which I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

Chapter 49

¹Then Jacob called his sons, and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in days to come.

²Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob,

and hearken to Israel your father.

³Reuben, you are my first-born,

my might, and the first fruits of my strength,

pre-eminent in pride and pre-eminent in power.

⁴Unstable as water, you shall not have pre-eminence

because you went up to your father’s bed;

then you defiled it—you^w went up to my couch!

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers;

weapons of violence are their swords.

⁶O my soul, come not into their council;

O my spirit,^x be not joined to their company;

for in their anger they slay men,

and in their wantonness they hamstring oxen.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;

and their wrath, for it is cruel!

I will divide them in Jacob

and scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah, your brothers shall praise you;

your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

your father’s sons shall bow down before you.

⁹Judah is a lion’s whelp;

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

He stooped down, he couched as a lion,

and as a lioness; who dares rouse him up?

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

until he comes to whom it belongs;^y

and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

¹¹Binding his foal to the vine

and his ass’s colt to the choice vine,

he washes his garments in wine

and his vesture in the blood of grapes;

¹²his eyes shall be red with wine,

and his teeth white with milk.

¹³Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea;

he shall become a haven for ships,

and his border shall be at Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong ass,

crouching between the sheepfolds;

¹⁵he saw that a resting place was good,

and that the land was pleasant;

so he bowed his shoulder to bear,

and became a slave at forced labor.

¹⁶Dan shall judge his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent in the way,

a viper by the path,

that bites the horse’s heels

so that his rider falls backward.

¹⁸I wait for thy salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹Raiders^z shall raid Gad,

but he shall raid at their heels.

²⁰Asher’s food shall be rich,

and he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹Naphtali is a hind let loose,

that bears comely fawns.^a

²²Joseph is a fruitful bough,

a fruitful bough by a spring;

his branches run over the wall.

²³The archers fiercely attacked him,

shot at him, and harassed him sorely;

²⁴yet his bow remained unmoved,

his arms^b were made agile

by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob

(by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel),

²⁵by the God of your father who will help you,

by God Almighty^y who will bless you

with blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the deep that couches beneath,

blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father

are mighty beyond the blessings of the eternal mountains,

the bounties of the everlasting hills;

may they be on the head of Joseph,

and on the brow of him who was separate from his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,

in the morning devouring the prey,

and at even dividing the spoil.”

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel; and this is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. ²⁹Then he charged them, and said to them, “I am to be 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 at Mach-pelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. ³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah— ³²the field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.” ³³When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.