Gen 49
1
And Jacob called to his sons, and said: gather yourselves together, that I may tell
you that which shall befall you in the latter days.
2
Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob; And hearken to Israel your father.
3
Reuben, you are my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The
pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
4
Boiling over as water, you shall not have the pre-eminence; Because you went
up to your father`s bed; Then defiled you it: he went up to my couch.
5
Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords.
6
O my soul, come not you into their council; To their assembly, my glory, be not you
united; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hocked an
ox.
7
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their anger, for it was cruel: I will
divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.
8
Judah, you shall your brethren praise: Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father`s sons shall bow down before you.
9
Judah is a lion`s whelp; From the prey, my son, you are gone up: He stooped down,
he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
10
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler`s staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh come: And to him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
11
Binding his foal to the vine, And his ass`s colt to the choice vine; He has washed
his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes:
12
His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk.
13
Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; And he shall be for a haven of ships;
And his border shall be upon Sidon.
14
Issachar is a strong ass, Couching down between the sheepfolds:
15
And he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And
he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under taskwork.
16
Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.
17
Dan shall be a serpent in the way, An adder in the path, That bites the horse`s heels,
So that his rider falls backward.
18
I have waited for your salvation, O YHWH.
19
Gad, a troop shall press upon him; But he shall press upon their heel.
20
Out of the Asher his bread shall be fat, And he shall yield royal dainties.
21
Naphtali is a hind let loose: He gives goodly words.
22
Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a fountain; His branches run over
the wall.
23
The archers have sorely grieved him, And shot at him, and persecute him:
24
But his bow abode in strength, And the arms of his hands were made strong, By the
hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),
25
Even by the God of your father, who shall help you, And by the Almighty, who shall
bless you, With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that couches beneath,
Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
26
The blessings of your father Have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors
To the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him whom was separate from his brethren.
27
Benjamin is a wolf that devours: In the morning she shall devour the prey, And at
even he shall divide the spoil.
28
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spoke
to them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29
And 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,
30
in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land
of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession
of a burying-place.
31
there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah
his wife; and there I buried Leah:
32
the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.
33
And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the
bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered to his people.