Genesis 49

1THEN Jacob called his sons and said to them, Assemble that I may tell you what will happen to you in the latter days.

2Assemble and hear me, ye sons of Jacob:
Hearken to Israel; hearken to your father.

3Reuben my first-born!
Thou my strength and the head of my children!

4Too imperious and too self sufficient!
In the excess of thy insolence,
Thou shouldst not have burst forth like water.
For thou wentest up to thy father’s bed,
Then thou pollutedst the couch to which thou wentest up.

5Symeon and Levi are brothers.
They accomplished their iniquitous purpose.

6O my soul, come not into their council;
And in their conspiracy let not my passions be engaged.
Because in their wrath they slew men,
And in their rage ham-strung a bull;

7Cursed be their wrath, for it was headstrong;
And their enmity, for it was bitter.
I will parcel them out in Jacob
And scatter them among Israel.

8Juda! Let thy brethren praise thee:
Thy hands shall be on the back of thy enemies.
The sons of thine father shall bow down to thee.

9Juda is a lion’s whelp.
From a vigorous stem, my son, thou art sprung.
Couching down thou art gone to sleep
Like a young lion: Who dare rouse him!

10A chief shall not fail from Juda
Nor a leader from his loins
Till the things reserved for him shall come—
Even he, the expectation of nations.

11Binding his colt to a vine
And his ass’ colt to the young vine,
He will wash his robe in wine,
And his mantle in the blood of the grape.

12His eyes are more exhilarating than wine,
And his teeth are whiter than milk.

13Zabulon shall dwell by the sea;
And he will be near the haven of ships,
And will extend as far as Sidon.

14Issachar desired earnestly what was good,
Halting between two choices.

15But seeing the resting place, that it was good,
And the land, that it was fertile,
He bowed his shoulder to labour
And became a husbandman.

16Dan will judge his people
And be like a tribe in Israel.

17Let Dan be indeed a serpent in the way,
Lying in watch in a path,
Biting the horse’s heel,
That the horseman may fall backwards;

18Waiting continually the salvation of the Lord.

19Gad: Troops of plunderers will plunder him;
And he to his utmost, will plunder them.

20Aser. His meat will be fat
And he will furnish dainties for princes.

21Nephthaleim is a spreading stock,
Super-adding beauty to its product.

22Joseph is a fruitful son.
My fruitful son was envied.
Abide with me, my younger son,
Against whom calumniators brought false accusations.

23Though the masters of bows took aim at him;
Yet their bows and their strength were broken,
And the sinewy arms of their hands enfeebled
By the hand of the mighty one of Jacob.

24Thence he who hath strengthened Israel
Is from the God of thy father;

25And my God hath helped thee; and blessed thee
With the blessing of heaven from above,
And with the blessing of a land having all things.
By reason of the blessing of breasts and womb,

26He hath made the blessings of thy father and mother,
More durable than the blessings of perpetual mountains,
And more permanent than the blessings of everlasting hills.
They shall be on the head of Joseph
And on the crown of the head of brothers
Of whom he was the leader.

27Benjamin is a ravening wolf.
In the morning he is still eating,
And for the evening he provideth food.

28All these were the twelve sons of Jacob. And these were the words which their father spoke to them when he blessed them, each according to his peculiar blessing.