Genesis 49
1 And Jacob called to his sons and he said, “Gather together, and I will tell you⁺ what shall befall you⁺ in the last days.
2 Assemble yourselves, and listen, sons of Jacob; and listen to Israel your⁺ father.
3 Reuben, you [are] my firstborn, my might, and the first of my strength, exceeding in rank, and exceeding in power.
4 Uncontrolled as the waters, you shall not excel, because you went up [to the] bed of your father; then you defiled [it]—he went up [onto] my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi [are] brothers; instruments of violence [are] their swords.
6 Into their council let not my soul enter; to their assembly let not my honor be united; for in their anger they killed a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.
7 Cursed [be] their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah—you, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand [shall be] on the neck of your enemies; sons of your father shall bow down to you.
9 Judah [is] a whelp of a lion; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouched, he lay down as a lion, and like a lioness, who shall rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until that he comes to Shiloh; and to him [is] the obedience of the peoples.
11 Binding his donkey to the vine, and the colt of his donkey to the choice vine; he washed in the wine his garment, and in the blood of grapes his robe.
12 His eyes [are] darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell by the shore of the sea, and he [shall be] a haven for ships, and his border [shall be] to Sidon.
14 Issachar is a strong-boned donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds.
15 And he saw rest, that [its was] good, and the land, that [it was] pleasant, and he extended his shoulder to bear [a burden], and he became a servant at forced labor.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, biting the heels of the horse, and its rider falls backward.
18 For Your salvation I have waited, YHWH.
19 Gad—a troop shall assault him, and he will attack the heel.
20 Out of Asher his bread [shall be] rich, and he shall give royal delicacies.
21 Naphtali [is] a doe set free, the one giving sayings of beauty.
22 Joseph [is] a son of fruitfulness, a son of fruitfulness by a spring; daughters march over the wall.
23 The masters of arrows—and they have embittered him, and shot and hated him.
24 And his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob; from there [is] the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.
25 By the God of your father, and He will help you, and by Shaddai, and He will bless you [with] blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of breasts and womb.
26 The blessings of your father have excelled over the blessings of my ancestors up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the prince of his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a wolf [that] tears; in the morning he shall devour prey, and in the evening he shall divide spoil.”
28 All these [are] two [and] ten tribes of Israel, and this [is] what their father spoke to them, and he blessed them—each one according to his own blessing, he blessed them.
29 And he commanded them and he said to them, “I am being 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 the face of Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burial 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] in it [were] purchased from the sons of Heth.”
33 And Jacob finished commanding his sons, and he gathered his feet into the bed and he expired, and he was gathered to his people.