Genesis 49

1Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the latter days.”

2Gather yourselves and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father.

3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the firstfruits of my vigor, excelling in honor and excelling in power.

4Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch.

5Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords.

6Let my soul not enter their council; let my honor not be joined to their assembly. For in their anger they killed a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

7Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is harsh. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

8Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father will bow down to you.

9Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouched, he lay down like a lion, and like a lioness—who will rouse him?

10The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him will be the obedience of the peoples.

11Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine, and his robe in the blood of grapes.

12His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

13Zebulun will dwell by the shore of the seas; he will be by the shore of ships, and his flank will be toward Sidon.

14Issachar is a strong-boned donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds.

15He saw that the resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, so he bent his shoulder to bear, and became a servant for forced labor.

16Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

17Let Dan be a serpent by the road, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward.

18For your salvation I wait, O Yahweh.

19Gad—a raiding band will raid him, but he will raid at their heels.

20Asher's food will be rich, and he will provide royal delicacies.

21Naphtali is a doe let loose, giving beautiful words.

22Joseph is a fruitful son, a fruitful son by a spring; daughters step over the wall.

23They bitterly attacked him, and shot at him, and hated him—the archers.

24Yet his bow remained steady, and his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob; from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.

25by the God of your father, who will help you, and by the Almighty, who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep lying beneath, blessings of breasts and womb.

26The blessings of your father have prevailed beyond the blessings of my parents, to the utmost bounds of the ancient hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of the one set apart from his brothers.

27Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the spoil.

28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them when he blessed them: he blessed each one with the blessing appropriate to him.

29Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am about 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 of Machpelah, which is opposite Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial property.

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 sons of Heth.

33When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.