Genesis 49

1Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around, so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.

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

3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength, the first sign of my vigor, first in rank and first in power.

4Turbulent as water, you will no longer be first, because you went up onto your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up onto my couch!

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

6Let me not enter their council; let my honor not be joined to their assembly. For in their anger they killed men, and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.

7Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their fury, for it is cruel! 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; your father’s sons will bow down to you.

9Judah is a lion’s cub; you have come up from the prey, my son. He crouches, he lies down like a lion, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?

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

11He ties his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choicest vine; he washes his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.

12His eyes are dark with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

13Zebulun will live by the seashore; he will be a harbor for ships, and his border will extend to Sidon.

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

15When he sees how good a resting place is and how pleasant the land is, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and become a forced laborer.

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

17Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward.

18I wait for your salvation, Yahweh.

19Gad—raiders will raid him, but he will raid at their heels.

20Asher’s food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.

21Naphtali is a doe let loose; he gives beautiful words.

22Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches climb over the wall.

23Archers attacked him fiercely; they shot at him and harassed him.

24But his bow remained steady, and his arms were made strong by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob—from there comes the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel—

25by the God of your father, who helps you, and by the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

26The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of my ancestors, reaching to the bounds of the everlasting hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow 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 plunder.”

28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He blessed each of them with the blessing suited to him.

29Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place.

31There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.

32The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.”

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