Genesis 49

¹Genesis 49:1. Then 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:²Genesis 49:2. Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.³Genesis 49:3. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.⁴Genesis 49:4. Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.⁵Genesis 49:5. Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence.⁶Genesis 49:6. May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For they kill men in their anger, and hamstring oxen on a whim.⁷Genesis 49:7. Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

⁸Genesis 49:8. Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you.⁹Genesis 49:9. Judah is a young lion—my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?¹⁰Genesis 49:10. The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.¹¹Genesis 49:11. He ties his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He washes his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.¹²Genesis 49:12. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³Genesis 49:13. Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore and become a harbor for ships; his border shall extend to Sidon.¹⁴Genesis 49:14. Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds.¹⁵Genesis 49:15. He saw that his resting place was good and that his land was pleasant, so he bent his shoulder to the burden and submitted to labor as a servant.¹⁶Genesis 49:16. Dan shall provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel.¹⁷Genesis 49:17. He will be a snake by the road, a viper in the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.¹⁸Genesis 49:18. I await Your salvation, O LORD.¹⁹Genesis 49:19. Gad will be attacked by raiders, but he will attack their heels.²⁰Genesis 49:20. Asher’s food will be rich; he shall provide royal delicacies.²¹Genesis 49:21. Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

²²Genesis 49:22. Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall.²³Genesis 49:23. The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility.²⁴Genesis 49:24. Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,²⁵Genesis 49:25. by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb.²⁶Genesis 49:26. The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of the ancient mountains and the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince of his brothers.²⁷Genesis 49:27. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”

²⁸Genesis 49:28. These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.²⁹Genesis 49:29. Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.³⁰Genesis 49:30. The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.³¹Genesis 49:31. There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah.³²Genesis 49:32. The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”³³Genesis 49:33. When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.