Jacob Blesses His Sons

1And Jacob called to his sons and he said, “Gather together, and I will tell you⁺ what shall befall you⁺ in the last days.

2Assemble yourselves, and listen, sons of Jacob;

and listen to Israel your⁺ father.

3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might,

and the first of my strength,

exceeding in rank,

and exceeding in power.

4Uncontrolled 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.

5Simeon and Levi are brothers;

instruments of violence are their swords.†

6Into 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.

7Cursed 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.

8Judah†—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.

9Judah 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?

10The 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.

11Binding 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.

12His eyes are darker than wine,

and his teeth whiter than milk.

13Zebulun shall dwell by the shore of the sea,

and he shall be a haven for ships,

and his border shall be to Sidon.

14Issachar is a strong-boned donkey,

lying down between the sheepfolds.†

15And 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.

16Dan shall judge his people,†

as one of the tribes of Israel.

17Dan shall be a serpent by the way,

a viper by the path,

biting the heels of the horse,

and its rider falls backward.

18For Your salvation I have waited, YHWH.

19Gad†—a troop shall assault him,

and he will attack the heel.

20Out of Asher his bread shall be rich,

and he shall give royal delicacies.

21Naphtali is a doe set free,

the one giving sayings of beauty.†

22Joseph is a son of fruitfulness,

a son of fruitfulness by a spring;

daughters march over the wall.†

23The masters of arrows—

and they have embittered him, and shot and hated him.

24And 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.

25By 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.

26The 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.

27Benjamin is a wolf that tears;

in the morning he shall devour prey,

and in the evening he shall divide spoil.”

28All 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.

The Death of Jacob

29And 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, 30in 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. 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.”

33And Jacob finished commanding his sons, and he gathered his feet into the bed and he expired, and he was gathered to his people.