Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons

1And Jacob called to his sons, and said, Gather yourselves^p together, that I may tell you^p that which shall befall you^p in the last days.

2Gather yourselves^p together, and hear, you^p sons of Jacob; and hearken to Israel your father.

3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:   first sign

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

5Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.   weapons; dwellings

6O my soul, come not you into their secret; to their assembly, my honor, be not you united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they dug down a wall.   self-destruction

7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

8Judah, you are he whom your brethren shall praise: your hand shall be in the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you.   control over

9Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, you are gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

10The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and to him shall the gathering of the people be.   LUKE 1:33 | obedience

11Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass’s colt to the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

12His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

13Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for a haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.

14Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:

15And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to tribute.   slave laborer

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

17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels, so that its rider shall fall backward.

18I have waited for your salvation, O Lord.   Heb. Jeshua

19Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.

20Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.   delicacies

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

22Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

23The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:   bitterly hurt

24But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)   rock

25Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

26The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.   ancestors

27Benjamin shall raven as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.   greedily devour

28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spoke to them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.