Genesis 49:1-10 ▼

1 Then Iaakob called his sonnes, and sayde, Gather your selues together, that I may tell you what shal come to you in the last dayes.

2 Gather your selues together, and heare, ye sonnes of Iaakob, and hearken vnto Israel your father.

3 Reuben mine eldest sonne, thou art my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellencie of dignitie, and the excellencie of power:

4 Thou wast light as water: thou shalt not be excellent, because thou wentest vp to thy fathers bed: then diddest thou defile my bed, thy dignitie is gone.

5 Simeon and Leui, brethren in euill, the instruments of crueltie are in their habitations.

6 Into their secret let not my soule come: my glory, be not thou ioyned with their assembly: for in their wrath they slew a man, and in their selfe will they digged downe a wall.

7 Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, and their rage, for it was cruell: I will deuide them in Iaakob, and scatter them in Israel.

8 Thou Iudah, thy brethre shal praise thee: thine hande shalbe in the necke of thine enemies: thy fathers sonnes shal bowe downe vnto thee.

9 Iudah, as a Lions whelpe shalt thou come vp from the spoyle, my sonne. He shall lye downe and couche as a Lion, and as a Lionesse: Who shall stirre him vp?

10 The scepter shall not depart from Iudah, nor a Lawegiuer from betweene his feete, vntill Shiloh come, and the people shall be gathered vnto him.