Genesis 49:1-10 ▼

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

2 Gather yourselves together and listen, O sons of Jacob; and hearken o Israel your father.

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

4 You went astray like water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father's bed; truly, you have defiled my bed by going up into it.

5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of anger are in their nature.

6 I never agreed to their counsels; nor did I lower myself to sit in their assembly; for in their anger they slew men and in their rage they destroyed a town wall.

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

8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you.

9 Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you are gone up; he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a young lion; who shall rouse him up?

10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the coming of the One to whom the sceptre belongs, to whom the Gentiles shall look forward.