Genesis 49:1-10 ▼

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

2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob: and hearken to Israel your father.

3 Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellence of dignity, and the excellence of power:

4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it; he went up to my couch.

5 Simeon and Levi are brethren: instruments of cruelty are in, their habitations.

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

7 Cursed 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.

8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be on the neck of thy enemies: thy father's children shall bow down before thee.

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

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