Genesis 49:1-10 ▼

1 And Jacob calleth unto his sons and saith, 'Be gathered together, and I declare to you that which doth happen with you in the latter end of the days.

2 'Be assembled, and hear, sons of Jacob, And hearken unto Israel your father.

3 Reuben! my first-born thou, My power, and beginning of my strength, The abundance of exaltation, And the abundance of strength;

4 Unstable as water, thou art not abundant; For thou hast gone up thy father's bed; Then thou hast polluted: My couch he went up!

5 Simeon and Levi are brethren! Instruments of violence -- their espousals!

6 Into their secret, come not, O my soul! Unto their assembly be not united, O mine honour; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will eradicated a prince.

7 Cursed is their anger, for it is fierce, And their wrath, for it is sharp; I divide them in Jacob, And I scatter them in Israel.

8 Judah! thou -- thy brethren praise thee! Thy hand is on the neck of thine enemies, Sons of thy father bow themselves to thee.

9 A lion's whelp is Judah, For prey, my son, thou hast gone up; He hath bent, he hath crouched as a lion, And as a lioness; who causeth him to arise?

10 The sceptre turneth not aside from Judah, And a lawgiver from between his feet, Till his Seed come; And his is the obedience of peoples.