Genesis 49:1-11 ▼

1 And Iacob called for his sonnes, and sayde: Come together, that I may tell you what shall come on you in the last dayes.

2 Gather ye together, & heare ye sonnes of Iacob, hearken vnto Israel your father.

3 Ruben my first borne, thou art my myght, & the beginning of my strength, the noblenesse of dignitie, and the noblenesse of power.

4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not be the chiefest, because thou wentest vp to thy fathers bedde: for then defiledst thou my couche with goyng vp.

5 Simeon and Leui brethren, are cruell instrumentes in their habitations.

6 O my soule, come not thou into their secretes, neither into their congregations let mine honour be vnited: for in their wrath they slewe a man, and in their selfe wyll, they dygge downe a wall.

7 Cursed be their wrath, for it was shamelesse, and their fiercenesse, for it was cruell: I wyll deuide them in Iacob, and scatter them in Israel.

8 Iuda, thou art he whom thy brethren shall prayse: Thy hande shalbe in the necke of thine enemies, thy fathers children shall stowpe before thee.

9 Iuda is a lions whelpe: fro thy spoyle my sonne thou art come on hye. He layed him downe, and couched himselfe as a lion, and as a lionesse: who wyll stirre hym vp?

10 The scepter shal not depart from Iuda, and a law geuer from betweene his feete, vntyll Silo come: And vnto hym shall the gatheryng of the people be.

11 He shall bynde his foale vnto ye vine, and his asses colt vnto the braunche: He wasshed his garment in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.