Genesis 49:1-11 ▼

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

2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, O ye sons of Jacob, hearken to Israel your father:

3 Ruben, my firstborn, thou art my strength, and the beginning of my sorrow: excelling in gifts, greater in command.

4 Thou art poured out as water, grow thou not: because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, and didst defile his couch.

5 Simeon and Levi brethren: vessels of iniquity, waging war.

6 Let not my soul go into their counsel, nor my glory be in their assembly: |be- cause in their fury they slew a man, and in their selfwill they undermined a wall.

7 Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn: and their wrath because it was cruel: I Will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel.

8 Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hands shall be on the necks of thy enemies: the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.

9 Juda is a lion's whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?

10 The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.

11 Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, 0 my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.