Genesis 49:1-18 ▼

1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: 'Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the end of days.

2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father.

3 Reuben, thou art my first-born, My might, and the first-fruits of my strength; The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.

4 Unstable as water, have not thou the excellency; 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; Weapons of violence their kinship.

6 Let my soul not come into their council; Unto their assembly let my glory not be not united; For in their anger they slew men, And in their self-will they houghed oxen.

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, thee shall thy brethren praise; Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee.

9 Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?

10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, As long as men come to Shiloh; And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.

11 Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; He washeth his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes;

12 His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk.

13 Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea, And he shall be a shore for ships, And his flank shall be upon Zidon.

14 Issachar is a large-boned ass, Couching down between the sheep-folds.

15 For he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under task-work

16 Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way, A horned snake in the path, That biteth the horse's heels, So that his rider falleth backward.

18 I wait for Thy salvation, O Lord.