Genesis 49:1-18 ▼

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

2 Gather yourselves together and listen, O sons of Jacob; and hearken o Israel your father.

3 Reuben, you are my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, and the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

4 You went astray like water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father's bed; truly, you have defiled my bed by going up into it.

5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of anger are in their nature.

6 I never agreed to their counsels; nor did I lower myself to sit in their assembly; for in their anger they slew men and in their rage they destroyed a town wall.

7 Cursed be their anger, for it is raging: and their wrath, for it is fierce; I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you.

9 Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you are gone up; he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a young lion; who shall rouse him up?

10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the coming of the One to whom the sceptre belongs, to whom the Gentiles shall look forward.

11 He shall tie up his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to a branch; he shall bleach his garments with wine, and his robe with the juices of the grape;

12 His eyes shall be radiant with wine, and his teeth white with milk?

13 Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the seas; and he shall be a haven for ships; and his border shall extend as far as Zidon.

14 Issachar is a mighty man couching by the highways;

15 And he saw that his dwelling place was good, and his land fertile; and he bowed his shoulder to servitude, and became a servant to tribute.

16 Dan shall judge his people as if the tribes of Israel were one.

17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the paths, that bites the horse's heel and causes its rider to fall backward.

18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.