Genesis 49:1-21 ▼

1 Then Jacob called his sons, and said: “Gather around, that I may tell you what will happen to you in days to come.

2 Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father.

3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the first fruits of my vigor, excelling in rank and excelling in power.

4 Unstable as water, you shall no longer excel because you went up onto your father’s bed; then you defiled it—you went up onto my couch!

5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords.

6 May I never come into their council; may I not be joined to their company— for in their anger they killed men, and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.

7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! 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 have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?

10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.

11 Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes;

12 his eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

13 Zebulun shall settle at the shore of the sea; he shall be a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon.

14 Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds;

15 he saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant; so he bowed his shoulder to the burden, and became a slave at forced labor.

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

17 Dan shall be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward.

18 I wait for your salvation, O LORD.

19 Gad shall be raided by raiders, but he shall raid at their heels.

20 Asher’s food shall be rich, and he shall provide royal delicacies.

21 Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears lovely fawns.