Genesis 49:1-27

Jacob Blesses His Sons

1  a Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you b in days to come.

2  “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.
 3  “Reuben, you are c my firstborn,
my might, and the d firstfruits of my strength,
preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
 4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
because you e went up to your father’s bed;
then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
 5  f “Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons g of violence are their swords.
 6 Let my soul come not into their council;
h O my glory i be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
and in their willfulness they j hamstrung oxen.
 7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will k divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
 8  “Judah, l your brothers shall praise you;
m your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
n your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
 9 Judah is o a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
p He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
 10 The q scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff r from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him; ▼
▼ By a slight revocalization; a slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Targum)  until he comes to whom it belongs; Hebrew until Shiloh comes, or until he comes to Shiloh

and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
 11 Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
 12 His t eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
 13  u “Zebulun shall dwell at the v shore of the sea;
he shall become a haven for ships,
and his border shall be at Sidon.
 14  w “Issachar is a strong donkey,
crouching between the sheepfolds. ▼
▼ Or  between its saddlebags

 15 He saw that a resting place was good,
and that the land was pleasant,
so he bowed his shoulder to bear,
and y became a servant at forced labor.
 16  z “Dan shall aa judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
 17 Dan ab shall be a serpent in the way,
a viper by the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
so that his rider falls backward.
 18 I ac wait for your salvation, O  Lord.
 19  ad “Raiders shall raid ae Gad, ▼
▼  Gad sounds like the Hebrew for  raiders and raid

but he shall raid at their heels.
 20  ag “Asher’s food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal delicacies.
 21  ah “Naphtali is a doe let loose
that bears beautiful fawns. ▼
▼ Or he gives beautiful words, or  that bears fawns of the fold

 22  “Joseph is aj a fruitful bough,
a fruitful bough by a spring;
his branches run over the wall. ▼
▼ Or  Joseph is a wild donkey, a wild donkey beside a spring, his wild colts beside the wall

 23 The archers al bitterly attacked him,
shot at him, and harassed him severely,
 24 yet am his bow remained unmoved;
his arms ▼
▼ Hebrew the arms of his hands
 were made agile
by the hands of the ao Mighty One of Jacob
(from there is ap the Shepherd ▼
▼ Or by the name of the Shepherd
 ar the Stone of Israel),
 25  as by the God of your father who will help you,
by at the Almighty ▼
▼ Hebrew Shaddai
 av who will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
 26 The blessings of your father
are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,
up to the bounties aw of the everlasting hills. ▼
▼ A slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint)  the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills

May they be ay on the head of Joseph,
and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
 27  az “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
in the morning devouring the prey
and at evening ba dividing the spoil.”
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