1
And Jacobcalled unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the lastdays.
2
Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6
O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
7Cursed 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.
8Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
9Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, untilShilohcome; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12
His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teethwhite with milk.
13Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.
14Issachar is a strongass couching down between two burdens:
15
And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
16Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horseheels, so that his rider shall fallbackward.
18
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yieldroyaldainties.
21Naphtali is a hind let loose: he givethgoodlywords.
22Joseph is a fruitfulbough, even a fruitfulbough by a well; whose branchesrun over the wall:
23
The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24
But his bowabode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob;(from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25
Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heavenabove, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26
The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlastinghills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28
All these are the twelvetribes of Israel: and this is it that their fatherspake unto them, and blessed them; everyone according to his blessing he blessed them.
29
And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30
In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is beforeMamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abrahambought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.
31
There they buriedAbraham and Sarah his wife; there they buriedIsaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buriedLeah.
32
The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.
33
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gatheredup his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.