Genesis 49
1 And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, and I will tell you what will befall you at the end of days.
Jacob summoned all his sons, and said to them,
2 Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob, And listen to Israel your father.
“Gather around me in order that I can tell you what will happen in the future. My sons, come and listen to me. I am your father, [Jacob, whom God named] Israel.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, My might, and the firstfruits of my vigour: Excellency of dignity, and excellency of strength.
Reuben, you are my oldest son. You were born when I was young and energetic/strong. You are prouder and stronger than all the rest of my sons.
4 Impetuous as the waters, thou shalt have no pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's couch: Then defiledst thou [it]: he went up to my bed.
But you were as uncontrollable as a flood [SIM]. So now you will not be my most important son, because you climbed up onto my bed, and had sex with [MTY] my (concubine/slave who had become one of my wives). Your doing that caused me, your father, to have great shame.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren: Instruments of violence their swords.
Simeon and Levi, you have both acted like criminals. You use your swords to act violently.
6 My soul, come not into their council; Mine honour, be not united with their assembly; For in their anger they slew men, And in their wantonness houghed oxen.
I do not want to be with you when you make evil plans [DOU]. I do not want to join you in your meetings, because you killed people when you became very angry, and you (hamstrung/cut the tendons in the legs of) oxen just to (have fun/see them suffer).
7 Cursed be their anger, for it [was] violent; And their rage, for it [was] cruel! I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.
God says, ‘I will (curse/cause bad things to happen to) them for being very angry, for acting very cruelly when they were very furious. I will scatter their descendants [MTY] throughout Israel land.’
8 Judah — [as to] thee, thy brethren will praise thee; Thy hand will be upon the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's children will bow down to thee.
Judah, your [older and younger] brothers will praise you. They will bow down before you, because you will thoroughly defeat [MTY] your enemies.
9 Judah is a young lion; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stoopeth, he layeth himself down as a lion, And as a lioness: who will rouse him up?
Judah is like a young lion [SIM] that has returned to its den satisfied after eating the animals that it has killed. He is like a lion that lies down and stretches out after eating; no one would dare to disturb it [RHQ].
10 The sceptre will not depart from Judah, Nor the lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh come, And to him will be the obedience of peoples.
There will always be a ruler [MTY] from the descendants of Judah [MTY]. Each one will hold a scepter/staff to show that he has authority as a king. He will do that until the one to whom the scepter belongs comes, the one to whom the nations will bring tribute and show that they will obey him.
11 He bindeth his foal to the vine, And his ass's colt to the choice vine; He washeth his dress in wine, And his garment in the blood of grapes.
The grapevines of Judah’s descendants will produce grapes very abundantly. As a result, they will not object to tying their young donkeys to the grapevines in order that the donkeys can eat the leaves of the grapevines. [Wine will be very plentiful, with the result that] they could wash their cloaks in wine that is as red as blood [MET].
12 The eyes are red with wine, And the teeth [are] white with milk.
Their eyes will be red because of [drinking too much] wine, but their teeth will be very white because of drinking much milk [from the cows].
13 Zebulun will dwell at the shore of the seas; Yea, he will be at the shore of the ships, And his side [toucheth] upon Sidon.
Zebulun, your descendants will live by the seashore where there will be a safe harbor for ships. Their land will extend north as far as Sidon [city].
14 Issachar is a bony ass, Crouching down between two hurdles.
Issachar, your descendants will be like strong donkeys that are lying down on the ground between their loads, [so tired that they cannot get up]!
15 And he saw the rest that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And was a tributary servant.
They will see that their resting place is good, and that the land pleases them very much. But they will bend their backs to carry heavy loads and be forced to work for others.
16 Dan will judge his people, As another of the tribes of Israel.
Dan, although your tribe will be small, their leaders will rule their people just like the leaders of other tribes of Israel will rule their people.
17 Dan will be a serpent on the way, A horned snake on the path, Which biteth the horse's heels, So that the rider falleth backwards.
Your descendants will be like snakes at the side of a road, like poisonous snakes lying beside a path. They will strike the heels of horses that pass by, causing the riders to fall backwards [as the horses rear up on their hind legs].”
18 I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah.
Then Jacob prayed, “Yahweh, I am waiting for you to rescue me [from my enemies].”
19 Gad — troops will rush upon him; But he will rush upon the heel.
[Then Jacob continued telling his sons what would happen in the future. He said], “Gad, your tribe/descendants will be attacked by a group of bandits, but your tribe/descendants will pursue and attack them [MTY].
20 Out of Asher, his bread shall be fat, And he will give royal dainties.
Asher, your descendants will eat good-tasting food; they will produce food that is delicious enough for kings to eat.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose; He giveth goodly words.
Naphtali, your descendants will be like deer [MET] that are (free to/not tied down and can) run wherever they wish. They will give birth to children who are good-looking like (fawns/baby deer) [MET].
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough; A fruitful bough by a well; [His] branches shoot over the wall.
Joseph, you will have many descendants [MET]. Their children will be as many as the fruit on a vine near a spring of water, whose branches extend over a wall.
23 The archers have provoked him, And shot at, and hated him;
Their enemies will attack them fiercely, and shoot at them with bows and arrows and pursue them.
24 But his bow abideth firm, And the arms of his hands are supple By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:
But they will hold their bows steady and their arms will remain strong, because of the power [MTY] of my mighty God, because of Yahweh who guides and provides for me [MET] like a shepherd guides and provides for his sheep. The people of Israel will [ask Yahweh to protect them], [like people hide under] a huge [overhanging] to be protected.
25 From the God of thy father, and he will help thee; And from the Almighty, and he will bless thee — With blessings of heaven from above, With blessings of the deep that lieth under, With blessings of the breast and of the womb.
God, the one whom I worship, will help your descendants. God Almighty will bless them by sending them rain from the sky and by giving them water from deep/far below the ground. He will give them many cattle and children [MET] (OR, and their cattle will have many offspring).
26 The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, Unto the bounds of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
The blessings that I want God to give you are great ones. They are greater than the blessings that come from the eternal mountains, greater than the ones that come from the everlasting hills. Joseph, I pray that these blessings will (be given to you/come upon your head), because you are the leader of your [older] brothers [and younger brother].
27 Benjamin — [as] a wolf will he tear to pieces; In the morning he will devour the prey, And in the evening he will divide the booty.
Benjamin, your descendants will be like [MET] vicious/fierce wolves: In the morning they will kill their enemies like a wolf devours (its prey/the animals that it has killed), and in the evening they will divide among their warriors the spoils that they seized from their enemies.”
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them; and he blessed them: every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
Those twelve sons are the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. That is what their father said to them as he blessed them, telling to each one words that were appropriate for him.
29 And he charged them, and said to them, I am gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
Then Jacob said to his sons, “I will soon die. Bury my body where some of my ancestors are buried, in the cave that is in the field that was bought from Ephron, who belonged to the Heth people-group.
30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is opposite to Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite along with the field for a possession of a sepulchre.
That field is in the Machpelah area, east of Mamre [town], in Canaan. My grandfather Abraham bought it from Ephron to use as a burial place.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah.
That is where they buried him and his wife Sarah. That is where they buried my father Isaac and his wife Rebekah. And that is where I buried my wife Leah.
32 The purchase of the field, and of the cave that is in it, was from the children of Heth.
That field and the cave in it were bought from the Heth people-group; so that is where I want you to bury me.”
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his peoples.
When Jacob finished giving those instructions to his sons, he lay down on his bed again. Then he died [IDM].
