Genesis 49

1 And Jacob calls to his sons and says, “Be gathered together, and I declare to you that which happens with you in the latter end of the days.

2 Be assembled, and hear, sons of Jacob, And listen to your father Israel.

3 Reuben! You [are] my firstborn, My power, and beginning of my strength, The abundance of exaltation, And the abundance of strength;

4 Unstable as water, you are not abundant; For you have gone up your father’s bed; Then you have defiled [it]: He went up my couch!

5 Simeon and Levi [are] brothers! Instruments of violence—their espousals!

6 Into their secret, do not come, O my soul! Do not be united to their assembly, O my glory; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will eradicated a prince.

7 Cursed [is] their anger, for [it is] fierce, And their wrath, for [it is] sharp; I divide them in Jacob, And I scatter them in Israel.

8 Judah! Your brothers praise you! Your hand [is] on the neck of your enemies, Sons of your father bow themselves to you.

9 A lion’s whelp [is] Judah, For prey, my son, you have gone up; He has bent, he has crouched as a lion, And as a lioness; who causes him to arise?

10 The scepter does not turn aside from Judah, And a lawgiver from between his feet, Until his Seed comes; And His [is] the obedience of peoples.

11 Binding to the vine his donkey, And to the choice vine the colt of his donkey, He has washed in wine his clothing, And in the blood of grapes his covering;

12 Red [are] eyes with wine, And white [are] teeth with milk!

13 Zebulun dwells at a haven of the seas, And he [is] for a haven of ships; And his side [is] to Sidon.

14 Issachar [is] a strong donkey, Crouching between the two folds;

15 And he sees rest, that [it is] good, And the land, that [it is] pleasant, And he inclines his shoulder to bear, And is a servant for tribute.

16 Dan judges his people, As one of the tribes of Israel;

17 Dan is a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, Which is biting the horse’s heels, And its rider falls backward.

18 For Your salvation I have waited, YHWH!

19 Gad! A troop assaults him, But he assaults last.

20 Out of Asher his bread [is] fat; And he gives delicacies of a king.

21 Naphtali [is] a doe sent away, Who is giving beautiful young ones.

22 Joseph [is] a fruitful son; A fruitful son by a fountain, Daughters step over the wall;

23 And embitter him indeed, they have striven, Indeed, archers hate him;

24 And his bow abides in strength, And strengthened are the arms of his hands By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, From where is a shepherd, a son of Israel.

25 By the God of your father who helps you, And the Mighty One who blesses you, Blessings of the heavens from above, Blessings of the deep lying under, Blessings of breasts and womb—

26 Your father’s blessings have been mighty Above the blessings of my progenitors, To the limit of the perpetual heights They are for the head of Joseph, And for the crown of the one Separate [from] his brothers.

27 Benjamin! A wolf tears; In the morning he eats prey, And at evening he apportions spoil.”

28 All these [are] the twelve tribes of Israel, and this [is] that which their father has spoken to them, and he blesses them; each according to his blessing he has blessed them.

29 And he commands them and says to them, “I am being gathered to my people; bury me by my fathers, at the cave which [is] in the field of Ephron the Hittite;

30 in the cave which [is] in the field of Machpelah, which [is] on the front of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place;

31 (there they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah; there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah; and there I buried Leah);

32 the purchase of the field and of the cave which [is] in it, [is] from sons of Heth.”

33 And Jacob finishes commanding his sons, and gathers up his feet to the bed, and expires, and is gathered to his people.