Genesis 49

New King James Version

² “Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob,
And listen to Israel your father.

³ “Reuben, you are ^(C)my firstborn,
My might and the beginning of my strength,
The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
⁴ Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
Because you ^(D)went up to your father’s bed;
Then you defiled it—
He went up to my couch.

⁵ “Simeon and Levi are brothers;
Instruments of ^[a]cruelty are in their dwelling place.
^6 (E)Let not my soul enter their council;
Let not my honor be united ^(F)to their assembly;
^(G)For in their anger they slew a man,
And in their self-will they ^[b]hamstrung an ox.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;
And their wrath, for it is cruel!
^(H)I will divide them in Jacob
And scatter them in Israel.

⁸ “Judah,^(I) you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
^(J)Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
^(K)Your father’s children shall bow down before you.
⁹ Judah is ^(L)a lion’s whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
^(M)He ^[c]bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
^10 (N)The ^[d]scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor ^(O)a lawgiver from between his feet,
^(P)Until Shiloh comes;
^(Q)And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
¹¹ Binding his donkey to the vine,
And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes are darker than wine,
And his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³ “Zebulun^(R) shall dwell by the haven of the sea;
He shall become a haven for ships,
And his border shall ^(S)adjoin Sidon.

¹⁴ “Issachar^(T) is a strong donkey,
Lying down between two burdens;
¹⁵ He saw that rest was good,
And that the land was pleasant;
He bowed ^(U)his shoulder to bear a burden,
And became a band of slaves.

¹⁶ “Dan^(V) shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
^17 (W)Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse’s heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
^18 (X)I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!

¹⁹ “Gad,^(Y)[e] a troop shall ^[f]tramp upon him,
But he shall triumph at last.

²⁰ “Bread from ^(Z)Asher shall be rich,
And he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹ “Naphtali^(AA) is a deer let loose;
He uses beautiful words.

²² “Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a well;
His branches run over the wall.
²³ The archers have ^(AB)bitterly grieved him,
Shot at him and hated him.
²⁴ But his ^(AC)bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were ^[g]made strong
By the hands of ^(AD)the Mighty God of Jacob
^(AE)(From there ^(AF)is the Shepherd, ^(AG)the Stone of Israel),
^25 (AH)By the God of your father who will help you,
^(AI)And by the Almighty ^(AJ)who will bless you
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
²⁶ The blessings of your father
Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,
^(AK)Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
^(AL)They shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

²⁷ “Benjamin is a ^(AM)ravenous wolf;
In the morning he shall devour the prey,
^(AN)And at night he shall divide the spoil.”