Jacob Blesses His Sons

49 (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.

“Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
    listen to Israel your father.

“Reuben, you are (C)my firstborn,
    my might, and the (D)firstfruits of my strength,
    preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
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!

(F)“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
    weapons (G)of violence are their swords.
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.
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.

“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.
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;[a]
    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 (S)eyes are darker than wine,
    and his teeth whiter than milk.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 49:10 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

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