Genesis 49:1-28

Common English Bible

² Assemble yourselves and listen, sons of Jacob;
        listen to Israel your father.
³ Reuben, you are my oldest son,
    my strength and my first contender,^[a]
    superior in status and superior in might.
⁴ As wild as the waters, you won’t endure,
    for you went up to your father’s bed,
    you went up^[b] and violated my couch.
⁵ Simeon and Levi are brothers,
        weapons of violence their stock in trade.
⁶ May I myself never enter their council.
May my honor never be linked to their group;
        for when they were angry, they killed men,
        and whenever they wished, they maimed oxen.
⁷ Cursed be their anger; it is violent,
        their rage; it is relentless.
I’ll divide them up within Jacob
        and disperse them within Israel.
⁸ Judah, you are the one your brothers will honor;
        your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
        your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ Judah is a lion’s cub;
        from the prey, my son, you rise up.
He lies down and crouches like a lion;
        like a lioness—who dares disturb him?
¹⁰ The scepter won’t depart from Judah,
        nor the ruler’s staff from among his banners.^[c]
Gifts will be brought to him;
        people will obey him.
¹¹ He ties his male donkey to the vine,
        the colt of his female donkey to the vine’s branches.
He washes his clothes in wine,
        his garments in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes are darker than wine,
        and his teeth whiter than milk.
¹³ Zebulun will live at the seashore;
        he’ll live at the harbor of ships,
        his border will be at Sidon.
¹⁴ Issachar is a sturdy donkey,
        bedding down beside the village hearths.^[d]
15 He saw that a resting place was good
        and that the land was pleasant.
He lowered his shoulder to haul loads
        and joined the work gangs.
¹⁶ Dan^[e] will settle disputes for his people,
        as one of Israel’s tribes.
¹⁷ Dan will be a snake on the road,
        a serpent on the path,
biting a horse’s heels,
        so its rider falls backward.
¹⁸ I long for your victory, Lord.
¹⁹ Gad^[f] will be attacked by attackers,
        but he’ll attack their back.
²⁰ Asher^[g] grows fine foods,
        and he will supply the king’s delicacies.
²¹ Naphtali is a wild doe
        that gives birth to beautiful fawns.^[h]
22 Joseph is a young bull,^[i]
        a young bull by a spring,
        who strides with oxen.^[j]
23 They attacked him fiercely and fired arrows;
        the archers attacked him furiously.
²⁴ But his bow stayed strong,
        and his forearms were nimble,^[k]
            by the hands of the strong one of Jacob,
            by the name of the shepherd, the rock of Israel,
²⁵                 by God, your father, who supports you,
            by the Almighty^[l] who blesses you
                with blessings from the skies above
                and blessings from the deep sea below,
                blessings from breasts and womb.
²⁶ The blessings of your father exceed
            the blessings of the eternal mountains,^[m]
            the wealth of the everlasting hills.
        May they all rest on Joseph’s head,
            on the forehead of the one set apart from his brothers.
²⁷ Benjamin is a wolf who hunts:
        in the morning he devours the prey;
        in the evening he divides the plunder.”