Genesis 49

Revised Geneva Translation

49 Then Jacob called his sons, and said, “Gather yourselves together, so that I may tell you what shall come to you in the last days.

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

³ “Reuben, my eldest son, you are my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.

⁴ “You were light as water. You shall not be excellent, because you went up to your father’s bed. Then, you defiled my bed. Your dignity is gone.

⁵ “Simeon and Levi (brothers). Their weapons are the instruments of cruelty.

⁶ “Do not let my soul come into their secret, nor my glory be joined with their assembly. For in their wrath they killed a man; and in their self-will they dug down a wall.

⁷ “Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, and their rage, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

⁸ “You, Judah. Your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons shall bow down before you.

⁹ “Judah, as a lion’s cub you shall come up from the prey, my son. He shall lie down and crouch as a lion, and as a lioness. Who shall stir him up?

¹⁰ “The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. And the people shall be gathered to him.

¹¹ “He shall bind his donkey foal to the Vine, and his donkey’s colt to the Best Vine. He shall wash His garment in wine, and His cloak in the blood of grapes.

¹² “His eyes shall be red with wine, and His teeth white with milk.

¹³ “Zebulun shall dwell by the seaside; and he shall be a haven for ships. And his border shall be to Sidon.

¹⁴ “Issachar shall be a strong donkey, crouching down between two burdens.

¹⁵ “And he shall see that rest is good, and that the land is pleasant; and he shall bow his shoulder to bear and shall be subject to tribute.

¹⁶ “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷ “Dan shall be a serpent on the way, an adder by the path, biting the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward.

¹⁸ “O LORD, I have waited for Your salvation!

¹⁹ “Gad. An army of men shall overcome him; but he shall overcome in the end.

²⁰ “Concerning Asher, his bread shall be fat and he shall give pleasures for a king.

²¹ “Naphtali shall be a loosed deer, using beautiful words.

²² “Joseph shall be a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by the well side. His small boughs shall overrun the wall.

²³ “And the archers grieved him and shot and hated him.

²⁴ “But, his bow remained strong; and the hands of his arms were strengthened by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob (by Whom was the Feeder appointed by the Stone of Israel),

²⁵ “by the God of your father, Who shall help you, and by the Almighty Who shall bless you with heavenly blessings from above, with blessings of the deep that lies beneath, with blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.

²⁶ “The blessings of your father shall be stronger than the blessings of my elders. To the end of the hills of the world shall they be on the head of Joseph, and on the top of the head of him who was separated from his brothers.

²⁷ “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he shall devour the prey and at night he shall divide the plunder.”

²⁸ All these are the Twelve Tribes of Israel; and thus their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed every one of them with a specific blessing.

²⁹ And he charged them, and said to them, “I am ready to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers, in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰ “in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah (besides Mamre, in the land of Canaan) which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a burial possession.

³¹ “There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife. And there I buried Leah.

³² “The purchase of the field, and the cave that is therein, were bought from the children of Heth.”

³³ Thus, Jacob finished giving charge to his sons and drew his feet into the bed and gave up the ghost and was gathered to his people.