Genesis 49:1-28

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

² Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob;
    listen to Israel your father.

³ Reuben, you are my firstborn,
    my might and the first fruits of my vigor,
    excelling in rank and excelling in power.^(B)
4 Unstable as water, you shall no longer excel
    because you went up onto your father’s bed;
    then you defiled it—you^[a] went up onto my couch!^(C)

⁵ Simeon and Levi are brothers;
    weapons of violence are their swords.^(D)
6 May I never come into their council;
    may I not be joined to their company,
for in their anger they killed men,
    and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.^(E)
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
    and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
    and scatter them in Israel.^(F)

⁸ 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.^(G)
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
    like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?^(H)
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him,^[b]
    and the obedience of the peoples is his.^(I)
11 Binding his foal to the vine
    and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he washes his garments in wine
    and his robe in the blood of grapes;
¹² his eyes are darker than wine
    and his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³ Zebulun shall settle at the shore of the sea;
    he shall be a haven for ships,
    and his border shall be at Sidon.^(J)

¹⁴ Issachar is a strong donkey,
    lying down between the sheepfolds;
¹⁵ he saw that a resting place was good
    and that the land was pleasant,
so he bowed his shoulder to the burden
    and became a slave at forced labor.

¹⁶ Dan shall judge his people
    as one of the tribes of Israel.^(K)
17 Dan shall be a snake by the roadside,
    a viper along the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
    so that its rider falls backward.^(L)

¹⁸ I wait for your salvation, O Lord.^(M)

¹⁹ Gad shall be raided by raiders,
    but he shall raid at their heels.^(N)

²⁰ Asher’s^[c] food shall be rich,
    and he shall provide royal delicacies.^(O)

²¹ Naphtali is a doe let loose
    that bears lovely fawns.^[d](P)

²² Joseph is a fruitful bough,^[e]
    a fruitful bough by a spring;
    his branches run over the wall.^[f](Q)
23 The archers fiercely attacked him;
    they shot at him and pressed him hard.^(R)
24 Yet his bow remained taut,
    and his arms^[g] were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
    by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,^(S)
25 by the God of your father, who will help you,
    by the Almighty^[h] who will bless you
    with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
    blessings of the breasts and of the womb.^(T)
26 The blessings of your father
    are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains,
    the bounties^[i] of the everlasting hills;
may they be on the head of Joseph,
    on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.^(U)

²⁷ Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
    in the morning devouring the prey
    and at evening dividing the spoil.”