Genesis 49:1-28

New Living Translation

² “Come and listen, you sons of Jacob;
    listen to Israel, your father.

³ “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength,
    the child of my vigorous youth.
    You are first in rank and first in power.
⁴ But you are as unruly as a flood,
    and you will be first no longer.
For you went to bed with my wife;
    you defiled my marriage couch.

⁵ “Simeon and Levi are two of a kind;
    their weapons are instruments of violence.
⁶ May I never join in their meetings;
    may I never be a party to their plans.
For in their anger they murdered men,
    and they crippled oxen just for sport.
⁷ A curse on their anger, for it is fierce;
    a curse on their wrath, for it is cruel.
I will scatter them among the descendants of Jacob;
    I will disperse them throughout Israel.

⁸ “Judah, your brothers will praise you.
    You will grasp your enemies by the neck.
    All your relatives will bow before you.
⁹ Judah, my son, is a young lion
    that has finished eating its prey.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down;
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants,^[a]
until the coming of the one to whom it belongs,^[b]
    the one whom all nations will honor.
¹¹ He ties his foal to a grapevine,
    the colt of his donkey to a choice vine.
He washes his clothes in wine,
    his robes in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes are darker than wine,
    and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³ “Zebulun will settle by the seashore
    and will be a harbor for ships;
    his borders will extend to Sidon.

¹⁴ “Issachar is a sturdy donkey,
    resting between two saddlepacks.^[c]
15 When he sees how good the countryside is
    and how pleasant the land,
he will bend his shoulder to the load
    and submit himself to hard labor.

¹⁶ “Dan will govern his people,
    like any other tribe in Israel.
¹⁷ Dan will be a snake beside the road,
    a poisonous viper along the path
that bites the horse’s hooves
    so its rider is thrown off.
¹⁸ I trust in you for salvation, O Lord!

¹⁹ “Gad will be attacked by marauding bands,
    but he will attack them when they retreat.

²⁰ “Asher will dine on rich foods
    and produce food fit for kings.

²¹ “Naphtali is a doe set free
    that bears beautiful fawns.

²² “Joseph is the foal of a wild donkey,
    the foal of a wild donkey at a spring—
    one of the wild donkeys on the ridge.^[d]
23 Archers attacked him savagely;
    they shot at him and harassed him.
²⁴ But his bow remained taut,
    and his arms were strengthened
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
    by the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.
²⁵ May the God of your father help you;
    may the Almighty bless you
with the blessings of the heavens above,
    and blessings of the watery depths below,
    and blessings of the breasts and womb.
²⁶ May my fatherly blessings on you
    surpass the blessings of my ancestors,^[e]
    reaching to the heights of the eternal hills.
May these blessings rest on the head of Joseph,
    who is a prince among his brothers.

²⁷ “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
    devouring his enemies in the morning
    and dividing his plunder in the evening.”