Genesis 49
1 Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather together, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the latter days. 2 Come together and listen, sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel your father. 3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my power and the first of my strength. First in rank and first in fierce power. 4 Boiling over like water, you will not excel, because you went up to your father's bed. Then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence. 6 Let my soul not enter their secret meetings. Let my glory not be joined to their assembly. For in their anger they killed a man, and at their will they crippled an ox. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their rage, for it is harsh. I will divide them up in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. 8 Judah, your brothers will acknowledge you. 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. You have come up from the prey, my son. He stooped down and crouched like a lion, like a lioness. Who will rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the one who gives laws from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And the obedience of the peoples will be his. 11 He ties his young donkey to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine. He washes his clothes in wine, his robe in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes are dark from wine, and his teeth are white from milk.
13 Zebulun will live at the shore of the seas. He will be at the shore of ships, and his far side will reach Sidon. 14 Issachar is a big-boned donkey, lying down between the two sheepfolds. 15 He saw that rest was good and that the land was pleasant. He bent his shoulder to carry loads and became a laborer forced to serve. 16 Dan will be judge for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Let Dan be a snake by the road, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels, and its rider falls backward. 18 I have hoped for your rescue, LORD. 19 Gad—a band of raiders will raid him, and he will raid at the heel. 20 Out of Asher comes rich food, and he will provide dainties fit for a king.
21 Naphtali is a deer let loose, who speaks beautiful words. 22 Joseph is a fruitful son, a fruitful son by a spring. Daughters step along the wall. 23 The archers embittered him. They shot, and they were hostile to him. 24 His bow held steady, and his arms stayed nimble, by the hands of the Valiant One of Jacob—from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel— 25 from the God of your father, and he will help you; and with Shaddai, and he will bless you: blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of breasts and womb. 26 The blessings of your father have been greater than the blessings of my parents, as far as the bounds of the everlasting hills. Let them be on Joseph's head, on the crown of the head of the one set apart from his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a wolf who tears. In the morning he eats the catch, and in the evening he divides the plunder." 28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them, and he blessed them. He blessed each one with his own blessing. 29 He gave them his orders and said to them, "I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, in the land of Canaan. Abraham bought the field from Ephron the Hittite to hold as a grave. 31 There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah. There they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah. And there I buried Leah. 32 The field and the cave in it were a purchase from the sons of Heth." 33 Jacob finished giving orders to his sons. He drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.