And
Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I
may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of
Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might,
and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the
excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because
thou wentest up to thy fathers bed; then defiledst thou it: he
went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments
of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto
their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they
slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was
fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob,
and scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall
praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy fathers
children shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lions whelp: from the prey,
my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an
old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a
lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall
the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his asss
colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes
in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his
teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and
he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be
unto Zidon.
14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down
between two burdens:
15 And he saw that rest was good, and the
land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and
became a servant unto tribute.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes
of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in
the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall
backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall
overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and
he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth
goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a
fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at
him, and hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of
his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob;
(from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall
help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of
heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the
breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above
the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting
hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head
of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the
morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of
Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and
blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to
be gathered unto 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, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which
Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a
buryingplace.
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 of the cave that is
therein was from the children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his
sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and
was gathered unto his people.