Genesis 49

₂Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob;

And hearken unto Israel your father.

₃Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength,

The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

₄Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel;

Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed;

Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

₅Simeon and Levi are brethren;

Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

₆O 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.

₇Cursed 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.

₈Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise:

Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;

Thy father's children shall bow down before thee.

₉Judah is a lion's 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?

₁₀The 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.

₁₁Binding his foal unto the vine,

And his ass's colt unto the choice vine;

He washed his garments in wine,

And his clothes in the blood of grapes:

₁₂His eyes shall be red with wine,

And his teeth white with milk.

₁₃Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea;

And he shall be for an haven of ships;

And his border shall be unto Zidon.

₁₄Issachar is a strong ass

Couching down between two burdens:

₁₅And 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.

₁₆Dan shall judge his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

₁₇Dan shall be a serpent by the way,

An adder in the path,

That biteth the horse heels,

So that his rider shall fall backward.

₁₈I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

₁₉Gad, a troop shall overcome him:

But he shall overcome at the last.

₂₀Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,

And he shall yield royal dainties.

₂₁Naphtali is a hind let loose:

He giveth goodly words.

₂₂Joseph is a fruitful bough,

Even a fruitful bough by a well;

Whose branches run over the wall:

₂₃The archers have sorely grieved him,

And shot at him, and hated him:

₂₄But 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:)

₂₅Even 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:

₂₆The 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.

₂₇Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf:

In the morning he shall devour the prey,

And at night he shall divide the spoil.