Jacob Blesses His Sons

1And Iacob called his sonnes, & sayde: Gather you, yt I maie tell you, what shal happen vnto you in ye last times:

2Come together, and heare ye childre of Iacob: Herken vnto Israel youre father.

3Rube my first sonne, thou art my power and the begynnynge of my strength, chefe in gouernaunce, & chefe in auctorite.

4Thou passest forth swiftly as ye water. Thou shalt not be the chefest: For thou hast clymmed vp vpon thy fathers bed, euen than defyledest thou my couch with goynge vp.

5Symeon and Leui brethren, their deedly weapens are perlous instrumentes.

6In to their secretes come not my soule, and my worshipe be not ioyned with their congregacion: for in their wrath they slew a man, and in their selfwyll they houghed an oxe.

7Cursed be their wrath, because it is so fearce: and their indignacion, because it is so rigorous. I wil deuyde them in Iacob, and scater them in Israel

8Iuda, thou art he. Thy brethren shall prayse the: for thy hade shal be in thine enemies neck: thy fathers children shall stoupe vnto the.

9Iuda is a yonge lyon, thou art come vp hye my sonne, fro the spoyle. He kneled downe and couched himself as a lyon & as a lionesse: who wil rayse him vp?

10The cepter shal not be remoued fro Iuda, ner a master fro his fete, tyll the Worthye come, and vnto him shal the people fall.

11He shall bynde his foale vnto the vyne, and his Asses colte to ye noble braunch. He shal wash his garment in wyne, and his mantell in the bloude of grapes.

12His eyes are roudier then wyne, and his teth whyter then mylck.

13Zabulon shal dwell in the hauen of the see, and in the porte of shippes, and shal border vpon Sydon.

14Isachar shal be a stronge Asse, & laye him downe betwixte ye borders.

15And he saw rest, that it was good, and the lande, that it was pleasaunt. And bowed downe his shulder to beare, and became a seruaut vnto trybute.

16Dan shal be iudge in his people, as well as a trybe in Israel.

17Dan shalbe a serpent in the waye, and an edder in the path, and byte the horse in the heles, that his ryder maye fall backwarde.

18LORDE I loke for thy saluacion.

19As for Gad, a wapened hoost of men shal fall violently vpon him, but he shall hurte them in the hele.

20Of Asser cometh his fat bred, and he shal geue delicates vnto kynges.

21Nepthali is a swift hynde, and geueth goodly wordes.

22The fruteful sonne Ioseph, that florishinge sonne to loke vpon, the doughters go vpo the wall.

23And though the shoters angered him, stroue with him, and hated him,

24yet his bowe bode fast, and the armes of his hades were made stroge by the handes of ye Mightie in Iacob. Of him are come herdmen & stones in Israel.

25Of yi fathers God art thou helped, & of the Allmightie art thou blessed, wt blessynges of heauen from aboue, with blessinges of ye depe yt lyeth vnder, with blessynges of brestes & wombes.

26The blessinges promised vnto thy father and my fore elders go mightely, after the desyre of the hyest in the worlde: these shal light on Iosephs heade, and on the toppe of his heade, that was separate from his brethren.

27Ben Iamin, a rauyshinge wolfe. In the mornynge shal he deuoure the praye, but in the euenynge he shal deuyde the spoyle.

28All these are the twolue trybes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake vnto them, whan he blessed them, euery one with a sundrye blessynge.

The Death of Jacob

29And he commaunded them, and sayde vnto them: I shal be gathered vnto my people, burye me with my fathers in ye caue which is in the felde of Ephron the Hethite, 30in the dubble caue that lyeth ouer against Mamre in ye lande of Canaa, which Abraha bought with the felde, of Ephron the Hethite for a possession to burye in. 31There buryed they Abraha & Sara his wife, there buried they Isaac also & Rebecca his wife: & their buried I Lea, 32in the good of the felde & of the caue therin, which was bought of the Hethites. 33And whan Iacob had ended this commaundement vnto his children, he pluckte his fete together vpon the bed, and died, and was gathered vnto his people.