Jacob Blesses His Sons

1And Jacob will call to his sons, and will say, Be ye gathered together, and I will announce to you what shall happen to you in the last part of the days.

2Be gathered together, and hear ye sons of Jacob, and hear to Israel your father.

3Reuben, my first-born, thou my strength, and the beginning of my strength, the abundance of elevation, and the abundance of might.

4Vain glorious as water, thou shalt not be preeminent; for thou didst go up out of thy father's bed; then didst thou defile, going up to my couch.

5Simon and Levi brethren; their swords instruments of violence.

6My soul shall not come into their consultation; in their assembly, my honor shall not be united, for in their anger they killed a man and in their will, houghed a bullock.

7Cursed their anger, for it was hard; and their wrath, for it was hardened: I will divide them in Jacob, and I will disperse them in Israel.

8Judah, thee, thee shall thy brethren praise; thy hand upon the back of thine enemies; thy father's sons shall worship before thee.

9Judah, a lion's whelp; from the green leaf, my son, thou didst go up: bending, lying down, as a lion, and as a lioness: who shall raise him up?

10The rod shall not depart from Judah, and a leader from between his feet, till that Shiloh shall come: and to him the obedience of the nations.

11Binding his colt to the vine, and to the purple vine the son of the she-ass; he washed in wine his garment, and his clothing in the blood of grapes.

12The eyes flashing from wine, the teeth white from milk.

13Zebulon shall dwell by the coast of the sea; and he by a coast of ships, and the extremities, even to Zidon.

14Issachar, an ass; a heap of bone lying down in the midst of the tribes.

15And he will see the rest that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and he extended his shoulder to bear, and he will be a servant to tribute.

16Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

17Dan shall be a serpent upon the way, creeping upon the path, biting the heels of the horse and his beast for riding shall fall behind.

18I waited for thy deliverance, Jehovah.

19Gad, a troop, shall press upon him; and this shall press upon the heel.

20From Asher his bread, fat, and he will give the dainties of a king.

21Naphtali a mighty shoot, giving fair words.

22Joseph a fruitful son, a fruitful son upon a fountain, the daughters mounting over a wall.

23This adversary will embitter him, and the lords of the arrows will lie in wait.

24And his bow will dwell in strength, and the seed of his hands will be firm by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob; from whence the shepherd, the stone of Israel.

25By the God of thy father, and he will help thee, and by the Almighty, and he will bless thee with the blessing of the heavens above, the blessing of the sea lying under, the blessing of the breasts and the womb.

26The blessings of thy father were strong above the blessings of the everlasting mountains; the delight of the eternal hills, they shall be upon the head of Joseph and upon the crown of the head of him separated from his brethren.

27Benjamin, a Wolf, tearing in pieces; in the morning will he eat the prey, and at evening he will divide the prey.

28All these tribes of Israel, twelve: and this what their father spake to them, and he will bless them; each according to his blessing he blessed them.

The Death of Jacob

29And he will command them, and will say to them, I am added to my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite. 30In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamra in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite, for the possession of a grave. 31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaak and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32The possession of the field and the cave which is in it, from the sons of Heth. 33And Jacob will finish to command his sons, and he will gather his feet to the bed, and will expire, and will be gathered to his people.