Genesis 49

And Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may announce to you what will meet you at the last of the days.

Assemble yourselves and hear, sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father.

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the beginning of my children; harsh to bear, and harsh, self-willed.

You ran riot like water; do not boil over! For you went up onto your father's bed; then you defiled the couch to which you went up.

Symeon and Levi are brothers; they carried out injustice out of their own choosing.

Into their counsel may my soul not come, and upon their conspiracy may my liver not lean; for in their wrath they killed men, and in their desire they hamstrung a bull.

Cursed be their wrath, for it was self-willed, and their rage, for it was hardened. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

Judah, may your brothers praise you; your hands are on the back of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down to you.

Judah is a lion's cub; from a shoot, my son, you have gone up. You reclined and lay down like a lion, and like a cub; who will rouse him?

A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until there come the things stored up for him; and he is the expectation of the nations.

Binding his foal to a vine and the foal of his donkey to the tendril, he will wash his robe in wine and his garment in the blood of a grape.

His eyes are bright from wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

Zabulon shall dwell by the sea, and he beside a harbour of ships, and he shall extend as far as Sidon.

Issachar desired what is good, resting between the allotments.

And seeing that the rest was good and that the land was rich, he put his shoulder to labour and became a man who farms.

Dan shall judge his own people, as also one tribe in Israel.

And let Dan become a serpent on the road, lying in wait on a path, biting a horse's heel, and the rider shall fall backwards.

I wait for the salvation of the Lord.

Gad, a raiding band shall raid him, but he shall raid them at their heels.

Aser, his bread is rich, and he shall give delicacies to rulers.

Nephthali is a spreading tree trunk, bestowing beauty in its fruit.

Joseph is a son increased, a son increased and envied; my youngest son, turn back to me.

Against him the masters of arrows, taking counsel together, reviled and held a grudge against him.

And their bows were broken with force, and the sinews of the arms of their hands were slackened, through the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob; from there is he who strengthened Israel.

From the God of your father; and my God helped you and blessed you with a blessing of heaven above, and a blessing of the earth that holds all things, because of a blessing of breasts and womb.

The blessings of your father and your mother prevailed over the blessings of the enduring mountains and over the blessings of the everlasting dunes; they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the brothers of whom he took the lead.

Benjamin is a ravening wolf; in the morning he shall still be eating, and toward evening he shall distribute food.

All these are the twelve sons of Jacob, and these things their father spoke to them, and he blessed them; each according to his own blessing he blessed them.

And he said to them, I am being added to my own people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

in the double cave that is opposite Mambre in the land of Canaan, the cave which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial possession.

There they buried Abraham and Sarra his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekka his wife; and there I buried Leah.

in the possession of the field and of the cave that is in it, from the sons of Chet.

And Jacob ceased giving instructions to his sons, and drawing his feet up onto the bed he expired and was added to his people.