1   Then Jacob summoned his sons, and said: "Gather yourselves together so that I may tell you what will happen to you in the days to come. 2   Assemble yourselves and hear, you sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father. 3   Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength, and the the firstfruits of my virility, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. 4   Uncontrolled as the waters, you will not have excel, because you went up to your father's bed, you went up and defiled my couch. 5   Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence. 6   May I never enter their council. May my honor never be joined with their assembly. For in their anger they killed men, and for pleasure they hamstrung oxen. 7   Cursed be their anger, for it has been fierce, and their fury, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob,and scatter them in Israel. 8   Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow down before you. 9   Judah is a lion’s cub. From the prey, my son, you rise up. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up? 10   The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And it is he whom the peoples will obey. 11   Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine. He will wash his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes. 12   His eyes will be darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. 13   Zebulun will dwell at the seashore, and he will be a harbor for ships, and his border will be at Sidon. 14   Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the saddlebags. 15   When he sees a good resting place, that the land is pleasant, he will bend his back to the burden, and become a slave doing forced labor. 16   Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 17   Dan will be a serpent on the road, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward. 18   I wait for your salvation, LORD. 19   Gad will be attacked by raiders, but he will raid at their heels. 20   Asher’s food will be rich, and he will provide royal delicacies. 21   Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns. 22   Joseph is a fruitful son, a fruitful son by a spring. His branches run over a wall. 23   The archers will attack him with bitterness, and shoot at him, and harass him. 24   Yet his bow will remain steady, and his arms will be made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25   by the God of your father, who will help you, and El Shaddai, who will bless you with blessings of the sky above, blessings of the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26   The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, and the bounty of the everlasting hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of the prince among his brothers. 27   Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he will devour the prey, and at evening he will divide the plunder." 28   All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He blessed each one with his own individual blessing. 29   Then he instructed them, and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hethite, 30   in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is near Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hethite as a burial place. 31   There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah. There they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah. 32   The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the sons of Heth." 33   When Jacob finished instructing his sons, he drew his legs up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

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