1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves
together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in
the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and
hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of
my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of
power:
4 Unstable 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.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in
their habitations.
6 O 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.
7 Cursed 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.
8 Judah, 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.
9 Judah 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?
10 The 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.
11 Binding 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:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with
milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be
for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.
14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
15 And 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.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that
biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the
last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal
dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well;
whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and
hated him:
24 But 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:)
25 Even 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:
26 The 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.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour
the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that
their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one
according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered
unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in
the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before
Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the
field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a
buryingplace.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they
buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was
from the children of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he
gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost,
and was gathered unto his people.
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