Chapter 49

Jacob Blesses His Sons

¹Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come:

²Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob;

listen to your father Israel.

³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might,

and the beginning of my strength,

excelling in honor,

excelling in power.

⁴Uncontrolled as the waters,

you will no longer excel,

because you went up to your father’s bed,

onto my couch, and defiled it.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers;

their swords^a are weapons of violence.

⁶May I never enter their council;

may I never join their assembly.

For they kill men in their anger,

and hamstring oxen on a whim.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is strong,

and their wrath, for it is cruel!

I will disperse them in Jacob

and scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah,^b your brothers shall praise you.

Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies;

your father’s sons shall bow down to you.

⁹Judah is a young lion—

my son, you return from the prey.

Like a lion he crouches and lies down;

like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah,

nor the staff from between his feet,^c

until Shiloh^d comes

and the allegiance of the nations is his.

¹¹He ties his donkey to the vine,

his colt to the choicest branch.

He washes his garments in wine,

his robes in the blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine,

and his teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore

and become a harbor for ships;

his border shall extend to Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey,

lying down between the sheepfolds.^e

¹⁵He saw that his resting place was good

and that his land was pleasant,

so he bent his shoulder to the burden

and submitted to labor as a servant.

¹⁶Dan shall provide justice for his people^f

as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷He will be a snake by the road,

a viper in the path

that bites the horse’s heels

so that its rider tumbles backward.

¹⁸I await Your salvation, O LORD.

¹⁹Gad^g will be attacked by raiders,

but he will attack their heels.

²⁰Asher’s food will be rich;

he shall provide royal delicacies.

²¹Naphtali is a doe set free

that bears beautiful fawns.^h

²²Joseph is a fruitful vine—

a fruitful vine by a spring,

whose branches scale the wall.ⁱ

²³The archers attacked him with bitterness;

they aimed at him in hostility.

²⁴Yet he steadied his bow,

and his strong arms were tempered

by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,

in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

²⁵by the God of your father who helps you,

and by the Almighty^j who blesses you,

with blessings of the heavens above,

with blessings of the depths below,

with blessings of the breasts and womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father have surpassed

the blessings of the ancient mountains^k

and the bounty of the everlasting hills.

May they rest on the head of Joseph,

on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;

in the morning he devours the prey,

in the evening he divides the plunder.”

²⁸These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

The Death of Jacob

²⁹Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. ³⁰The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. ³¹There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah. ³²The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”

³³When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.