1And Jacob called unto his sons , and said : Gather yourselves together , that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days . 2Assemble yourselves , and hear , ye sons of Jacob ; And hearken unto Israel your father . 3Reuben , thou art my first-born, my might , and the beginning of my strength ; The pre-eminence of dignity , and the pre-eminence of power . 4Boiling over as water , thou shalt not have the pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed ; Then defiledst thou it : he went up to my couch . 5Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords . 6O my soul , come not thou into their council ; Unto their assembly , my glory , be not thou united ; For in their anger they slew a man , And in their self-will they hocked an ox . 7Cursed 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 . 8Judah , thee shall thy brethren praise : Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies ; Thy father ’s sons shall bow down before thee . 9Judah is a lion ’s whelp ; From the prey , my son , thou art gone up : He stooped down , he couched as a lion , And as a lioness ; who shall rouse him up ? 10The sceptre shall not depart from Judah , Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet , Until Shiloh come ; And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be . 11Binding his foal unto the vine , And his ass’s colt unto the choice vine ; He hath washed his garments in wine , And his vesture in the blood of grapes : 12His eyes shall be red with wine , And his teeth white with milk . 13Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea ; And he shall be for a haven of ships; And his border shall be upon Sidon . 14Issachar is a strong ass , Couching down between the sheepfolds : 15And he saw a resting-place that it was good , And the land that it was pleasant ; And he bowed his shoulder to bear , And became a servant under taskwork. 16Dan shall judge his people , As one of the tribes of Israel . 17Dan shall be a serpent in the way , An adder in the path , That biteth the horse ’s heels , So that his rider falleth backward. 18I have waited for thy salvation , O Jehovah . 19Gad , a troop shall press upon him ; But he shall press upon their heel . 20Out of Asher his bread shall be fat , And he shall yield royal dainties . 21Naphtali is a hind let loose : He giveth goodly words. 22Joseph is a fruitful bough , A fruitful bough by a fountain ; His branches run over the wall . 23The archers have sorely grieved him , And shot at him , and persecuted him : 24But his bow abode in strength , And the arms of his hands were made strong , By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob ( From thence is the shepherd , the stone of Israel ), 25Even 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 coucheth beneath , Blessings of the breasts , and of the womb . 26The 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. 27Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth: In the morning he shall devour the prey , And at even he shall divide the spoil . 28All 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 .
The Prophetic Nature of the Blessings
29And 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 , 30in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah , which is before Mamre , in the land of Canaan , which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. 31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah — 32the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth . 33And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons , he gathered up his feet into the bed , and yielded up the ghost , and was gathered unto his people .