Genesis 49
1 Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather around, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.
2 Come together and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to Israel, your father.
3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the first fruit of my vigor; outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.
4 Unstable as water, you will not have the preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it. He went up to my couch!
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; their weapons are instruments of violence.
6 May I not enter their council; may my honor not join their assembly. For in their anger they killed men; of their own will they hamstrung oxen.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their fury, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob; I will 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 have come up. He crouched and lay down like a lion, like a lioness; who will make him rise?
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; the peoples will obey him.
11 He ties his young donkey to the vine, his donkey's colt to the choice vine. He washes his clothes in wine, his robe in the blood of grapes.”
12 “His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
13 Zebulun will live on the seashore; he will be a harbor for ships, and his border will reach Sidon.
14 Issachar is a strong donkey, lying between two saddlebags.
15 He saw that rest was good and that the land was pleasant; he bent his shoulder to carry a load and became a slave to forced labor.
16 Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan will be a snake on the road, a viper on the path, biting the horse's heels so its rider falls backward.
18 I wait for your salvation, LORD.
19 Gad—a raiding band will attack him, but he will attack their heels.
20 Asher's food will be rich; he will provide royal delicacies.
21 Naphtali is a doe set free; he speaks beautiful words.
22 “Joseph is a fruitful branch, a fruitful branch beside a spring; his branches climb over the wall.”
23 “The archers made him bitter; they shot at him and harassed him.
24 But his bow remained firm, and the arms of his hands were strengthened by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From there comes the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.
25 By the God of your father, who helps you; by the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings from heaven above, blessings from the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts and the womb.
26 The blessings of your father surpass the blessings of those who gave me life, reaching to the limits of the everlasting hills. May they rest on Joseph's head, on the crown of the head of the one set apart from his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a wolf that tears its prey; in the morning he devours the catch, and in the evening he divides the spoil.”
28 These are all the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father told them as he blessed them: he blessed each one with the blessing suited to him.
29 Then he gave them this command: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers, in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 in the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, in the land of Canaan—the field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as property for 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 in it were bought from the Hittites.”
33 When Jacob had finished giving his sons these commands, he drew his feet up onto the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
Read and listen to this chapter in the Shalem app, free: narration, chapter video and reading progress. Get the app