Génesis 49

¹Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Come together, and I will tell you what lies ahead for you in the time to come.” ²“Come together and hear, you sons of Jacob; give ear to Israel your father. ³Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength, the first child of my vigor, standing above the rest in honor, above the rest in power. ⁴Wild as surging water, you will not hold first place, for you mounted your father’s bed. Then you defiled it: he climbed onto my couch!

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers indeed; violence is what their blades are made for. ⁶May I never take part in their secret plans, and may my honor stay far from their gatherings. In their rage they murdered men, and for their own pleasure they lamed oxen. ⁷Their anger is fierce and their rage is merciless; may both be cursed! I will break them apart among Jacob and spread them out across Israel.

⁸Judah, you are the one your brothers will praise. Your hand will grip your enemies by the neck; the sons of your father will bow low before you. ⁹Judah is a young lion; my son, you have come up from the kill. He crouches and stretches out like a lion, like a lioness: who would risk waking him? ¹⁰The scepter will not pass from Judah, nor the staff of command from between his feet, until its rightful owner comes; the peoples will obey him.^{a 11}He will tie his donkey to the vine, the colt of his donkey to the best of the vines; he will launder his clothes in wine, his robe in the blood of grapes. ¹²His eyes will be dark with wine, his teeth white with milk.

¹³Zebulun will make his home where the sea meets the land; he will be a landing place for ships, his territory stretching toward Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong-boned donkey, stretched out between the sheepfolds. ¹⁵He found that rest was good and the land delightful, so he stooped to carry loads and was put to forced labor.

¹⁶Dan will win justice for his people, a tribe of Israel like the rest. ¹⁷May Dan be a snake on the road, a horned viper beside the path, that strikes at a horse’s heels and throws its rider off backward. ¹⁸For your salvation I wait in hope, LORD. ¹⁹Gad: a raiding band will press him hard, but he will turn and press at their heels.

²⁰Out of Asher will come rich food; he will furnish fine fare for a king.^b

²¹Naphtali is a deer running free that speaks lovely words.^c

²²Joseph is a fruit-bearing branch, a fruit-bearing branch beside a spring, its shoots spilling over the wall.^{d 23}Archers made his life bitter; they shot at him and hounded him with hatred. ²⁴Yet his bow did not waver, and his arms were kept nimble by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob; from there, from the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel,^{e 25}from the God of your father, who will help you, and by the Almighty, who will bless you with blessings that fall from the sky above, blessings that rise from the deep lying below, blessings of breast and womb.^{f 26}The blessings your father gives are stronger than the blessings of my forebears, as far as the farthest of the ancient hills. Let them come down on Joseph’s head, on the crown of the one marked out from his brothers.^g

²⁷Benjamin is a wolf that tears its prey: in the morning he feeds on the kill, by evening he is sharing out the spoils.” ²⁸Together these make up the twelve tribes of Israel. These are the words their father spoke over them when he blessed them; to each he gave a blessing of his own. ²⁹Then he charged them: “I am soon to be gathered to my people. Lay me to rest with my fathers in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰the cave in the Machpelah field, east of Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought, field and all, from Ephron the Hittite to own as a burial site. ³¹That is where Abraham was laid to rest with his wife Sarah, and Isaac with his wife Rebekah; and I laid Leah there too. ³²The field with its cave was a purchase from the Hittites.” ³³Jacob finished charging his sons. Then he lifted his feet back onto the bed, took his last breath, and was gathered to his people.