1And Jacob called to 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 to Israel your father. 3Reuben, thou are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power. 4Boiling over as water, thou shall not have the pre-eminence, because thou went up to thy father's bed, then thou defiled it; he went up to my couch. 5Simeon and Levi are brothers, weapons of violence are their swords. 6O my soul, come not thou into their council, to 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, thy brothers shall praise thee. 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 have gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him up? 10The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him shall the obedience of the peoples be. 11Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has 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 donkey, 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 task work. 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 bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward. 18I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. 19Gad, a troop shall press upon him, but he shall press upon their heel. 20Out of the Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. 21Naphtali is a hind let loose. He gives 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 persecute 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 there 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 couches beneath, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. 26The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my forefathers to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his broth 27Benjamin is a wolf that ravens. In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at evening he shall divide the spoil. 28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is it that their father spoke to them and blessed them; every man according to his blessing he blessed them. 29And he ordered them, and said to them, I am to be gathered to 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 in it, which was purchased from the sons of Heth. 33And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.