1: And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. |
|
2: Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and
hearken unto Israel your father. |
|
3:
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my
strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: |
|
4: Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up
to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch. |
|
5: Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their
habitations. |
|
6: O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly,
mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in
their selfwill they digged down a wall. |
|
7: Cursed 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. |
|
8: Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall
be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before
thee. |
|
9: Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up:
he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse
him up? |
|
10: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the
people be. |
|
11: Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the
choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of
grapes: |
|
12: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. |
|
13: Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for
an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. |
|
14: Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: |
|
15: And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant;
and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute. |
|
16: Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. |
|
17: Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that
biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. |
|
18: I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. |
|
19: Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the
last. |
|
20: Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal
dainties. |
|
21: Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. |
|
22: Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well;
whose branches run over the wall: |
|
23: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated
him: |
|
24: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the
shepherd, the stone of Israel:) |
|
25: Even 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 lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: |
|
26: The 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. |
|
27: Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour
the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. |
|
28: All 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. |
|
29: And 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, |
|
30: In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before
Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. |
|
31: There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried
Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. |
|
32: The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was
from the children of Heth. |
|
33: And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he
gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was
gathered unto his people. |