1 ¶ Then Jacob called to his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, so that I may tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.

2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, you sons of Jacob; and listen to Israel your father.

3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

4 Turbulent as water, you will not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it: you went up to my couch.

5 ¶ Simeon and Levi are alike; their tools are instruments of cruelty.

6 O my soul, enter not into their plot; O my spirit, join not in their council: for in their anger they killed a man, and on a whim they hamstring oxen.

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, you are he whom your brothers will praise: your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children will bow down before you.

9 Judah is a lion’s cub: from the prey, my son, you have gone up: he crouches and stretches out like a lion, and like a mature lion; who dares rouse him?

10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the Man of Peace comes; and to him will the people gather.

11 Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; he washes his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

12 His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

13 ¶ Zebulun will live by the shore of the sea; and he will be a haven for ships; and his border will be at Sidon.

14 Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between two burdens:

15 When he sees that rest is enjoyable, and the land pleasant; he bends his shoulder to carry loads, and does what he is forced to do.

16 Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan will be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward.

18 I wait for your salvation, O LORD.

19 Raiders will assail Gad: but he will raid at their heals.

20 Asher’s food will be rich, and he will provide royal dainties.

21 Naphtali is a doe set free: that produces beautiful fawns.

22 ¶ Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

23 The archers have fiercely attacked him, and shot at him, and hated him:

24 But his bow remained strong, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel:)

25 Even by the God of your father, who will help you; and by the Almighty, who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

26 The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of my forefathers unto the bounties of the everlasting hills: they will be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separated from his brothers.

27 Benjamin is as a ravenous wolf: in the morning devouring the prey, and at night dividing the spoil.

28 ¶ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is what their father said to them, as he blessed them; blessing each with the blessing suitable to them.

29 Then he charged 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,

30 In the cave that is in the field of Mach-pelah, which is east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, that Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burial place.

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 in it was from the children of Heth.

33 And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.