1Then Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall come to you in the last days.
2Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father.
3Reuben mine eldest son, thou art my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4Thou wast light as water: thou shalt not be excellent, because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed: then diddest thou defile my bed, thy dignity is gone.
5Simeon and Levi, brethren in evil, the instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6Into their secret let not my soul come: my glory be not thou joined with their assembly: for in their wrath they slew a man, and in their self-will they dug down a wall.
7Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, and their rage, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
8Thou Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies: thy father’s son shall bow down before unto thee.
9Judah as a Lion’s whelp shalt thou come up from the spoil, my son. He shall lie down and couch a Lion, and as a Lioness: Who shall stir him up?
10The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and the people shall be gathered unto him.
11He shall bind his Ass foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the best vine. He shall wash his garment in wine, and his cloak in the blood of grapes.
12His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13Zebulun shall dwell by the seaside, and he shall be an haven for ships: and his border shall be unto Sidon.
14Issachar shall be a strong ass, couching down between two burdens:
15And he shall see that rest is good, and that the land is pleasant, and he shall bow his shoulder to bear, and shall be subject unto tribute.
16Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder by the path, biting the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18O Lord, I have waited for thy salvation.
19Gad, a host of men shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last.
20Concerning Asher, his bread shall be fat, and he shall give pleasures for a king.
21Naphtali shall be a hind let go, giving goodly words.
22Joseph shall be a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by the well side: the small boughs shall turn upon the wall:
23And the archers grieved him, and shot against him, and hated him.
24But his bow abode strong, and the hands of his arms were strengthened, by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, of whom was the feeder appointed by the stone of Israel,
25Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the almighty, who shall bless thee with heavenly blessings from above, with blessings of the deep that lieth beneath, with blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
26The blessings of thy father shall be stronger than the blessings of mine elders: unto the end of the hills of the world they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
27Benjamin shall raven as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and thus their father spake unto them, and blessed them: every one of them blessed he with a several blessing.
29And he charged them and said unto them, I am ready to be gathered unto 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, besides Mamre in the land of Canaan: which cave Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession to bury in.
31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife: there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife: and there I buried Leah.
32The purchase of the field and the cave that is therein, was bought of the children of Heth.
33Thus Jacob made an end of giving charge to his sons, and plucked his feet into the bed, and gave up the ghost, and was gathered to his people.