Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons
1And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days:
2“Gather 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.
4Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
Because you went up to your father’s bed;
Then you defiled it—
He went up to my couch.
5“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
Instruments of 49:5 violencecruelty are in their dwelling place.
6Let not my soul enter their council;
Let not my honor be united to their assembly;
For in their anger they slew a man,
And in their self-will they 49:6 lamedhamstrung an ox.
And their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
And scatter them in Israel.
8“Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9Judah is a lion’s whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He 49:9 couchesbows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
10The 49:10 A symbol of kingshipscepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
11Binding his donkey to the vine,
And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.
12His eyes are darker than wine,
And his teeth whiter than milk.
13“Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea;
He shall become a haven for ships,
And his border shall adjoin Sidon.
14“Issachar is a strong donkey,
Lying down between two burdens;
15He saw that rest was good,
And that the land was pleasant;
He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden,
And became a band of slaves.
16“Dan shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
17Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse’s heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
18I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!
But he shall triumph at last.
20“Bread from Asher shall be rich,
And he shall yield royal dainties.
21“Naphtali is a deer let loose;
He uses beautiful words.
22“Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a well;
His branches run over the wall.
23The archers have bitterly grieved him,
Shot at him and hated him.
24But his bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were 49:24 Or supplemade strong
By the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob
(From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
25By 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 beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26The blessings of your father
Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,
Up 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 brothers.
27“Benjamin is a ravenous 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 this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each one according to his own blessing.
Jacob’s Death and Burial
29Then 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,
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 of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.
31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.
33And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
