Genesis, 49

1. Jacob called his sons and said, 'Gather round, so that I can tell you what is in store for you in the final days.

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 round, sons of Jacob, and listen; listen to Israel your father.

2. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

3. Reuben, you are my first-born, my vigour, and the first-fruit of my manhood, foremost in pride, foremost in strength,

3. Reuben, thou [art] my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

4. uncontrolled as water: you will not be foremost, for you climbed into your father's bed, and so defiled my couch, to my sorrow.

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 brothers in carrying out their malicious plans.

5. Simeon and Levi [are] brethren; instruments of cruelty [are in] their habitations.

6. May my soul not enter their council nor my heart join their company, for in their rage they have killed men and hamstrung oxen at their whim.

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. Accursed be their rage for its ruthlessness, their wrath for its ferocity. I shall disperse them in Jacob, I shall scatter them through Israel.

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, your brothers will praise you: you grip your enemies by the neck, your father's sons will do you homage.

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; You stand over your prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, a mighty lion: who dare rouse him?

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 pass from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute be brought him and the peoples render him obedience.

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. He tethers his donkey to the vine, to its stock the foal of his she-donkey. He washes his clothes in wine, his robes in the blood of the grape.

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 are darkened with wine and his teeth are white with milk.

12. His eyes [shall be] red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

13. Zebulun will live by the seashore and be a sailor on board the ships, with Sidon on his flank.

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 donkey lying down among sheepfolds.

14. Issachar [is] a strong ass couching down between two burdens:

15. When he saw how good the resting-place and how pleasant the country, he bowed his shoulder to the load and became a slave to forced labour.

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 will govern his people like any other of the tribes of Israel.

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

17. May Dan be a snake on the road, a viper on the path, who bites the horse on the hock so that its rider falls off backwards!

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 long for your deliverance, Yahweh!

18. I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

19. Gad will be raided by raiders, and he will raid at their heels.

19. Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.

20. Rich the food produced by Asher: he will furnish food fit for kings.

20. Out of Asher his bread [shall be] fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.

21. Naphtali is a swift hind bearing lovely fawns.

21. Naphtali [is] a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.

22. Joseph is a fruitful plant near a spring whose tendrils reach over the wall.

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

23. Archers in their hostility drew their bows and attacked him.

23. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot [at him], and hated him:

24. But their bows were broken by a mighty One, the sinews of their arms were snapped by the power of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the Name of the Stone of Israel,

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. the God of your father who assists you, El Shaddai who blesses you: blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep lying below, blessings of the breasts and womb,

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. blessings of the grain and flowers, blessings of the eternal mountains, bounty of the everlasting hills -- may they descend on Joseph's head, on the crown of the one dedicated from among his brothers!

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 is a ravening wolf, in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he is still sharing out the spoil.'

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 make up the tribes of Israel, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell, giving each an appropriate blessing.

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. Then he gave them these instructions, 'I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my ancestors, in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

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 in the field at Machpelah, facing Mamre, in Canaan, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site of his own.

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 Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried. There Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried; and there I buried Leah-

31. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.

32. the field and the cave in it which were bought from the Hittites.'

32. The purchase of the field and of the cave that [is] therein [was] from the children of Heth.

33. When Jacob had finished giving his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, and breathing his last was gathered to his people.

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.