⁶ ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,
for from you shall come a ruler
    who is to shepherd^[a] my people Israel.’ ”^(A)

⁸ Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
    your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons shall bow down before you.^(A)
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,
    like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?^(B)
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him,^[a]
    and the obedience of the peoples is his.^(C)