Genesis 49:1-12

Common English Bible

² Assemble yourselves and listen, sons of Jacob;
        listen to Israel your father.
³ Reuben, you are my oldest son,
    my strength and my first contender,^[a]
    superior in status and superior in might.
⁴ As wild as the waters, you won’t endure,
    for you went up to your father’s bed,
    you went up^[b] and violated my couch.
⁵ Simeon and Levi are brothers,
        weapons of violence their stock in trade.
⁶ May I myself never enter their council.
May my honor never be linked to their group;
        for when they were angry, they killed men,
        and whenever they wished, they maimed oxen.
⁷ Cursed be their anger; it is violent,
        their rage; it is relentless.
I’ll divide them up within Jacob
        and disperse them within Israel.
⁸ Judah, you are the one your brothers will honor;
        your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
        your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ Judah is a lion’s cub;
        from the prey, my son, you rise up.
He lies down and crouches like a lion;
        like a lioness—who dares disturb him?
¹⁰ The scepter won’t depart from Judah,
        nor the ruler’s staff from among his banners.^[c]
Gifts will be brought to him;
        people will obey him.
¹¹ He ties his male donkey to the vine,
        the colt of his female donkey to the vine’s branches.
He washes his clothes in wine,
        his garments in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes are darker than wine,
        and his teeth whiter than milk.