“Judah,[a](A) your brothers will praise you;
    your hand will be on the neck(B) of your enemies;
    your father’s sons will bow down to you.(C)
You are a lion’s(D) cub,(E) Judah;(F)
    you return from the prey,(G) my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah,(H)
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,[b]
until he to whom it belongs[c] shall come(I)
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.(J)
11 He will tether his donkey(K) to a vine,
    his colt to the choicest branch;(L)
he will wash his garments in wine,
    his robes in the blood of grapes.(M)
12 His eyes will be darker than wine,
    his teeth whiter than milk.[d](N)

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 49:8 Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise.
  2. Genesis 49:10 Or from his descendants
  3. Genesis 49:10 Or to whom tribute belongs; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
  4. Genesis 49:12 Or will be dull from wine, / his teeth white from milk

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.

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 depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

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 shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

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