Genesis 49:1-28
Authorized (King James) Version
49 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 yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob;
and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn,
my might, and the beginning of my strength,
the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
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 brethren;
instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
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 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, 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:
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.
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 ass
couching down between two burdens:
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 shall judge his people,
as one of the tribes of Israel.
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 have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him:
but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,
and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose:
he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough,
even a fruitful bough by a well;
whose branches run over the wall:
23 the archers have sorely grieved him,
and shot at him, and hated him:
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 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 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 shall ravin as a wolf:
in the morning he shall devour the prey,
and at night he shall divide the spoil.
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.
Read full chapterKJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.