Genesis Chapter 49 (Index)

001  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.

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

003  Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

004  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.

005  Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

006  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.

007  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.

008  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.

009  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?

010  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.

011  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:

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

013  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.

014  Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:

015  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.

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

017  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.

018  I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

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

020  Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.

021  Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.

022  Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

023  The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:

024  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:)

025  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:

026  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.

027  Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.

028  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.

029  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,

030  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.

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

032  The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.

033  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.