Genesis Chapter 49

Genesis Chapter 49
1 Then Jacob called his sons, and said,
Gather yourselves together, that I may
tell you what shall come to you in the
last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear,
ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel
your father.
3 Reuben mine eldest son, thou art my
might, and the beginning of my strength,
the excellency of dignity, and the
excellency of power: 4 Thou wast light
as water: thou shalt not be excellent,
because thou wentest up to thy father’s
bed: then didst thou defile my bed, thy
dignity is gone. 5 Simeon and Levi,
brethren in evil, the instruments of
cruelty are in their habitations.
6 Into their secret let not my soul come:
my glory, be not thou joined with their
assembly: for in their wrath they slew a
man, and in their self will they digged
down a wall.
7 Cursed be their wrath, for it was
fierce, and their rage, for it was cruel: I
will divide them in Jacob, and scatter
them in Israel.
8 Thou Judah, thy brethren shall praise
thee: thine hand shall be in the neck of
thine enemies: thy father’s sons shall
bow down unto thee.
9 Judah, as a Lion’s whelp shalt thou
come up from the spoil, my son. He shall
lie down and couch as a lion, and as a
lioness: Who shall stir him up?
10 The scepter shall not depart from
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet, until Shiloh come, and the people
shall be gathered unto him. 11 He shall
bind his ass foal unto the vine, and his
ass’s colt unto the best vine. he shall
wash his garment in wine, and his cloak
in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes shall
be red with wine, and his teeth white
with milk. 13 Zebulun shall dwell by the
seaside, and he shall be an haven for
ships: and his border shall be unto
Zidon.
14 Issachar shall be a strong ass,
couching down between two burdens: 15
And he shall see that rest is good, and
that the land is pleasant, and he shall
bow his shoulder to bear, and shall be
subject 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 by the path, biting the horse heels,
so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 O Lord, I have waited for thy
salvation.
19 Gad, an host of men shall overcome
him, but he shall overcome at the last. 20
Concerning Asher, his bread shall be
fat, and he shall give pleasures for a
king.
21 Naphtali shall be a hind let go, giving
goodly words. 22 Joseph shall be a
fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by
the well side: the small boughs shall run
upon the wall.
23 And the archers grieved him, and shot
against him and hated him. 24 But his
bow abode strong, and the hands of his
arms were strengthened, by the hands of
the mighty God of Jacob, of whom was
the feeder appointed by 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 heavenly blessings
from above, with blessings of the deep,
that lieth beneath, with blessings of the
breasts, and of the womb. 26 The
blessings of thy father shall be stronger
than the blessings of mine elders: unto
the end of the hills of the world they
shall be on the head of Joseph, and on
the top 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 thus their father spake unto
them, and blessed them: every one of
them blessed he with a several blessing.
29 And he charged them and said unto
them, I am ready to be gathered unto my
people: bury me with my fathers in the
cave that is in the field of Ephron the
Hittite,
30 In the cave that is in the field of
Machpelah besides Mamre in the land of
Canaan: which cave Abraham bought
with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a
possession to bury in.
31 There they buried Abraham and
Sarah his wife: there they buried Isaac
and Rebekah his wife: and there I buried
Leah.
32 The purchase of the field and the
cave that is therein, was bought of the
children of Heth.
33 Thus Jacob made an end of giving
charge to his sons, and plucked up his
feet into the bed and gave up the ghost,
and was gathered to his people.