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Genesis 49

1 And Jacob summoned his sons and said, Gather around, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days:
2 Gather around and hear, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father.
3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
4 Like bubbling water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it; he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; implements of violence are their weapons.
6 Let not my soul enter their council; let not my honor be united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they have hamstrung an ox.
7 Cursed is their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
8 Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he crouches like a lion; and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the cleansing of the peoples.
11 Binding His donkey to the vine, and His donkey's colt to the choice vine, He has washed His garments in wine, and His clothes in the blood of grapes;
12 His eyes flashing with wine, and His teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore; he shall become a haven for ships, bordering Sidon.
14 Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between two burdens.
15 He saw that the resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden, and became a servant to forced labor.
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, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for your salvation, O Jehovah.
19 Gad, a troop shall attack him, but he shall attack their heel.
20 Bread from Asher shall be rich, and he shall produce kings' delicacies.
21 Naphtali is a deer let loose; he utters beautiful words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches have run over the wall.
23 The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and carried animosity against him.
24 But his bow remained steadfast, and the arms of his hands were made nimble by the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob; from the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel,
25 by the Mighty God of your father who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my ancestors, to the bounds of the enduring hills. They shall be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall distribute the spoils.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each one according to his own blessing.
29 And he charged them and said to them: I am about to be gathered to 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, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.
32 The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.
33 And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and expired, and was gathered to his people.
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