Genesis 49

Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons

1 # Num 24.14 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather around, that I may tell you what will happen to you in days to come.

2Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob;

listen to Israel your father.

3 # Gen 29.32; Deut 21.17 Reuben, you are my firstborn,

my might and the first fruits of my vigor,

excelling in rank and excelling in power.

4 # Gen 35.22; Deut 27.20 Unstable as water, you shall no longer excel

because you went up onto your father’s bed;

then you defiled it—you#49.4 Gk Syr Tg: Heb he went up onto my couch!

5 # Gen 34.25–30 Simeon and Levi are brothers;

weapons of violence are their swords.

6 # Gen 34.26; Prov 1.15; Eph 5.11 May I never come into their council;

may I not be joined to their company,

for in their anger they killed men,

and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.

7 # Josh 19.1, 9; 21.1–42 Cursed be 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 # Deut 33.7; 1 Chr 5.2 Judah, your brothers shall praise you;

your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

your father’s sons shall bow down before you.

9 # Ezek 19.5–7; Mic 5.8 Judah is a lion’s whelp;

from the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion,

like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?

10 # Num 24.17; Ps 60.7; Isa 2.2; 11.1; Lk 1.32 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

until tribute comes to him,#49.10 Or until Shiloh comes or until he comes to Shiloh or (with Syr) until he comes to whom it belongs

and the obedience of the peoples is his.

11Binding his foal to the vine

and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,

he washes his garments in wine

and his robe in the blood of grapes;

12his eyes are darker than wine

and his teeth whiter than milk.

13 # Deut 33.18, 19; Josh 19.10, 11 Zebulun shall settle at the shore of the sea;

he shall be a haven for ships,

and his border shall be at Sidon.

14Issachar is a strong donkey,

lying down between the sheepfolds;

15he saw that a resting place was good

and that the land was pleasant,

so he bowed his shoulder to the burden

and became a slave at forced labor.

16 # Deut 33.22; Judg 18.1, 2 Dan shall judge his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

17 # Judg 18.26, 27 Dan shall be a snake by the roadside,

a viper along the path,

that bites the horse’s heels

so that its rider falls backward.

18 # Ex 15.2; Ps 25.5; 119.166, 174; Isa 25.9; Mic 7.7 I wait for your salvation, O Lord.

19 # Deut 33.20; 1 Chr 5.18 Gad shall be raided by raiders,

but he shall raid at their heels.

20 # Deut 33.24, 25; Josh 19.24 Asher’s#49.20 Gk Vg Syr: Heb From Asher food shall be rich,

and he shall provide royal delicacies.

21 # Deut 33.23 Naphtali is a doe let loose

that bears lovely fawns.#49.21 Or that gives beautiful words

22 # Deut 33.13–17 Joseph is a fruitful bough,#49.22 Meaning of Heb uncertain

a fruitful bough by a spring;

his branches run over the wall.#49.22 Meaning of Heb uncertain

23 # Gen 37.4, 24, 28 The archers fiercely attacked him;

they shot at him and pressed him hard.

24 # Ps 18.34; 23.1; 132.2, 5; Isa 1.24; 28.16; 41.10; 1 Pet 2.6–8 Yet his bow remained taut,

and his arms#49.24 Heb the arms of his hands were made agile

by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,

by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

25 # Gen 27.28; 28.3, 13; 32.9; 48.3 by the God of your father, who will help you,

by the Almighty#49.25 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai who will bless you

with blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the deep that lies beneath,

blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

26 # Deut 33.15, 16 The blessings of your father

are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains,

the bounties#49.26 Cn Compare Gk: Heb of my progenitors to the boundaries of the everlasting hills;

may they be on the head of Joseph,

on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

27Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,

in the morning devouring the prey

and at evening dividing the spoil.”

28 # Gen 23.16–20 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, blessing each one of them with a suitable blessing.

Jacob’s Death and Burial

29 # Gen 25.8; 47.30 Then he charged them, saying to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my ancestors in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30#Gen 23.16in the cave in the field at Machpelah, near Mamre, in the land of Canaan, in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. 31#Gen 23.19; 25.9; 35.29There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried; there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried; and there I buried Leah. 32The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.” 33#v 29; Gen 25.8; Acts 7.15When Jacob ended his charge to his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

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Genesis 49

CHAPTER 49

1Forsooth Jacob called his sons, and said to them, Be ye gathered together, that I tell what things shall come to you in the last days;

2be ye gathered [together], and hear, ye sons of Jacob, hear ye Israel your father.

3Reuben, my first begotten son, thou art my strength, and the beginning of my sorrow; thou oughtest to be the former in gifts, the more in lordship;

4thou art shed [or poured] out as water; wax thou not, for thou ascend-edest [or went up] on the bed of thy father, and defouledest his bed.

5Simeon and Levi, brethren, fighting vessels of wickedness;

6my soul come not into the counsel of them, and my glory be not in the congregation of them; for in their strong vengeance, they killed a man, and in their [own] will, they under-mined the wall;

7cursed be the strong vengeance of them, for it is obstinate, and the indignation of them, for it is hard; I shall part them in Jacob, and I shall scatter them in Israel.

8Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee, thine hands shall be in the nolls of thine enemies; the sons of thy father shall worship thee.

9Judah, the whelp of a lion; my son, thou hast gone up to the prey; thou restedest, and hast lain as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall raise him?

10The sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah, and a duke of his hip, till he come that shall be sent, and he shall be the abiding of heathen men;

11and he shall tie his colt at the vinery [or vineyard], and his she-ass at the vine; O! my son, he shall wash his stole in wine, and his mantle in the blood of the grape;

12his eyes be fairer than wine, and his teeth be whiter than milk.

13Zebulun shall dwell in the brink of the sea, and in the standing of ships; and he shall stretch till to Sidon.

14Issachar, a strong ass, lying betwixt [the] terms,

15saw rest, that it was good, and saw the land, that it was best, and he underset his shoulder to bear, and he was made serving to tributes#49:15 Either to rent, (Or to pay rent or taxes), as it is in Hebrew..

16Dan shall deem his people, as also another lineage in Israel.

17Dan be made a serpent in the way, and a cerastes, that is, an horned adder, in the path, and bite he the feet of an horse, that the rider of him fall backward;

18Lord, I shall abide thine health.

19Gad shall be girded, and he shall fight before him, and he shall be girded behind.

20Asher, his bread shall be fat, and he shall give delights to kings.

21Naphtali shall be an hart sent out, and giving speeches of fairness.

22Joseph, a son increasing, a son increasing, and fair in beholding; [the] daughters run about on the wall,

23but his brethren wrathed at him, and chided him, and they had darts, and had envy to him.

24His bow sat in the Strong, that is, the Lord, and the bonds of his arms and his hands were unbound by the hand of the mighty God of Jacob; of him a shepherd went out, the stone of Israel.

25God of thy father shall be thine helper, and Almighty God shall bless thee, with blessings of heaven from above, and with blessings of the sea lying beneath, with blessings of teats, and of the womb;

26the blessings of thy father be comforted, that is, be better than the blessings of his fathers, till the desire of everlasting hills came; blessings be made on the head of Joseph, and in the noll of Nazarite, that is, holy, among his brethren.

27Benjamin, a ravishing wolf, shall eat the prey early, and in the eventide he shall part spoils.

28All these were in [the] twelve kindreds of Israel; their father spake these things to them, and he blessed them all by proper blessings,

29and he commanded to them, and said, I am soon to be gathered to my people; bury ye me with my fathers in the double den, that is in the land of Ephron the Hittite,

30 that is, in the den in the field at Machpelah, against Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which den Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite, into possession of a sepulchre.

31There they buried him, and Sarah his wife; also Isaac was buried there, with Rebecca his wife; there also Leah lieth buried.

32(This verse is omitted in the original text.)

33And when the behests were ended, by which he taught his sons, he gathered together his feet on the bed, and died, and he was put to his people.

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