1And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.
2Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father.
3Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
4Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords.
6O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united; For in their anger they slew a man,
7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their wrath, for it was cruel:
8Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise:
9Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up:
10The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
11Binding his foal unto the vine,
12His eyes shall be red with wine,
13Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; And he shall be for a haven of ships; And his border shall be upon Sidon.
14Issachar is a strong donkey,
15And he saw a resting-place that it was good,
16Dan shall judge his people,
17Dan shall be a serpent in the way,
18I have waited for thy salvation, O Yahweh.
19Gad, a troop shall press upon him; But he shall press upon their heel.
20Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,
21Naphtali is a hind let loose:
22Joseph is a fruitful bough,
23The archers have sorely grieved him,
24But his bow abode in strength,
25Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee,
26The blessings of thy father
27Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth:
28All 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.
29And 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,
30in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.
31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah—
32the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.
33And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered unto his people.