Old Testament · Law

Genesis chapter 49

Then Jacob called his sons together and said, “Gather around — let me tell you what will happen to you in the .”“Come close, sons of Jacob, and listen. Listen to , your father.”“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength, the — surpassing in rank, surpassing in force.”“ — you will not surpass, because you climbed into your father’s bed, defiled it — climbed into my couch.”“Simeon and Levi are brothers — are their tools of trade.”“Let me never join their council, let my honor never be linked with their assembly — for in their anger they killed men, and on a whim they .”“Cursed be their anger — so fierce, and their fury — so cruel. I will them through Jacob, spread them across Israel.”“ — your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow before you.”“A is Judah — from the prey, my son, you rise up. He crouches, he lies down like a lion, like a — who dares rouse him?”“The will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until comes — and the will be his.”“He ties his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He washes his garments in wine, his robes in the .”“His eyes are , his teeth whiter than milk.”“Zebulun will settle by the shore of the sea. He will be a harbor for ships, his border reaching toward .”“Issachar is a , lying down between the .”“He saw that the resting place was good, that the land was pleasant — so he bent his shoulder to the load and became a .”“ his people as one of the tribes of Israel.”“Dan will be a serpent on the road, a along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so the rider tumbles backward.”“For your I wait, !”“ him, but he will raid at their heels.”“From — his food will be rich, and he will provide .”“Naphtali is a who bears .”“Joseph is a , a fruitful vine by a spring, his branches climbing over the wall.”“The attacked him bitterly, shot at him, harassed him relentlessly.”“But his bow stayed steady, his arms stayed strong — by the hands of the , by the name of the , the .”“By the God of your father who helps you, by who covers you with — favor from the sky above, favor from the deep that crouches below, favor from the breast and the womb.”“The favor your father speaks over you surpasses the favor of the , the bounty of the everlasting hills. Let it all rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the one .”“Benjamin is a — in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father . He gave each one the words that fit them — each received their own.Then he gave them instructions: “I am about to be . Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite —““the cave in the field of , facing Mamre in the land of Canaan — the field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.”“That is where they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah. That is where they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah. And that is where I buried .”“The field and the cave in it were .”When Jacob finished giving instructions to his sons, he , , and was .