CHAPTER 49
1 Forsooth 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;
2 be ye gathered [together], and hear, ye sons of Jacob, hear ye Israel your father.
3 Reuben, 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;
4 thou 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.
5 Simeon and Levi, brethren, fighting vessels of wickedness;
6 my 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;
7 cursed 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.
8 Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee, thine hands shall be in the nolls of thine enemies; the sons of thy father shall worship thee.
9 Judah, 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?
10 The 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;
11 and 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;
12 his eyes be fairer than wine, and his teeth be whiter than milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell in the brink of the sea, and in the standing of ships; and he shall stretch till to Sidon.
14 Issachar, a strong ass, lying betwixt [the] terms,
15 saw 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*.
16 Dan shall deem his people, as also another lineage in Israel.
17 Dan 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;
18 Lord, I shall abide thine health.
19 Gad shall be girded, and he shall fight before him, and he shall be girded behind.
20 Asher, his bread shall be fat, and he shall give delights to kings.
21 Naphtali shall be an hart sent out, and giving speeches of fairness.
22 Joseph, a son increasing, a son increasing, and fair in beholding; [the] daughters run about on the wall,
23 but his brethren wrathed at him, and chided him, and they had darts, and had envy to him.
24 His 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.
25 God 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;
26 the 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.
27 Benjamin, a ravishing wolf, shall eat the prey early, and in the eventide he shall part spoils.
28 All these were in [the] twelve kindreds of Israel; their father spake these things to them, and he blessed them all by proper blessings,
29 and 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.
31 There 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.)
33 And 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.
* CHAPTER 49:15 Either to rent, (Or to pay rent or taxes), as it is in Hebrew.