1
And Yaaqov called to his sons and said, “Gather yourselves, and I will tell you what shall happen to you in the latter days.
2
Gather yourselves and hear, sons of Yaaqov; and listen to Yisra’el your father.
3
Reuven, you are my firstborn, my strength and the beginning of my vigor, exceeding in dignity and exceeding in power.
4
Unstable as waters, you shall not excel, because you went up to the bed of your father; then you defiled it— he went up to my couch.
5
Shimon and Levi are brothers; instruments of violence are their weapons.
6
Let my soul not enter their counsel; let my honor not unite with their assembly. For in their anger they killed an ish, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.
7
Cursed is their anger, for it was fierce, and their fury, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Yaaqov and scatter them in Yisra’el.
8
Yehudah, you— your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be upon the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow themselves to you.
9
Yehudah is a lion’s cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches, he lies down like a lion, and like a lioness— who shall raise him?
10
The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
11
Binding his young donkey to the vine, and the son of his donkey to the choice vine, he washes his garment in wine, and his clothing in the blood of grapes.
12
His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
13
Zevulun shall dwell by the shore of the seas; and he shall be a shore for ships, and his border shall be toward Tzidon.
14
Yissakhar is a strong-boned donkey, crouching between the burdens.
15
And he saw that rest was good, and that the land was pleasant; and he bent his shoulder to bear, and became a servant under forced labor.
16
Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Yisra’el.
17
Dan shall be a serpent upon the way, a horned serpent upon the path, biting the heels of the horse, so that its rider falls backward.
18
For Your deliverance I wait, Yahuah.
19
Gad— a raiding troop shall raid him, but he shall raid at their heel.
20
From Asher, his bread shall be rich, and he shall give delicacies of kings.
21
Naftali is a doe set free; he gives beautiful words.
22
Yosef is a fruitful son, a fruitful son beside a spring; his branches run over the wall.
23
The archers embittered him, and shot at him, and hated him.
24
Yet his bow remained firm, and the arms of his hands were strengthened by the hands of the Mighty One of Yaaqov— from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Yisra’el—
25
by the El of your father, and He shall help you; and by Shaddai, and He shall bless you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep lying beneath, blessings of breasts and womb.
26
The blessings of your father have prevailed beyond the blessings of my ancestors, to the boundary of the everlasting hills. They shall be upon the head of Yosef, and upon the crown of the one set apart from his brothers.
27
Binyamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he consumes the prey, and at evening he divides the spoil.”
28
All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra’el, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; each one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29
And he commanded them and said to them, “I am being gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Efron the Chitti,
30
in the cave that is in the field of Makhpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Kena’an, which Avraham acquired with the field from Efron the Chitti as a possession for a burial place.
31
There they buried Avraham and Sarah his ishah. There they buried Yitzchaq and Rivqah his ishah. And there I buried Leah.
32
The field and the cave that is within it were acquired from the sons of Chet.”
33
And Yaaqov finished commanding his sons, and gathered his feet into the bed. And he expired and was gathered to his people.