1And Jacob called to 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, you sons of Jacob; And listen to Israel your father. 3Reuben, you are 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, you shall not have the pre-eminence; Because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it: he went up to my couch. 5Simeon and Levi are brothers; Weapons of violence are their swords. 6O my soul, do not come into their council; To their assembly, my glory, do not be united; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. 7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel. 8Judah, your brothers shall praise you: Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s sons shall bow down before you. 9Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up: He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? 10The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to him shall the obedience of the peoples be. 11Binding his foal to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine; He has washed his garments in wine, And his robe in the blood of grapes: 12His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk. 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, Lying down between the sheepfolds: 15And he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under forced labor. 16Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel. 17Dan shall be a serpent in the way, An adder in the path, That bites the horse’s heels, So that his rider falls backward. 18I have waited for your salvation, O Yehovah. 19Gad, a troop shall press upon him; But he shall press upon their heel. 20Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, And he shall yield royal dainties. 21Naphtali is a hind let loose: He gives beautiful words. 22Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a fountain; His branches run over the wall. 23The archers have bitterly grieved him, And shot at him, and persecuted him: 24But his bow remained in strength, And the arms of his hands were made strong, By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel), 25Even by the God of your father, who shall help you, And by the Almighty, who shall bless you, With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lies beneath, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. 26The blessings of your father Have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors To the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. 27Benjamin is a ravenous wolf: In the morning he shall devour the prey, And at evening he shall divide the spoil. 28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29And he charged them, and said to them, I am to be gathered to 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 in it, which was purchased from the children of Heth. 33And when Jacob finished charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.