THE WORD OF ELOHIM
GENESIS
Chapter 49
And Ya’akov called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in the days to come.
Assemble and hearken, O sons of Ya’akov;
Hearken to Yisrael your father:
Reuben, you are my first born, my might and first fruit of my vigor,
Exceeding in rank and exceeding in honor.
Unstable as water, you shall excel no longer; for when you mounted your father’s bed,
You brought disgrace—my couch he mounted!
Simeon and Levi are a pair; their weapons are tools of lawlessness.
Let not my person be included in their council,
Let not my being be counted in their assembly.
For when angry they slay men and when pleased they maim oxen.
Cursed be their anger so fierce, and their wrath so relentless.
I will divide them in Ya’akov, scatter them in Yisrael.
You, O Yehudah, your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes; your father’s sons shall bow low to you.
Yehudah is a lion’s whelp; on prey, my son, have you grown.
He crouches, lies down like a lion, like the king of beasts— who dare rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet;
So that tribute shall come to him and the homage of peoples be his.
He tethers his ass to a vine, his ass’s foal to a choice vine;
He washes his garment in wine, his robe in blood of grapes,
His eyes are darker than wine; his teeth are whiter than milk.
Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore;
He shall be a haven for ships, and his flank shall rest on Tsidon.
Yissaskar is a strong boned ass, crouching among the sheepfolds,
When he saw how good was security, and how pleasant was the country,
He bent his shoulder to the burden, and became a toiling serf.
Dan shall govern his people, as one of the tribes of Yisrael.
Dan shall be a serpent by the road, a viper by the path that bites the horse’s heel;
So that his rider is thrown backward.
I wait for Your deliverance, O YEHOVAH!
Gad shall be raided by raiders, but he shall raid at their heels.
Asher’s bread shall be rich and he shall yield royal dainties.
Naphtali is a hind let loose, which yields lovely fawns.
Yehoseph is a wild ass, a wild ass by a spring—Wild colts on a hillside.
Archers bitterly assailed him; they shot at him and harried him.
Yet his bow stayed taut and his arms were made firm
By the hand of the Mighty One of Ya’akov—
There, the Shepherd, the Rock of Yisrael—
The God of your father, who helps you,
And Shaddai who blesses you with blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that couches below,
Blessings of the breast and womb.
The blessings of your father surpass the blessings of my ancestors,
To the utmost bounds of the eternal hills.
May they rest on the head of Yehoseph,
On the brow of the elect of his brothers.
Binyamin is a ravenous wolf;
In the morning he consumes the foe,
And in the evening he divides the spoil.”
All these were the tribes of Yisrael, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell; addressing to each a parting word appropriate to him.
Then he instructed them; saying to them, “I am about to be gathered to my kin. Bury me with my father’s in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Chitti; the cave which is in the field of Makpelah, facing Mamre, in the land of Kenaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Chitti for a burial site—there Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried; there Yischaq and his wife Rivqah were buried; and there I buried Leah—the field and the cave in it, bought from the Chivvi.” When Ya’akov finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and, breathing his last, he was gathered to his people.