49:3 Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might and the beginning of my strength,
outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.
49:4 You are destructive
for you got on your father’s bed,
then you defiled it – he got on my couch!
49:5 Simeon and Levi are brothers,
weapons of violence are their knives!
49:6 O my soul, do not come into their council,
do not be united to their assembly, my heart,
for in their anger they have killed men,
and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.
49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce,
and their fury, for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob,
and scatter them in Israel!
49:8 Judah,
Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies,
your father’s sons will bow down before you.
49:9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah,
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He crouches and lies down like a lion;
like a lioness – who will rouse him?
49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs;
the nations will obey him.
49:11 Binding his foal to the vine,
and his colt to the choicest vine,
he will wash
his robes in the blood of grapes.
49:12 His eyes will be dark from wine,
and his teeth white from milk.
49:13 Zebulun will live
and become a haven for ships;
his border will extend to Sidon.
49:14 Issachar is a strong-boned donkey
lying down between two saddlebags.
49:15 When he sees
and the pleasant land,
he will bend his shoulder to the burden
and become a slave laborer.
49:16 Dan
as one of the tribes of Israel.
49:17 May Dan be a snake beside the road,
a viper by the path,
that bites the heels of the horse
so that its rider falls backward.
49:18 I wait for your deliverance, O Lord.
49:19 Gad will be raided by marauding bands,
but he will attack them at their heels.
49:20 Asher’s
and he will provide delicacies
49:21 Naphtali is a free running doe,
he speaks delightful words.
49:22 Joseph is a fruitful bough,
a fruitful bough near a spring
whose branches
49:23 The archers will attack him,
they will shoot at him and oppose him.
49:24 But his bow will remain steady,
and his hands
because of the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,
because of
49:25 because of the God of your father,
who will help you,
because of the sovereign God,
who will bless you
with blessings from the sky above,
blessings from the deep that lies below,
and blessings of the breasts and womb.
49:26 The blessings of your father are greater
than
or the desirable things of the age-old hills.
They will be on the head of Joseph
and on the brow of the prince of his brothers.
49:27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
in the morning devouring the prey,
and in the evening dividing the plunder.”