Genesis 49

² ‘Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob;
    listen to your father Israel.

³ ‘Reuben, you are my firstborn,
    my might, the first sign of my strength,
    excelling in honour, excelling in power.
⁴ Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel,
    for you went up onto your father’s bed,
    onto my couch and defiled it.

⁵ ‘Simeon and Levi are brothers –
    their swords^[a] are weapons of violence.
⁶ Let me not enter their council,
    let me not join their assembly,
for they have killed men in their anger
    and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, so fierce,
    and their fury, so cruel!
I will scatter them in Jacob
    and disperse them in Israel.

⁸ ‘Judah,^[b] your brothers will praise you;
    your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
    you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
    like a lioness – who dares to rouse him?
¹⁰ The sceptre will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,^[c]
until he to whom it belongs^[d] shall come
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
¹¹ He will tether his donkey to a vine,
    his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
    his robes in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes will be darker than wine,
    his teeth whiter than milk.^[e]

¹³ ‘Zebulun will live by the seashore
    and become a haven for ships;
    his border will extend towards Sidon.

¹⁴ ‘Issachar is a scrawny^[f] donkey
    lying down among the sheepfolds.^[g]
15 When he sees how good is his resting place
    and how pleasant is his land,
he will bend his shoulder to the burden
    and submit to forced labour.

¹⁶ ‘Dan^[h] will provide justice for his people
    as one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷ Dan will be a snake by the roadside,
    a viper along the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
    so that its rider tumbles backwards.

¹⁸ ‘I look for your deliverance, Lord.

¹⁹ ‘Gad^[i] will be attacked by a band of raiders,
    but he will attack them at their heels.

²⁰ ‘Asher’s food will be rich;
    he will provide delicacies fit for a king.

²¹ ‘Naphtali is a doe set free
    that bears beautiful fawns.^[j]

²² ‘Joseph is a fruitful vine,
    a fruitful vine near a spring,
    whose branches climb over a wall.^[k]
23 With bitterness archers attacked him;
    they shot at him with hostility.
²⁴ But his bow remained steady,
    his strong arms stayed^[l] supple,
because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,
    because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
²⁵ because of your father’s God, who helps you,
    because of the Almighty,^[m] who blesses you
with blessings of the skies above,
    blessings of the deep springs below,
    blessings of the breast and womb.
²⁶ Your father’s blessings are greater
    than the blessings of the ancient mountains,
    than^[n] the bounty of the age-old hills.
Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
    on the brow of the prince among^[o] his brothers.

²⁷ ‘Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
    in the morning he devours the prey,
    in the evening he divides the plunder.’