Genesis 49

49 ¹Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather, so I can tell you what will happen to you in the days ahead. ²Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father. ³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the firstfruits of my strength, excelling in dignity and excelling in power. ⁴Unstable as water, you will not excel, 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. ⁶May I never enter their council; may my honor not be joined to their assembly. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. ⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them throughout Jacob and scatter them throughout Israel. ⁸Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons will bow down before you. ⁹Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have come back. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness—who dares rouse him? ¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs—Jesus—and to him will be the obedience of the peoples. ^a a v10 The scepter promised to Judah and the one to whom it belongs is Jesus — born from Judah's line, named the Lion of the tribe of Judah in Revelation 5:5. ¹¹Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes. ¹²His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. ¹³Zebulun will dwell at the shore of the sea; he will become a haven for ships, and his border will be at Sidon. ¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds. ¹⁵He saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, so he bent his shoulder to the load and became a servant at forced labor. ¹⁶Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁷Dan will be a serpent in the road, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backward. ¹⁸I wait for your salvation, my Father. ^b b v18 In the middle of blessing his sons, Jacob breaks into personal prayer — the only direct cry to our Father in the chapter. His word for "salvation" carries the very root that, in time, becomes the name Jesus. ¹⁹Gad—raiders will raid him, but he will raid at their heels. ²⁰Asher's food will be rich, and he will yield royal delicacies. ²¹Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns. ²²Joseph is a fruitful branch, a fruitful branch by a spring; his branches run over the wall. ²³The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely. ²⁴Yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob—our Father—from there comes the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. ^c c v24 The Mighty One of Jacob is one of the oldest titles for our Father in the Bible — the strong one who holds his children's hands steady when arrows fly. The Shepherd and the Stone are titles our Father shares with his Son Jesus, who calls himself the good shepherd and is named the cornerstone by Peter. ²⁵By the God of your father who will help you, by El Shaddai—the Almighty, our Father—who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. ²⁶The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my ancestors, reaching to the riches of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. ²⁷Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil."

A Blessing for Each Son

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel; this is what their father said as he blessed them, each with the blessing fitting him.

²⁹He commanded them: "I am being gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in Ephron the Hittite's field, ³⁰in the cave in the field at Machpelah, east of Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial 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 were bought from the Hittites. ³³Jacob finished commanding his sons, drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people."