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Genesis 49

Israel's Prophecy concerning His Sons

1

Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, "Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you  ain the  1days to come.

2

"Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob; And  alisten to Israel your father.

3

"Reuben, you are my firstborn; My might and  athe beginning of my strength,  1Preeminent in dignity and  1preeminent in power.

4

1Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence,  aBecause you went up to your father's bed; Then you defiled it --he went up to my couch.

5

aSimeon and Levi are brothers; Their swords are implements of violence.

6

aLet my soul not enter into their council; Let not my glory be united with their assembly; Because in their anger they slew  1men, And in their self-will they lamed  2oxen.

7

"Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; And their wrath, for it is cruel.  aI will  1disperse them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.

8

"Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;  aYour father's sons shall bow down to you.

9

"Judah is a  alion's whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up.  bHe  1couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a  2lion, who  3dares rouse him up?

10

aThe scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,  1Until Shiloh comes, And  bto him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

11

1 aHe ties his foal to the vine, And his donkey's colt to the choice vine;  bHe washes his garments in wine, And his robes in the blood of grapes.

12

"His eyes are  1dull from wine, And his teeth  2white from milk.

13

aZebulun will dwell at the seashore; And he shall be  1a haven for ships, And his flank shall be toward Sidon.

14

"Issachar is  1a strong donkey,  aLying down between the  2sheepfolds.

15

"When he saw that a resting place was good And that the land was pleasant, He bowed his shoulder to bear burdens, And became a slave at forced labor.

16

aDan shall  bjudge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.

17

"Dan shall be a serpent in the way, A horned snake in the path, That bites the horse's heels, So that his rider falls backward.

18

aFor Your salvation I wait, O LORD.

19

aAs for Gad,  1raiders shall raid him, But he will raid at their  2heels.

20

1 aAs for  bAsher, his  2food shall be  3rich, And he will yield royal dainties.

21

aNaphtali is a doe let loose, He gives beautiful words.

22

aJoseph is a fruitful  1bough, A fruitful  1bough by a spring; Its  2branches run over a wall.

23

"The archers bitterly attacked him, And shot at him and harassed him;

24

But his  abow remained  1firm, And  2 bhis arms were agile, From the hands of the  cMighty One of Jacob (From there is  dthe Shepherd,  ethe Stone of Israel),

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From  athe God of your father who helps you, And  1 bby the  2Almighty who blesses you With  cblessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lies beneath, Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

26

"The blessings of your father Have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors Up to the  1utmost bound of  athe everlasting hills; May they be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.

27

"Benjamin is a  1ravenous wolf; In the morning he devours the prey, And in the evening he divides the spoil."

28

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them  1when he blessed them. He blessed them, every one  2with the blessing appropriate to him.

29

Then he charged them and said to them, "I am about to be  agathered to my people;  bbury me with my fathers in the cave that is in  cthe field of Ephron the Hittite,

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in the  acave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a  1burial site.

31

"There they buried  aAbraham and his wife  bSarah, there they buried  cIsaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah--

32

the field and the cave that is in it, purchased from the sons of Heth."

33

When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and  abreathed his last, and was  bgathered to his people.



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(Produced: Sat Dec 22 11:22:51 2007)

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