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Chapter 49 |
| 1 | And Jacob
called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you
that which shall befall you in the last days. |
| 2 | Gather
yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your
father. |
| 3 |
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of
my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: |
| 4 |
Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy
father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch. |
| 5 | Simeon
and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
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| 6 | O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine
honor, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their
self-will they digged down a wall. |
| 7 | Cursed be their anger, for it
was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and
scatter them in Israel. |
| 8 | Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall
praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children
shall bow down before thee. |
|
9 | Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey,
my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old
lion; who shall rouse him up? |
|
10 | The sceptre shall not depart from
Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him
shall the gathering of the people be. |
| 11 | Binding his foal unto the
vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine,
and his clothes in the blood of grapes: |
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12 | His eyes shall be red with
wine, and his teeth white with milk. |
| 13 | Zebulun shall dwell at the
haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall
be unto Zidon. |
|
14 | Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two
burdens: |
| 15
| And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was
pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto
tribute. |
| 16
| Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of
Israel. |
| 17
| Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path,
that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. |
| 18 |
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. |
|
19 | Gad, a troop shall
overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last. |
| 20 | Out of Asher
his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. |
| 21 | Naphtali
is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. |
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22 | Joseph is a fruitful
bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
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| 23 | The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated
him: |
| 24 |
But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the
shepherd, the stone of Israel:) |
| 25 | Even by the God of thy
father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with
blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of
the breasts, and of the womb: |
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26 | The blessings of thy father have
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the
head of him that was separate from his brethren. |
| 27 | Benjamin
shall raven as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he
shall divide the spoil. |
| 28 | All these are the twelve tribes of Israel:
and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one
according to his blessing he blessed them. |
|
29 | And he charged them,
and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers
in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, |
| 30 | In the cave
that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of
Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a
possession of a buryingplace. |
|
31 | There they buried Abraham and Sarah
his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried
Leah. |
| 32 |
The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was
from the children of Heth. |
|
33 | And when Jacob had made an end of
commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the
ghost, and was gathered unto his people. |
