20 October 2022 draft-bible
1 And Jacob called to his sons, and said:
Gather round that I may tell you what will befall you in days to come. 2 Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; and listen to Israel, your father. 3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in rank and excelling in power. 4 Boiling over as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, then defiled it. He went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of cruelty are their swords. 6 O my soul, come not into their council; let my glory not be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men; and in their self-will hamstrung cattle. 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, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son; you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up? 10 These scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, till Shiloh comes; and him shall the peoples obey. 11 Binding his foal to the vine, his donkeys colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be red with wine, his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for a haven of ships; and his border will be upon Sidon.
14 Issachar is a strong donkey, crouched between two saddlebags. 15 He saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to the burden, and became a slave doing forced labor.
16 Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan will be a serpent on the trail, an adder in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward.
18 I have waited for your salvation, O Yahweh.
19 A troop shall press upon Gad, but he will press on their heel.
20 Asher’s food will be rich; he will yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns.
22 A fruitful vine is Joseph, a fruitful vine by a spring. [His] branches march over the wall. 23 The archers have bitterly attacked him, and shot at him, and persecuted him. 24 But his bow remained strong, and the arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the shepherd, the stone of Israel, 25 by the god of your father, who will help you, by Shaddai, who will bless you, with blessings of sky above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breats and of the womb.
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of the ancient mountains, above the bounty of the everlasting hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a ravening wolf: in the morning he will devour the prey, and at evening he will divide the plunder.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them, and blessed them; he gave to each his own blessing. 29 And he instructed them, and said to them, I am to be gathered to 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 from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah – 32 the field and the cave that is in it, which was purchased from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob finished instructing his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, breathed his last breath, and was gathered to his kinsmen.
Copyright This page is released under the CC0 1.0 license.