1 Heel-Grabber
(Jacob) called his sons, and said, “Gather yourselves together,
that I may tell you what will befall you in the last days.
2 Gather
yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Heel-Grabber (Jacob); and
listen to God Prevails (Israel) your father.
3 Behold a Son
(Reuben), you are my
firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency
of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable 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.
5 Heard (Simeon)
and Joined To (Levi) are
brethren; instruments of cruelty are
in their habitations.
6 O my soul,
come not their secret. Into their assembly, my honor, be not united.
In their anger, they slew a
man, and in their self will they hamstrung an ox.
7 Cursed be
their anger, for it was
fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in
Heel-Grabber (Jacob), and scatter them in God Prevails (Israel) .
8 Praised
(Judah), you are he whom your
brethren shall praise. Your hand shall
be in the neck of your enemies. Your Father's children shall
bow down before you.
9
Praised (Judah) is a
lion's whelp. With the prey, my son, you climb high. He stooped down,
he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The scepter
shall not depart from Praised (Judah), nor a lawgiver from between
his feet, until Tranquility (Shiloh) come; and to him shall
the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his
foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to the choice vine; he washed
his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes
shall be red with wine, and
his teeth white with milk.
13 Exalted
(Zebulun) shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall
be n haven for ships; and his border shall
be to Hunter/Fisher
(Zidon).
14 Recompense
(Issachar) is a strong ass
couching down between two burdens.
15 He saw that
rest was good, and that the
land was pleasant. He bowed
his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to tribute.
16 Judge (Dan)
shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of God Prevails (Israel)
.
17 Judge (Dan)
shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the
horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited
for your salvation, O LORD.
19 Troop (Gad),
a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Happy
(Asher) his bread will be
fat, and he will yield royal dainties.
21 Wrestling
(Naphtali) is a deer let
loose: he gives good words.
22 Yehovah Will
Add (Joseph) is a fruitful
bough, a fruitful bough by a well; whose
branches run over the wall.
23 The archers
have sorely grieved him, and shot at
him, and hated him:
24 But his bow
was strong, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands
of the mighty God of
Heel-Grabber (Jacob); (from there is
the shepherd, the stone of God Prevails (Israel).
25 The God of
your father will help you. The the Nurturer (El Shaddai), will bless
you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lie
under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings
of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors
to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They will be on the
head of Yehovah Will Add (Joseph), and on the crown of the head of
him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Son of the
Right Hand (Benjamin) is a ravenous wolf: in the morning he shall
devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 These are
the twelve tribes of God Prevails (Israel). And this is
what their father spoke over them, and blessed them;
every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
29 Then he
charged them, saying, I am to be gathered to my people: bury me with
my fathers in the cave that is
in the field of Fawn-Like (Ephron) the Terror (Hittite),
30 In the cave
in the field of Double Portion (Machpelah), which is
before Strength (Mamre), in the land of Humbled One (Canaan), which
Father of a Multitude (Abraham) bought with the field of Fawn-Like
(Ephron) the Terror (Hittite) for a possession of a burying place.
31 There they
buried Father of a Multitude (Abraham) and Noblewoman (Sarah) his
wife; there they buried Laughter (Isaac) and Secured (Rebekah) his
wife; and there I buried Weary (Leah).
32 The purchase
of the field and of the cave that is
there was from the children
of Terror (Heth).
33
And
when Heel-Grabber (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 to his people.
