2
“Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father.
3
“Reuben, you are
1my firstborn, my might, and the
2firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
4
Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you
3went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
5
4“Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons
5of violence are their swords.
6
Let my soul come not into their council;
6O my glory,
7be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they
8hamstrung oxen.
7
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will
9divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
8
“Judah,
10your brothers shall praise you;
11your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
12your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
9
Judah is
13a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
14He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
10
The
15scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff
16from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
11
Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
12
His
17eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
13
18“Zebulun shall dwell at the
19shore of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon.
14
20“Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds.
15
He saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and
21became a servant at forced labor.
16
22“Dan shall
23judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
17
Dan
24shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward.
18
I
25wait for your salvation, O Lord.
19
26“Raiders shall raid
27Gad, but he shall raid at their heels.
20
28“Asher’s food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies.
21
29“Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns.
22
“Joseph is
30a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall.
23
The archers
31bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely,
24
yet
32his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the
33Mighty One of Jacob(from there is
34the Shepherd,
35the Stone of Israel),
25
36by the God of your father who will help you, by
37the Almighty
38who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26
The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties
39of the everlasting hills. May they be
40on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
27
41“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening
42dividing the spoil. ”