Jacob’s Testament to His Sons

Genesis 49:1–28

ca. 1200–332 BCE

¹And Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.

²Assemble and hearken, O sons of Jacob;

Hearken to Israel your father:

³Reuben, you are my first-born,

My might and first fruit of my vigor,

Exceeding in rank

And exceeding in honor.

⁴Unstable as water, you shall excel no longer;

For when you mounted your father’s bed,

You brought disgrace—my couch he mounted!

⁵Simeon and Levi are a pair;

Their weapons are tools of lawlessness.

⁶Let not my person be included in their council,

Let not my being be counted in their assembly.

For when angry they slay men,

And when pleased they maim oxen.

⁷Cursed be their anger so fierce,

And their wrath so relentless.

I will divide them in Jacob,

Scatter them in Israel.

⁸You, O Judah, your brothers shall praise;

Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes;

Your father’s sons shall bow low to you.

⁹Judah is a lion’s whelp;

On prey, my son, have you grown.

He crouches, lies down like a lion,

Like the king of beasts—who dare rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet;

So that tribute shall come to him

And the homage of peoples be his.

¹¹He tethers his ass to a vine,

His ass’s foal to a choice vine;

He washes his garment in wine,

His robe in blood of grapes.

¹²His eyes are darker than wine;

His teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore;

He shall be a haven for ships,

And his flank shall rest on Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong-boned ass,

Crouching among the sheepfolds.

¹⁵When he saw how good was security,

And how pleasant was the country,

He bent his shoulder to the burden,

And became a toiling serf.

¹⁶Dan shall govern his people,

As one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan shall be a serpent by the road,

A viper by the path,

That bites the horse’s heels

So that his rider is thrown backward.

¹⁸I wait for Your deliverance, O Lord!

¹⁹Gad shall be raided by raiders,

But he shall raid at their heels.

²⁰Asher’s bread shall be rich,

And he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹Naphtali is a hind let loose,

Which yields lovely fawns.

²²Joseph is a wild ass,

A wild ass by a spring

—Wild colts on a hillside.

²³Archers bitterly assailed him;

They shot at him and harried him.

²⁴Yet his bow stayed taut,

And his arms were made firm

By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob—

There, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel—

²⁵The God of your father who helps you,

And Shaddai who blesses you

With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that couches below,

Blessings of the breast and womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father

Surpass the blessings of my ancestors,

To the utmost bounds of the eternal hills.

May they rest on the head of Joseph,

On the brow of the elect of his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;

In the morning he consumes the foe,

And in the evening he divides the spoil.”

²⁸All these were the tribes of Israel, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell, addressing to each a parting word appropriate to him.

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Notes

[In this passage, names have been added by the editors to clarify speaker and addressee.—Eds.]

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Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

Jacob’s Testament to His Sons

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