1And Jacob called to his sons and said, "Gather yourselves together, and I will tell you what shall befall you in the end of days.
2Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father.
3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
4Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it — he went up to my couch.
5Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their kinship.
6Into their council let my soul (nephesh) not come; with their assembly let my glory not be united; for in their anger they slew a man (ish), and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.
7Cursed 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.
8Judah, you — your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down to you.
9A lion's whelp is Judah; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped, he crouched like a lion, and like a lioness — who shall rouse him up?
10The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, ad(עד) Shiloh comes; and to him shall be the obedience of peoples.
11Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his clothing in wine, and his garment in the blood of grapes.
12His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
13Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the seas, and he shall be a shore for ships, and his flank shall be upon Sidon.
14Issachar is a strong-boned donkey, crouching down between the sheepfolds.
15And he saw a resting-place that it was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant (avad) to forced labor.
16Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17Let Dan be a serpent by the way, a horned snake by the path, that bites the heels of the horse, and its rider falls backward.
18For your salvation (yeshuah) I wait, YHWH.
19Gad — a troop shall press him, but he shall press upon their heel.
20From Asher, his bread shall be fat, and he shall give royal dainties.
21Naphtali is a doe let loose, who gives goodly words.
22A fruitful son is Joseph, a fruitful son by a fountain; daughters march over a wall.
23And the masters of arrows embittered him, and shot, and hated him.
24But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made agile, from the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob — from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel —
25from the God of your father, and he will help you; and with Shaddai, and he will bless you, with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the desire of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of the prince among his brothers.
27Benjamin is a wolf that tears; in the morning he devours prey, and at evening he divides spoil."
28All these are the tribes of Israel, twelve; and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them; each man (ish) according to his blessing he blessed them.
29And he commanded (tzivvah) them and said to them, "I am being gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers, in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30in 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 for a possession of a burial-place.
31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife (ishah); there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife (ishah); and there I buried Leah —
32the purchase of the field and the cave that is in it, from the sons of Heth."
33And Jacob finished commanding (tzivvah) his sons, and he gathered his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his people.