Jacob Blesses His Sons

1Then Iaakob called his sonnes, and sayde, Gather your selues together, that I may tell you what shal come to you in the last dayes.

2Gather your selues together, and heare, ye sonnes of Iaakob, and hearken vnto Israel your father.

3Reuben mine eldest sonne, thou art my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellencie of dignitie, and the excellencie of power:

4Thou wast light as water: thou shalt not be excellent, because thou wentest vp to thy fathers bed: then diddest thou defile my bed, thy dignitie is gone.

5Simeon and Leui, brethren in euill, the instruments of crueltie are in their habitations.

6Into their secret let not my soule come: my glory, be not thou ioyned with their assembly: for in their wrath they slew a man, and in their selfe will they digged downe a wall.

7Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, and their rage, for it was cruell: I will deuide them in Iaakob, and scatter them in Israel.

8Thou Iudah, thy brethre shal praise thee: thine hande shalbe in the necke of thine enemies: thy fathers sonnes shal bowe downe vnto thee.

9Iudah, as a Lions whelpe shalt thou come vp from the spoyle, my sonne. He shall lye downe and couche as a Lion, and as a Lionesse: Who shall stirre him vp?

10The scepter shall not depart from Iudah, nor a Lawegiuer from betweene his feete, vntill Shiloh come, and the people shall be gathered vnto him.

11He shall binde his Asse foale vnto ye vine, and his Asses colte vnto the best vine. hee shall wash his garment in wine, and his cloke in the blood of grapes.

12His eyes shalbe red with wine, and his teeth white with milke.

13Zebulun shall dwell by the sea side, and he shalbe an hauen for shippes: and his border shalbe vnto Zidon.

14Issachar shalbe a strong asse, couching downe betweene two burdens:

15And he shall see that rest is good, and that the land is pleasant, and he shall bow his shoulder to beare, and shalbe subiect vnto tribute.

16Dan shal iudge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder by the path, byting the horse heeles, so that his rider shall fall backward.

18O Lord, I haue waited for thy saluation.

19Gad, an hoste of men shal ouercome him, but he shal ouercome at the last.

20Concerning Asher, his bread shalbe fat, and he shal giue pleasures for a king.

21Naphtali shalbe a hinde let goe, giuing goodly wordes.

22Ioseph shalbe a fruitefull bough, euen a fruitful bough by the well side: the smal boughs shall runne vpon the wall.

23And the archers grieued him, and shotte against him and hated him.

24But his bowe abode strong, and the hands of his armes were strengthened, by the handes of the mighty God of Iaakob, of whom was the feeder appointed, by the stone of Israel,

25Euen by the God of thy father, who shall helpe thee, and by the almightie, who shall blesse thee with heauenly blessinges from aboue, with blessings of the deepe, that lyeth beneath, with blessings of the brestes, and of the wombe.

26The blessings of thy father shalbe stronger then the blessings of mine elders: vnto the ende of the hilles of the worlde they shall be on the head of Ioseph, and on the top of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

27Beniamin shall rauine as a wolfe: in the morning he shall deuoure the pray, and at night he shal deuide the spoyle.

28All these are the twelue tribes of Israel, and thus their father spake vnto them, and blessed them: euery one of them blessed hee with a seuerall blessing.

The Death of Jacob

29And he charged them & sayd vnto them, I am ready to be gathered vnto my people: burie mee with my fathers in the caue, that is in the fielde of Ephron the Hittite, 30In the caue that is in the field of Machpelah besides Mamre in the land of Canaan: which caue Abraham bought with the fielde of Ephron the Hittite for a possession to burie in. 31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife: there they buryed Izhak and Rebekah his wife: and there I buried Leah. 32The purchase of the fielde and the caue that is therein, was bought of the children of Heth. 33Thus Iaakob made an end of giuing charge to his sonnes, and plucked vp his feete into the bed and gaue vp the ghost, and was gathered to his people.