Genesis 49 - Introduction

1 Iacob calleth his sonnes to blesse them.

3 Their blessing in particular.

29 He chargeth them about his buriall.

33 He dieth.

1 And Iacob called vnto his sonnes, and said, Gather your selues together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last dayes.

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

3 Reuben, thou art my first borne, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellencie of dignitie, and the excellencie of power:

4 Unstable as water, [Note: Hebrew: doe not thou excell.] thou shalt not excell, because thou [Note: Genesis 35:22; 1 Chronicles 5:1.] wentest vp to thy fathers bed: then defiledst thou it. [Note: Or, my cowche is gone.] He went vp to my couche.

5 Simeon and Leui are brethren, [Note: Or, their swords are weapons of violence.] instruments of crueltie are in their habitations.

6 O my soule, come not thou into their secret: vnto their assembly mine honour be not thou vnited: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfe will they [Note: Or houghed oxen.] digged downe a wall.

7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruell: I will diuide them in Iacob, and scatter them in Israel.

8 Iudah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the necke of thine enemies, thy fathers children shall bow downe before thee.

9 Iudah is a Lyons whelpe: from the pray my sonne thou art gone vp: he stouped downe, hee couched as a Lyon, and as an old Lyon: who shall rouse him vp?

[Iacob blesseth his sonnes.]

10 The scepter shall not depart from Iudah, nor a Law-giuer from betweene his feete, vntill Shiloh come: and vnto him shall the gathering of the people be:

11 Binding his foale vnto the vine, and his asses colt vnto 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 milke.

13 Zebulun shall dwell at the hauen of the sea, and hee shall be for an Hauen of ships: and his border shall be vnto Zidon.

14 Issachar is a strong asse, couching downe betweene two burdens.

15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant: and bowed his shoulder to beare, and became a seruant vnto tribute.

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

17 Dan shalbe a serpent by the way, an [Note: Hebrew: an arrow-snake.] adder in the path, that biteth the horse heeles, so that his rider shall fall backward.

18 I haue waited for thy saluation, O LORD.

19 Gad, a troupe shall ouercome him: but he shall ouercome at the last.

20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yeeld royall dainties.

21 Naphtali is a hinde let loose: He giueth goodly words.

22 Ioseph is a fruitfull bough, euen a fruitfull bough by a well, whose [Note: Hebrew: daughters.] branches runne ouer the wall.

23 The archers haue sorely grieued him, and shot at him, and hated him.

24 But his bow abode in strength, and the armes of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the mighty God of Iacob: from thence is the Sheapheard, the stone of Israel,

25 Euen by the God of thy father who shall helpe thee, and by the Almightie, who shall blesse thee with blessings of heauen aboue, blessings of the deepe that lyeth vnder, blessings of the breasts and of the wombe.

26 The blessings of thy father haue preuailed aboue the blessings of my progenitors: vnto the vtmost bound of the euerlasting hils, they shall bee on the head of Ioseph, and on the crowne of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

27 Beniamin shall rauine as a

[His death.]

wolfe: In the morning hee shall deuoure the pray, and at night he shall diuide the spoile.

28 All these are the twelue tribes of Israel, and this is it that their father spake vnto them, and blessed them: euery one according to his blessing he blessed them.

29 And hee charged them and said vnto them, I am to bee gathered vnto my people: [Note: Genesis 47:30.] burie me with my fathers, in the caue that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30 In the caue that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, [Note: Genesis 23:16.] which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite, for a possession of a burying place.

31 (There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.)

32 The purchase of the field and of the caue that is therein, was from the children of Heth.

33 And when Iacob had made an end of commanding his sonnes, he gathered vp his feete into the bed, and yeelded vp the ghost, and was gathered vnto his people.