1. Then Jacob called his sons, and he said to them: "Gather together, so that I may announce what will happen to you in the last days.
2. Gather together and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father.
3. Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my sorrow: first in gifts, greater in authority.
4. You are being poured out like water, may you not increase. For you climbed onto your father's bed, and you defiled his resting place.
5. The brothers Simeon and Levi: vessels of iniquity waging war.
6. Let not my soul go by their counsel, nor my glory be within their meeting. For in their fury they killed a man, and in their self-will they undermined a wall.
7. Cursed be their fury, because it was obstinate, and their indignation, because it was harsh. I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel.