2. “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob,listen to Israel, your father.
3. “You, Reuben, my firstborn,my strength and the first fruit of my vigor,excelling in rank and excelling in power!
4. Turbulent as water, you shall no longer excel,for you climbed into your father’s bedand defiled my couch to my sorrow.
5. “Simeon and Levi, brothers indeed,weapons of violence are their knives.
6. Let not my person enter their council,or my honor be joined with their company;For in their fury they killed men,at their whim they maimed oxen.
7. Cursed be their fury so fierce,and their rage so cruel!I will scatter them in Jacob,disperse them throughout Israel.
8. “You, Judah, shall your brothers praise—your hand on the neck of your enemies;the sons of your father shall bow down to you.
9. Judah is a lion’s cub,you have grown up on prey, my son.He crouches, lies down like a lion,like a lioness—who would dare rouse him?
10. The scepter shall never depart from Judah,or the mace from between his feet,Until tribute comes to him,and he receives the people’s obedience.
11. He tethers his donkey to the vine,his donkey’s foal to the choicest stem.In wine he washes his garments,his robe in the blood of grapes.
12. His eyes are darker than wine,and his teeth are whiter than milk.