2. “Assemble and listen, you sons of Jacob;listen to Israel, your father.
3. Reuben, you are my firstborn,my might and the beginning of my strength,outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.
4. You are destructive like water and will not excel,for you got on your father’s bed,then you defiled it – he got on my couch!
5. Simeon and Levi are brothers,weapons of violence are their knives!
6. O my soul, do not come into their council,do not be united to their assembly, my heart,for in their anger they have killed men,and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.
7. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce,and their fury, for it was cruel.I will divide them in Jacob,and scatter them in Israel!
8. Judah, your brothers will praise you.Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies,your father’s sons will bow down before you.
9. You are a lion’s cub, Judah,from the prey, my son, you have gone up.He crouches and lies down like a lion;like a lioness – who will rouse him?
10. The scepter will not depart from Judah,nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,until he comes to whom it belongs;the nations will obey him.
11. Binding his foal to the vine,and his colt to the choicest vine,he will wash his garments in wine,his robes in the blood of grapes.
12. His eyes will be dark from wine,and his teeth white from milk.
13. Zebulun will live by the haven of the seaand become a haven for ships;his border will extend to Sidon.
14. Issachar is a strong-boned donkeylying down between two saddlebags.
15. When he sees a good resting place, and the pleasant land,he will bend his shoulder to the burdenand become a slave laborer.
16. Dan will judge his peopleas one of the tribes of Israel.
17. May Dan be a snake beside the road,a viper by the path,that bites the heels of the horseso that its rider falls backward.
18. I wait for your deliverance, O Lord.
19. Gad will be raided by marauding bands,but he will attack them at their heels.
20. Asher’s food will be rich,and he will provide delicacies to royalty.