1. Then Jacob called together all his sons and said, “Gather around me, and I will tell you what will happen to each of you in the days to come.
2. “Come and listen, you sons of Jacob;listen to Israel, your father.
3. “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength,the child of my vigorous youth.You are first in rank and first in power.
4. But you are as unruly as a flood,and you will be first no longer.For you went to bed with my wife;you defiled my marriage couch.
5. “Simeon and Levi are two of a kind;their weapons are instruments of violence.
6. May I never join in their meetings;may I never be a party to their plans.For in their anger they murdered men,and they crippled oxen just for sport.
7. A curse on their anger, for it is fierce;a curse on their wrath, for it is cruel.I will scatter them among the descendants of Jacob;I will disperse them throughout Israel.
8. “Judah, your brothers will praise you.You will grasp your enemies by the neck.All your relatives will bow before you.
9. Judah, my son, is a young lionthat has finished eating its prey.Like a lion he crouches and lies down;like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
10. The scepter will not depart from Judah,nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants,until the coming of the one to whom it belongs,the one whom all nations will honor.
11. He ties his foal to a grapevine,the colt of his donkey to a choice vine.He washes his clothes in wine,his robes in the blood of grapes.
12. His eyes are darker than wine,and his teeth are whiter than milk.
13. “Zebulun will settle by the seashoreand will be a harbor for ships;his borders will extend to Sidon.
14. “Issachar is a sturdy donkey,resting between two saddlepacks.
15. When he sees how good the countryside isand how pleasant the land,he will bend his shoulder to the loadand submit himself to hard labor.
16. “Dan will govern his people,like any other tribe in Israel.