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49. Jacob Blesses His Sons

¹ Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.

² “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob;
listen to your father Israel.

    ³ “Reuben, you are my firstborn,
   my might, the first sign of my strength,
   excelling in honor, excelling in power.
⁴ Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel,
   for you went up onto your father’s bed,
   onto my couch and defiled it.

    ⁵ “Simeon and Levi are brothers—
   their swords The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. are weapons of violence.
⁶ Let me not enter their council,
   let me not join their assembly,
for they have killed men in their anger
   and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, so fierce,
   and their fury, so cruel!
I will scatter them in Jacob
   and disperse them in Israel.

    ⁸ “Judah, Judah sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for praise. your brothers will praise you;
   your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
   your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
   you return from the prey, my son.
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 between his feet, Or from his descendants
until he to whom it belongs Or to whom tribute belongs; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain. shall come
   and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
¹¹ He will tether his donkey to a vine,
   his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
   his robes in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes will be darker than wine,
   his teeth whiter than milk. Or will be dull from wine, / his teeth white from milk

    ¹³ “Zebulun will live by the seashore
   and become a haven for ships;
   his border will extend toward Sidon.

    ¹⁴ “Issachar is a rawboned Or strong donkey
   lying down among the sheep pens. Or the campfires; or the saddlebags
¹⁵ When he sees how good is his resting place
   and how pleasant is his land,
he will bend his shoulder to the burden
   and submit to forced labor.

    ¹⁶ “Dan Dan here means he provides justice. will provide justice for his people
   as one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷ Dan will be a snake by the roadside,
   a viper along the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
   so that its rider tumbles backward.

¹⁸ “I look for your deliverance, LORD.

¹⁹ “Gad Gad sounds like the Hebrew for attack and also for band of raiders. will be attacked by a band of raiders,
but he will attack them at their heels.

²⁰ “Asher’s food will be rich;
he will provide delicacies fit for a king.

²¹ “Naphtali is a doe set free
that bears beautiful fawns. Or free; / he utters beautiful words

    ²² “Joseph is a fruitful vine,
   a fruitful vine near a spring,
   whose branches climb over a wall. Or Joseph is a wild colt, / a wild colt near a spring, / a wild donkey on a terraced hill
²³ With bitterness archers attacked him;
   they shot at him with hostility.
²⁴ But his bow remained steady,
   his strong arms stayed Or archers will attack … will shoot … will remain … will stay limber,
because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,
   because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
²⁵ because of your father’s God, who helps you,
   because of the Almighty, Hebrew Shaddai who blesses you
with blessings of the skies above,
   blessings of the deep springs below,
   blessings of the breast and womb.
²⁶ Your father’s blessings are greater
   than the blessings of the ancient mountains,
   than Or of my progenitors, / as great as the bounty of the age-old hills.
Let all these rest on the head of Joseph,
   on the brow of the prince among Or of the one separated from his brothers.

    ²⁷ “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
   in the morning he devours the prey,
   in the evening he divides the plunder.”

²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.

The Death of Jacob

²⁹ Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰ the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. ³¹ There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. ³² The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites. Or the descendants of Heth”

³³ When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

11. Binding his fole unto the vine, and his ass’s colt, etc He now speaks of the situation of the territory which fell by lot to the sons of Judah; and intimates, that so great would be the abundance of vines there, that they would everywhere present themselves as readily as brambles, or unfruitful shrubs, in other places. For since asses are wont to be bound to the hedges, he here reduces vines to this contemptible use. The hyperbolical forms of speech which follow are to be applied to the same purpose; namely, that Judah shall wash his garments in wine, and his eyes be red there-with. He means that the abundance of wine shall be so great, that it may be poured out to wash with, like water, at no great expense; but that, by constant copious drinking, the eyes would contract redness. But it seems by no means proper, that a profuse intemperance or extravagance should be accounted a blessing. I answer, although fertility and affluence are here described, still the abuse of them is not sanctioned. If the Lord deals very bountifully with us, yet he frequently prescribes the rule of using his gifts with purity and frugality, lest they should stimulate the incontinence of the flesh. But in this place Jacob, omitting to state what is lawful, extols that abundance which would suffice for luxury, and even for vicious and perverse excesses, unless the sons of Judah should voluntarily use self-government. I abstain from those allegories which to some appear plausible; because, as I said at the beginning of the chapter, I do not choose to sport with such great mysteries of God. To these lofty speculators the partition of the land which God prescribed, for the purpose of accrediting his servant Moses, seems a mean and abject thing. But unless our ingratitude has attained a senseless stupor, we ought to be wholly transported with admiration at the thought, that Moses, who had never seen the land of Canaan, should treat of its separate parts as correctly as he could have done, of a few acres cultivated by his own hand. Now, supposing he had heard a general report of the existence of vines in the land; yet he could not have assigned to Judah abundant vineyards, nor could he have assigned to him rich pastures, by saying that his teeth should be white with drinking milk, unless he had been guided by the Spirit.