You Will Receive Your Just Reward – Genesis 49:1-28
49 Jacob called for his sons and said to them, Gather around so I may tell you what will happen in the days to come. (2) Assemble yourselves, and listen, you sons of Jacob; pay attention to your father Israel. (3) Reuben, you are my first born, my might and the beginning of my strength; excelling in honor, and excelling in power. (4) Boiling over like water, you shall not have the pre-eminence; because you went to your father’s bed; and you defiled it. He went up to my couch.
(5) Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence. (6) O my soul, do not enter into their council; let me not join their assembly; for in their anger they killed a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox. (7) Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
(8) Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. (9) Judah is a lion’s cub; 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 shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs, to him shall be the obedience of the nations. (11) He will tether his donkey to a vine, his donkey’s colt to the choice branch. He will wash his garments in wine, and his robe in the blood of grapes. (12) His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
(13) Zebulun shall live by the seashore; and he shall become a haven for ships. His border shall reach to Sidon. (14) Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds. (15) He saw that rest was good, and that the land was pleasant; so he bowed his shoulder to bear the load, and became a servant subjected to hard labor. (16) Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. (17) Dan shall be a serpent on the roadway, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider tumbles backward. (18) I have waited for your salvation, O Jehovah. (19) Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders; but he shall repel them and put them to flight. (20) Asher’s food shall be rich, he will produce delicacies fit for a king. (21) Naphtali is a doe set free who bears beautiful fawns.
(22) Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring; his branches spill over the wall. (23) With bitterness, the archers attacked him, and shot at him, and persecuted him. (24) But his bow remained steady, and his arms were made strong by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, (25) by the God of your father who shall help you, by the Almighty who shall bless you with blessings from heaven above, blessings from the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. (26) The blessings bestowed upon your father have exceeded the blessings of my ancestors, reaching unto the utmost heights of the ancient mountains, they shall be bestowed upon the head of Joseph, and upon the brow of him who was separated from his brothers. (27) Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at evening he shall divide the spoil.
(28) All these are the twelve tribes of Israel; and this is what their father spoke to them and how he blessed them. He gave to each the blessing appropriate to him.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
