Barashyt(Genesis) — 49

1 Then Ya'aqub 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 Ya'aqub; listen to YASHAR'AL, your father.

3 “Rauban, 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 “Simaun and Lauy 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 Ya'aqub; I will disperse them throughout YASHAR'AL.

8 “Yahudah, your brothers will yadah you.    You will grasp your enemies by the neck. All your relatives will bow before you.

9 Yahudah, my son, is a young lion that 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 Yahudah, 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 “Zabulun will settle by the seashore and will be a harbor for ships; his borders will extend to Sidun.

14 “Issachar is a sturdy donkey, resting between two saddlepacks.

15 When he sees how good the countryside is and how pleasant the land, he will bend his shoulder to the load and submit himself to hard labor.

16 “Dan will govern his people, like any other tribe in YASHAR'AL.

17 Dan will be a snake beside the road, a poisonous viper along the path that bites the horse’s hooves so its rider is thrown off.

18 I trust in you for salvation, O 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH!

19 “Gad will be attacked by marauding bands, but he will attack them when they retreat.

20 “Ashar will dine on rich foods and produce food fit for kings.

21 “Naphtali is a doe set free  that bears beautiful fawns.

22 Ya'asaf is the foal of a wild donkey, the foal of a wild donkey at a spring, one of the wild donkeys on the ridge.

23 Archers attacked him savagely; they shot at him and harassed him.

24 But his bow remained taut, and his arms were strengthened by the hands of the Mighty One of Ya'aqub, by the Shepherd, the Rock of YASHAR'AL.

25 May the 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH of your father help you; may the AL'Mighty ONE Barak you with the Barakah of the Shamaym above, and Barakah of the watery depths below, and Barakah of the breasts and womb.

26 May my fatherly Barakah on you surpass the Barakah of my Fathers, reaching to the heights of the eternal hills. May these Barakah rest on the head of Ya'asaf, who is a prince among his brothers.

27 Banyamyn is a ravenous wolf, devouring his enemies in the morning and dividing his plunder in the evening.”

28 These are the twelve tribes of YASHAR'AL, and this is what their father said as he told his sons good-bye. He Baraked each one with an appropriate message.

Ya'aqub’s Death and Burial

29 Then Ya'aqub instructed them, “Soon I will die and join my ancestors. Bury me with my father and grandfather in the cave in the field of Aphrun the Hittite. 

30 This is the cave in the field of Machpalah, near Mamra in Canaan, that Abraham bought from Aphrun the Hittite as a permanent burial site. 

31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried. There Yachaq and his wife, Rabakah, are buried. And there I buried La'ah. 

32 It is the plot of land and the cave that my grandfather Abraham bought from the Hittites.”

33 When Ya'aqub had finished this charge to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and joined his fathers in death.