1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. 2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: 4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. 6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. 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, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. 9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: 12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.
14 Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: 15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.
16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. 18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: 23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) 25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: 26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
1 Daarna het Jakob sy seuns geroep en gesê: Kom bymekaar, dat ek julle kan verkondig wat julle aan die einde van die dae sal wedervaar.
2 Versamel en hoor, seuns van Jakob, en luister na Israel, julle vader!
3 Ruben, jy is my eersgeborene, my krag en die eersteling van my sterkte; die vernaamste in hoogheid en die vernaamste in mag!
4 Opbruising soos van waters -- jy sal die vernaamste nie wees nie, want jy het die bed van jou vader beklim; toe het jy dit ontheilig. Hy het my bed beklim.
5 S¡meon en Levi is broers. Hulle wapens is werktuie van geweld.
6 Laat my siel nie kom in hulle raad nie, laat my eer nie eens wees met hulle vergadering nie. Want in hul toorn het hulle manne doodgeslaan, en in hulle moedswilligheid het hulle beeste vermink.
7 Vervloek is hulle toorn, want dit is heftig; en hulle grimmigheid, want dit is hard. Ek sal hulle verdeel in Jakob en hulle verstrooi in Israel.
8 Juda, jy is dit! Jou sal jou broers loof. Jou hand sal op die nek van jou vyande wees; voor jou sal die seuns van jou vader hulle neerbuig.
9 Juda is 'n jong leeu; van die roof af het jy opgeklim, my seun. Hy buig hom, hy gaan lê soos 'n leeu en soos 'n leeuin; wie sal hom opjaag?
10 Die septer sal van Juda nie wyk nie, nog die veldheerstaf tussen sy voete uit totdat Silo kom; en aan Hom sal die volke gehoorsaam wees.
11 Hy maak sy jong esel vas aan die wingerdstok en die vul van sy eselin aan die edelste wynstok; Hy was sy kleed in wyn en sy gewaad in druiwebloed.
12 Hy is donkerder van oë as wyn en witter van tande as melk.
13 S,bulon sal woon by die strand van die see; en hy sal by die strand van die skepe wees, met die sykant na Sidon toe.
14 Issaskar is 'n sterkgebeende esel wat tussen die veekrale lê.
15 Toe hy sien dat die rus goed en die land lieflik is, het hy sy skouer gebuig om te dra, en hy moes dwangarbeid verrig.
16 Dan sal aan sy volk reg verskaf net soos enigeen van die stamme van Israel.
17 Laat Dan 'n slang wees op die weg, 'n horingslang op die pad, wat die perd aan die hakskene byt, sodat sy ruiter agteroorval.
18 Op u verlossing wag ek, HERE!
19 Gad -- 'n bende sal hom aanval, maar hy sal hulle aan die hakskeen gryp.
20 Aser, sy spys is vet, en hy lewer koninklike lekkernye.
21 N ftali is soos 'n wildsbok so vry, hy wat mooi woorde laat hoor.
22 Josef is 'n jong vrugteboom, 'n jong vrugteboom by 'n fontein; sy takke klim oor die muur.
23 Die boogskutters het hom wel geprikkel en hom beskiet en hom bestry,
24 maar sy boog het sterk gebly, en die arms van sy hande was buigsaam, deur die hande van die Magtige van Jakob -- daarvandaan waar die Herder, die Steen van Israel, is,
25 van die God van jou vader, wat jou help, en met die hulp van die Almagtige wat jou seën met seëninge van die hemel daarbo, met seëninge van die watervloed wat daaronder lê, met seëninge van borste en moederskoot.
26 Die seëninge wat jou vader ontvang het, oortref die seëninge van die ewige berge, die kostelike gawes van die ewige heuwels. Dit sal wees op die hoof van Josef en op die hoofskedel van die uitverkorene onder sy broers.
27 Benjamin is 'n wolf wat verskeur; in die môre eet hy sy prooi, en in die aand deel hy buit uit.
28 Hulle almal is die twaalf stamme van Israel; en dit is wat hulle vader aan hulle gesê het, en hy het hulle geseën; hy het hulle geseën, elkeen volgens sy besondere seën.
29 Daarna het hy hulle bevel gegee en aan hulle gesê: Ek word versamel by my volk. Begrawe my by my vaders in die spelonk wat op die stuk grond van Efron, die Hetiet, is;
30 in die spelonk wat op die stuk grond van Magp,la is, wat oos van Mamre lê, in die land Kanaän; die stuk grond wat Abraham van Efron, die Hetiet, as eiendomsgraf gekoop het.
31 Daar het hulle Abraham begrawe en Sara, sy vrou; daar het hulle Isak begrawe en Rebekka, sy vrou; en daar het ek Lea begrawe --
32 die stuk grond en die spelonk wat daarin is, wat gekoop is van die seuns van Het.
33 Toe Jakob klaar sy bevele aan sy seuns gegee het, trek hy sy voete terug op die bed en blaas die asem uit; en hy is by sy volksgenote versamel.