Chapter 49

  And Jacob called his sons, and said to them: Gather yourselves together that I may tell you the things that shall befall you in the last days.  

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  Gather yourselves together, and hear, O ye sons of Jacob, hearken to Israel your father:  

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  Ruben, my firstborn, thou art my strength, and the beginning of my sorrow: excelling in gifts, greater in command.  

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  Thou art poured out as water, grow thou not: because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, and didst defile his couch.  

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  Simeon and Levi brethren: vessels of iniquity, waging war.  

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  Let not my soul go into their counsel, nor my glory be in their assembly: "be- cause in their fury they slew a man, and in their selfwill they undermined a wall.  

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  Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn: and their wrath because it was cruel: I Will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel.  

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  Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hands shall be on the necks of thy enemies: the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.  

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  Juda is a lion's whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?  

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  The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.  

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  11Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, 0 my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.  

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  His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.  

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  Zabulon shall dwell on the sea shore, and in the road of ships, reaching as far as Sidon.  

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  Issachar shall be a strong ass lying down between the borders.  

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  He saw rest that it was good: and the land that it was excellent: and he bowed his shoulder to carry, and became a servant under tribute.  

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  Dan shall judge his people like an- other tribe in Israel.  

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  Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth the horse's heels that his rider may fall backward.  

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  I will look for thy salvation, 0 Lord.  

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  Gad, being girded, shall fight before him: and he himself shall be girded backward.  

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  Aser, his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield dainties to kings.  

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  Nephtali, a hart let loose, and giving words of beauty.  

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  Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and comely to behold; the daughters run to and fro upon the wall.  

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  But they that held darts provoked him, and quarrelled with him, and envied him.  

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  His bow rested upon the strong, and the bands of his arms and his hands were loosed, by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob: thence he came forth a pastor, the stone of Israel.  

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  The God of thy father shall be thy helper, and the Almighty shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the deep that lieth be- neath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.  

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  The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come; may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren.  

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  Benjamin a ravenous wolf, in the morning shall eat the prey, and in the evening shall divide the spoil.  

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  All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: these things their father spoke to them, and he blessed every one, with their proper blessings.  

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  And he charged them, saying: I am now going to be gathered to my people : bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Hethite,  

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  Over against Mambre in the land of Chanaan, which Abraham bought to- gather with the field of Ephron the Hethite for a possession to bury in.  

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  There they buried him, and Sara his wife: there was Isaac buried with Rebecca his wife: there also Lia doth lie buried.  

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  And when he had ended the commandments, wherewith he instructed his sons, he drew up his feet upon the bed, and died: and he was gathered to his people."  

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