Berean Standard Bible

Genesis 49:3-28

3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.4Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.

5Simeon and Levi are brothers;their swords1 are weapons of violence.6May I never enter their council;may I never join their assembly.For they kill men in their anger,and hamstring oxen on a whim.7Cursed be their anger, for it is strong,and their wrath, for it is cruel!I will disperse them in Jacoband scatter them in Israel.

8Judah,2 your brothers shall praise you.Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies;your father’s sons shall bow down to you.9Judah is a young lion—my son, you return from the prey.Like a lion he crouches and lies down;like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?10The scepter will not depart from Judah,nor the staff from between his feet,3until Shiloh4 comesand the allegiance of the nations is his.11He ties his donkey to the vine,his colt to the choicest branch.He washes his garments in wine,his robes in the blood of grapes.12His eyes are darker than wine,and his teeth are whiter than milk.

13Zebulun shall dwell by the seashoreand become a harbor for ships;his border shall extend to Sidon.

14Issachar is a strong donkey,lying down between the sheepfolds.515He saw that his resting place was goodand that his land was pleasant,so he bent his shoulder to the burdenand submitted to labor as a servant.

16Dan shall provide justice for his people6as one of the tribes of Israel.17He will be a snake by the road,a viper in the paththat bites the horse’s heelsso that its rider tumbles backward.

18I await Your salvation, O LORD.

19Gad7 will be attacked by raiders,but he will attack their heels.

20Asher’s food will be rich;he shall provide royal delicacies.

21Naphtali is a doe set freethat bears beautiful fawns.8

22Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring,whose branches scale the wall.923The archers attacked him with bitterness;they aimed at him in hostility.24Yet he steadied his bow,and his strong arms were temperedby the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,25by the God of your father who helps you,and by the Almighty10 who blesses you,with blessings of the heavens above,with blessings of the depths below,with blessings of the breasts and womb.26The blessings of your father have surpassedthe blessings of the ancient mountains11and the bounty of the everlasting hills.May they rest on the head of Joseph,on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

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

28These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

Read all of Genesis 49

Notes

1. Genesis 49:5 Or dwelling places ↩
2. Genesis 49:8 Judah sounds like the Hebrew for praise. ↩
3. Genesis 49:10 Or from his descendants ↩
4. Genesis 49:10 Or until the one to whom tribute belongs ↩
5. Genesis 49:14 Or saddlebags or hearths ↩
6. Genesis 49:16 Or Dan shall judge his people; Dan means He has judged or He has vindicated. ↩
7. Genesis 49:19 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for raid and also for band of raiders. ↩
8. Genesis 49:21 Or gives beautiful words or bears fawns of the fold ↩
9. Genesis 49:22 Or Joseph is a wild donkey, a wild donkey by a spring, with his wild colts beside the wall ↩
10. Genesis 49:25 Hebrew Shaddai ↩
11. Genesis 49:26 Or of my ancestors ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Genesis 49