Genesis 49

Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 1860 BC – 1859 BC · The patriarchs · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·

33 verses · 688 words · ~3 min read · ~5 min listen

Jacob Blesses His Sons

¹Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come:

²Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob;

listen to your father Israel.

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 fatherʼs bed,

onto my couch, and defiled it.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers;

their swords 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 Jacob

and scatter them in Israel.

⁸Judah, your brothers shall praise you.

Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies;

your fatherʼs 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,

until Shiloh comes

and 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 seashore

and become a harbor for ships;

his border shall extend to Sidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong donkey,

lying down between the sheepfolds.

¹⁵He saw that his resting place was good

and that his land was pleasant,

so he bent his shoulder to the burden

and submitted to labor as a servant.

¹⁶Dan shall provide justice for his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷He will be a snake by the road,

a viper in the path

that bites the horseʼs heels

so that its rider tumbles backward.

¹⁸I await Your salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹Gad will be attacked by raiders,

but he will attack their heels.

²⁰Asherʼs food will be rich;

he shall provide royal delicacies.

²¹Naphtali is a doe set free

that bears beautiful fawns.

²²Joseph is a fruitful vine—

a fruitful vine by a spring,

whose branches scale the wall.

²³The archers attacked him with bitterness;

they aimed at him in hostility.

²⁴Yet he steadied his bow,

and his strong arms were tempered

by 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 Almighty 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 surpassed

the blessings of the ancient mountains

and 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.

The Death of Jacob

²⁹Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. ³⁰The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. ³¹There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah. ³²The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”

³³When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.

Footnotes (11)

a v5 Or dwelling places
b v8 Judah sounds like the Hebrew for praise.
c v10 Or from his descendants
d v10 Or until the one to whom tribute belongs
e v14 Or saddlebags or hearths
f v16 Or Dan shall judge his people; Dan means He has judged or He has vindicated.
g v19 Gad sounds like the Hebrew for raid and also for band of raiders.
h v21 Or gives beautiful words or bears fawns of the fold
i v22 Or Joseph is a wild donkey, a wild donkey by a spring, with his wild colts beside the wall
j v25 Hebrew Shaddai
k v26 Or of my ancestors

Study notes on this chapter · 2

Prophecy & fulfillmentWidely held reading

Simeon and Levi scattered in Israel

Jacob says that because of Simeon and Levi's violence at Shechem, he will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. Levi received no tribal territory but 48 towns across the tribes, and Simeon's inheritance lay within Judah's.

When: Genesis (traditionally c. 1800 BC); the land allotment, c. 1400 BC.

Original passageGenesis 49:5–7

Where the New Testament applies itJoshua 19:1–9Joshua 21:1–3

Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.

Prophecy & fulfillmentDebated

The scepter will not depart from Judah

Jacob's blessing on Judah says the scepter will not depart from him 'until Shiloh comes' (or 'until he comes to whom it belongs'), and that the nations will obey him. The Hebrew of this verse is notoriously hard. Revelation calls Jesus 'the Lion of the tribe of Judah'.

When: Genesis (traditionally c. 1800 BC); Davidic kingdom, c. 1000 BC; Revelation, c. AD 90s.

Original passageGenesis 49:8–12

Echoed inRevelation 5:5Hebrews 7:14

Ways people read this (4)

Messianic: the verse foretells a ruler from Judah, fulfilled in David and ultimately in the Messiah (ancient Jewish targums and the church fathers).
'Shiloh' may be a place name, so the verse would mean Judah leads until the tribes gather at Shiloh.
The phrase can be read 'until tribute comes to him', referring to David's dynasty and its dominion over the nations.
The Septuagint reads 'until the things stored up for him come', which was read messianically.