The Holy Ivri Heritage Bible

1And Ya’akov called his sons and said to them, “Assemble yourselves, that I may tell you what shall befall you in (Acharit Hayamim) the latter days. 2Gather yourselves together and hear me, sons of Ya’akov; hear Yisra’el, your father.” 3Reuven, you are my firstborn, my strength, and the beginning of my might; hard to be endured, self-willed. 4You were insolent like water; you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch. 5Shimon and Levi, brothers, instruments of violence are their (charavot) swords. 6Let not my soul enter into their counsel; let not my glory be united with their assembly; for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they hamstrung oxen. 7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Ya’akov, and scatter them in Yisra’el. 8Yehudah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. 9Yehudah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him? 10The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to him shall be the obedience of the nations (Goyim). 11Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine, and his robe in the blood of grapes. 12His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. 13Zevulun shall dwell at the seashore; he shall be a haven for ships, and his border shall extend to Tzidon. 14Yissakhar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds. 15He saw that rest was good, and that the land was pleasant; he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor. 16Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Yisra’el. 17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward. 18“I wait for Yeshuat’kha (your salvation), O Yahuah.” 19Gad, a troop shall press upon him; but he shall press upon their heel. 20Asher, his bread shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies. 21Naphtali is a doe let loose; he gives beautiful words. 22Yosef is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. 23The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him. 24But his bow remained firm, and the arms of his hands were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Ya’akov—by the name of the Shepherd, the Stone (Even) of Yisra’el. 25By the Elohim of your father who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of the ancient mountains, above the blessings of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Yosef, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. 27Binyamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, and at evening he divides the spoil. 28All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra’el, and this is what their father spoke to them, and he blessed them, each one according to his blessing. 29Then he commanded them and said, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Kena’an, which Avraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place. 31There they buried Avraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Yitzchak and Rivqah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the sons of Chet. 33And Ya’akov finished commanding his sons, and he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.