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, principal in dignity, and the principal in power.
4. Unstable as water, thou shalt not be principal because thou didst go up to thy father’s bed; then thou became defiled, going up to my couch.
5. Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of injustice are their weapons.
6. Let my soul not enter into their secret; nor let my honour join their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their own will they dug down a wall.
7. Cursed be their anger, which is strong, and their wrath, which is hard; 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 on the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s sons 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 be taken from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes; 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 roots; he washed his garments in wine and his covering in the blood of grapes;
12. His eyes red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13. Zebulun shall dwell at the port of the sea; and he shall be for a port of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.