Genesis 49 · Parashat Vayechi

And Ya῾aqov called to his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

Gather yourselves together, and hear, you sons of Ya῾aqov; and hearken to Yisra᾽el your father.

Re᾽uven, thou art my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then thou didst defile it: he went up to my couch.

Shim῾on and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are their swords.

Let my soul not come into their council; to their assembly let my honour not be united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they lamed an ox.

Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Ya῾aqov, and scatter them in Yisra᾽el.

Yehuda thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be on the neck of thy enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.

Yehuda is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?

The staff shall not depart from Yehuda, nor the sceptre from between his feet, until Shilo come, and the obedience of the people be his.

Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass’s colt to the choice vine; he washes his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes;

his eyes are red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Zevulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea; and he shall be a haven for ships; and his border shall be at Żidon.

Yissakhar is a strong ass couching down between the sheepfolds:

and he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to tribute.

Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Yisra᾽el.

Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

I wait for thy salvation, O Lord.

Gad, raiders shall maraud him, but he shall overcome at the last.

Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.

Naftali is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words.

Yosef is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

the archers fiercely attacked him, and shot at him, and hated him:

but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made supple by the hands of the mighty God of Ya῾aqov; (from thence from the shepherd, the Stone of Yisra᾽el:)

by the God of thy father, Who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, Who shall bless thee, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that couches beneath, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

the blessings of thy father are potent above the blessings of my progenitors to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Yosef, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brothers.

Binyamin is a ravenous wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.

All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra᾽el: and this is that which their father spoke to them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

And he charged them, and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of ῾Efron, the Ḥittite,

in the cave that is in the field of Makhpela, which is before Mamre, in the land of Kena῾an, which Avraham bought with the field from ῾Efron the Ḥittite for a possession of a buryingplace.

There they buried Avraham and Sara his wife; there they buried Yiżĥaq and Rivqa his wife; and there I buried Le᾽a.

The purchase of the field and of the cave that is in it was from the children of Ḥet.

And when Ya῾aqov had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his people.