Genesis 49
Open in the reader1Then Heel-Grabber 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 Heel-Grabber; listen to your father Strives-with-God.
3See-a-Son, 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.
5Heard and Joined 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 Heel-Grabber and scatter them in Strives-with-God.
8Praised, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you.
9Praised 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 Praised, 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.
13Dwelling shall dwell by the seashore and become a harbor for ships; his border shall extend to Sidon.
14There-Is-Reward 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.
16Judge shall provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Strives-with-God.
17He will be a snake by the road, a viper in the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.
18I await Your salvation, O He-Who-Is.
19Fortune will be attacked by raiders, but he will attack their heels.
20Happy’s food will be rich; he shall provide royal delicacies.
21My-Wrestling is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.
22May-He-Add 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 Heel-Grabber, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Strives-with-God,
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 May-He-Add, on the brow of the prince of his brothers.
27Son-of-the-Right-Hand is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”
28These are the tribes of Strives-with-God, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.
29Then Heel-Grabber instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Fawn-like the Son-of-Terror.
30The cave is in the field of Double-Cave near Strength, in the land of Humbled. This is the field Father-of-a-Multitude purchased from Fawn-like the Son-of-Terror as a burial site.
31There Father-of-a-Multitude and his wife Princess are buried, there He-Laughs and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Weary-One.
32The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”
33When Heel-Grabber had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.