| 049:001 | 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. | |
049:002 | Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and
hearken unto Israel your father. |
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049:003 | Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of
my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of
power: |
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049:004 | Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest
up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to
my couch. |
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049:005 | Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in
their habitations. |
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049:006 | O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their
assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger
they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a
wall. |
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049:007 | Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for
it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in
Israel. |
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049:008 | Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand
shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children
shall bow down before thee. |
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049:009 | 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? |
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049:010 | The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the
gathering of the people be. |
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049:011 | Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the
choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes
in the blood of grapes: |
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049:012 | His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with
milk. |
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049:013 | Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be
for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. |
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049:014 | Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: |
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049:015 | And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was
pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant
unto tribute. |
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049:016 | Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. |
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049:017 | Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that
biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. |
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049:018 | I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. |
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049:019 | Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the
last. |
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049:020 | Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal
dainties. |
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049:021 | Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. |
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049:022 | Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well;
whose branches run over the wall: |
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049:023 | The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and
hated him: |
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049:024 | But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from
thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) |
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049:025 | Even 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 lieth under, blessings of the
breasts, and of the womb: |
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049:026 | The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings
of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting
hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown
of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. |
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049:027 | Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour
the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. |
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049:028 | All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that
their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one
according to his blessing he blessed them. |
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049:029 | And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered
unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in
the field of Ephron the Hittite, |
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049:030 | In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before
Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the
field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a
buryingplace. |
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049:031 | There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they
buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. |
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049:032 | The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was
from the children of Heth. |
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049:033 | And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he
gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost,
and was gathered unto his people.
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