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The First Book of Moses: Called Genesis, Chapter 49
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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.
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2 |
Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and
hearken unto Israel your father.
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3 |
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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4 |
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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5 |
Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their
habitations.
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6 |
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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7 |
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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8 |
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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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?
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10 |
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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11 |
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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12 |
His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth
white with milk.
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13 |
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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14 |
Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
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15 |
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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16 |
Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
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17 |
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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18 |
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
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19 |
Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the
last.
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20 |
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal
dainties.
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21 |
Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.
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22 |
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well;
whose branches run over the wall:
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23 |
The archers have sorely
grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
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24 |
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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25 |
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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26 |
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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27 |
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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28 |
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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29 |
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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30 |
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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31 |
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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32 |
The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was
from the children of Heth.
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33 |
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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