¹ And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, and I will tell you what will befall you at the end of days.

² Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob, And listen to Israel your father.

³ Reuben, thou art my firstborn, My might, and the firstfruits of my vigour: Excellency of dignity, and excellency of strength.

⁴ Impetuous as the waters, thou shalt have no pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's couch: Then defiledst thou [it]: he went up to my bed.

⁵ Simeon and Levi are brethren: Instruments of violence their swords.

⁶ My soul, come not into their council; Mine honour, be not united with their assembly; For in their anger they slew men, And in their wantonness houghed oxen.

⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it [was] violent; And their rage, for it [was] cruel! I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.

⁸ Judah -- [as to] thee, thy brethren will praise thee; Thy hand will be upon the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's children will bow down to thee.

⁹ Judah is a young lion; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stoopeth, he layeth himself down as a lion, And as a lioness: who will rouse him up?

¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh come, And to him will be the obedience of peoples.

¹¹ He bindeth his foal to the vine, And his ass's colt to the choice vine; He washeth his dress in wine, And his garment in the blood of grapes.

¹² The eyes are red with wine, And the teeth [are] white with milk.

¹³ Zebulun will dwell at the shore of the seas; Yea, he will be at the shore of the ships, And his side [toucheth] upon Sidon.

¹⁴ Issachar is a bony ass, Crouching down between two hurdles.

¹⁵ And he saw the rest that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And was a tributary servant.

¹⁶ Dan will judge his people, As another of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷ Dan will be a serpent on the way, A horned snake on the path, Which biteth the horse's heels, So that the rider falleth backwards.

¹⁸ I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah.

¹⁹ Gad -- troops will rush upon him; But he will rush upon the heel.

²⁰ Out of Asher, his bread shall be fat, And he will give royal dainties.

²¹ Naphtali is a hind let loose; He giveth goodly words.

²² Joseph is a fruitful bough; A fruitful bough by a well; [His] branches shoot over the wall.

²³ The archers have provoked him, And shot at, and hated him;

²⁴ But his bow abideth firm, And the arms of his hands are supple By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:

²⁵ From the ùGod of thy father, and he will help thee; And from the Almighty, and he will bless thee -- With blessings of heaven from above, With blessings of the deep that lieth under, With blessings of the breast and of the womb.

²⁶ The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, Unto the bounds of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.

²⁷ Benjamin -- [as] a wolf will he tear to pieces; In the morning he will devour the prey, And in the evening he will divide the booty.

²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them; and he blessed them: every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

²⁹ And he charged them, and said to them, I am gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰ in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is opposite to Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite along with the field for a possession of a sepulchre.

³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah.

³² The purchase of the field, and of the cave that is in it, was from the children of Heth.

³³ And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his peoples.

¹ Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag, while he kept still close because of Saul the son of Kish; and they were among the mighty men who helped him in the conflict;

² armed with bows, using both the right hand and the left with stones and with arrows on the bow; [they were] of Saul's brethren of Benjamin:

³ the chief Ahiezer, and Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite; and Jeziel, and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth; and Berachah, and Jehu the Anathothite,

⁴ and Jishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty; and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Jozabad the Gederathite.

⁵ Eluzai, and Jerimoth, and Bealiah, and Shemariah, and Shephatiah the Haruphite;

⁶ Elkanah, and Jishijah, and Azareel, and Joezer, and Jashobeam, the Korahites;

⁷ and Joelah, and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor.

⁸ And of the Gadites, there separated themselves to David in the stronghold in the wilderness mighty men of valour, men fit for the service of war, armed with shield and spear; whose faces were [like] the faces of lions, and who were swift as the gazelles upon the mountains:

⁹ Ezer the first, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third,

¹⁰ Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth,

¹¹ Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh,

¹² Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth,

¹³ Jeremiah the tenth, Machbannai the eleventh.

¹⁴ These were of the sons of Gad, captains of the host: one of the least was over a hundred, and the greatest over a thousand.

¹⁵ These are they that went over Jordan in the first month, when it overflows all its banks, and they put to flight all [them] of the valleys, toward the east and toward the west.

¹⁶ And there came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the stronghold to David.

¹⁷ And David went out to meet them, and answered and said to them, If ye come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit unto you; but if to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no wrong in my hands, the God of our fathers see [it] and rebuke [it].

¹⁸ And the Spirit came upon Amasai, the chief of the captains, [and he said,] Thine [are we], David, And with thee, thou son of Jesse: Peace, Peace be to thee! And Peace be to thy helpers! For thy God helps thee. And David received them, and made them chiefs of bands.

¹⁹ And there fell some of Manasseh to David, when he came with the Philistines against Saul to battle: but they helped them not; for the lords of the Philistines upon deliberation sent him away, saying, He will fall to his master Saul at the peril of our heads.

²⁰ As he went away to Ziklag, there fell to him of Manasseh: Adnah, and Jozabad, and Jediael, and Michael, and Jozabad, and Elihu, and Zilthai, captains of the thousands that were of Manasseh.

²¹ And they helped David in his expeditions; for they were all mighty men of valour, and were captains in the host.

²² For day by day there came [men] to David to help him, until it was a great camp, like the camp of God.

²³ And this is the number of the men equipped for military service, who came to David to Hebron, to transfer the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of Jehovah.

²⁴ The children of Judah that bore shield and spear were six thousand eight hundred, equipped for military service.

²⁵ Of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valour for war, seven thousand one hundred.

²⁶ Of the children of Levi four thousand six hundred.

²⁷ And Jehoiada the prince of Aaron, and with him were three thousand seven hundred;

²⁸ and Zadok, a valiant young man, and his father's house two and twenty chief men.

²⁹ And of the children of Benjamin, the brethren of Saul, three thousand; but hitherto the greater part of them had adhered to the house of Saul.

³⁰ And of the children of Ephraim twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty men of valour, men of name in their fathers' houses.

³¹ And of the half tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, who were expressed by name, to come and make David king.

³² And of the children of Issachar, who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their bidding.

³³ Of Zebulun, such as went forth in the host, armed for war with all weapons of war, fifty thousand, keeping rank without double heart.

³⁴ And of Naphtali a thousand captains, and with them thirty-seven thousand with shield and spear.

³⁵ And of the Danites armed for war twenty-eight thousand six hundred.

³⁶ And of Asher such as went forth in the host, to set themselves in battle array, forty thousand.

³⁷ And from the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and of the half tribe of Manasseh, with all manner of weapons of war for battle, a hundred and twenty thousand.

³⁸ All of them men of war, keeping rank in battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king.

³⁹ And there they were with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brethren had prepared for them;

⁴⁰ and those too that were near them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought food on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen; provisions of meal, fig-cakes and raisin-cakes, and wine and oil, and oxen and sheep, abundantly; for there was joy in Israel.