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 And all the children of Israel went forth, and the assembly gathered together as one man, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and the land of Gilead, unto Jehovah at Mizpah.

² And the heads of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the congregation of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.

³ And the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah. And the children of Israel said, Tell [us], how was this wickedness?

⁴ Then the Levite, the husband of the woman that was murdered, answered and said, I came to Gibeah that [belongs] to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.

⁵ And the citizens of Gibeah rose against me, and surrounded the house because of me, by night; they thought to slay me, and my concubine have they humbled so that she died.

⁶ Then I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and villany in Israel.

⁷ Behold, all ye, children of Israel, deliberate and give here [your] counsel.

⁸ And all the people rose up as one man, saying, We will not any one go to his tent, neither will we any one turn into his house.

⁹ But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: [we go] by lot against it;

¹⁰ and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten thousand, to fetch victuals for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the villany that they have wrought in Israel.

¹¹ And all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

¹² And the tribes of Israel sent men to all the families of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that has been done among you?

¹³ And now give up the men, the sons of Belial, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But [the children of] Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel.

¹⁴ And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities of Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

¹⁵ And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities, twenty-six thousand men that drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

¹⁶ Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; all these slang stones at a hair [breadth], and missed not.

¹⁷ And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.

¹⁸ And the children of Israel arose and went up to Bethel, and inquired of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And Jehovah said, Judah first.

¹⁹ And the children of Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.

²⁰ And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.

²¹ And the children of Benjamin went forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty-two thousand men.

²² And the people, the men of Israel, took courage, and set the battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.

²³ And the children of Israel went up and wept before Jehovah until even, and inquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And Jehovah said, go up against him.

²⁴ And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

²⁵ And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and again destroyed to the ground of the children of Israel eighteen thousand men: all these drew the sword.

²⁶ Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up and came to Bethel, and wept, and abode there before Jehovah, and fasted that day until even, and offered up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before Jehovah.

²⁷ And the children of Israel inquired of Jehovah (and the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

²⁸ and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And Jehovah said, Go up; for to-morrow I will give them into thy hand.

²⁹ And Israel set liers in wait against Gibeah, round about.

³⁰ And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at the other times.

³¹ And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city, and began to smite of the people, slaying as at the former times, in the highways, of which one leads to Bethel and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

³² And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. And the children of Israel said, Let us flee, that we may draw them from the city to the highways.

³³ And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-Tamar; and the ambush of Israel rushed forth out of their place, out of the meadows of Geba.

³⁴ And there came from opposite Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was severe; but they knew not that disaster was coming upon them.

³⁵ And Jehovah smote Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjaminites that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword.

³⁶ And the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten. -- And the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted to the ambush that they had set against Gibeah.

³⁷ And the ambush hasted, and fell upon Gibeah; and the ambush drew along, and smote the whole city with the edge of the sword.

³⁸ Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambush, that they should make a thick column of smoke rise up out of the city.

³⁹ And when the men of Israel turned back in the battle, Benjamin began to smite, slaying of the men of Israel about thirty men; for they said, Surely they are quite routed before us as in the first battle.

⁴⁰ And when the burning began to rise up out of the city as a pillar of smoke, Benjamin looked behind, and behold, the whole city ascended [in smoke] to the heavens.

⁴¹ Then the men of Israel turned back, and the men of Benjamin were amazed, for they saw that disaster was come upon them.

⁴² And they turned before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in their midst.

⁴³ They encompassed the Benjaminites, chased them, trode them down at the resting-place over against Gibeah toward the sun-rising.

⁴⁴ And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men: all these, men of valour.

⁴⁵ And they turned and fled towards the wilderness to the cliff of Rimmon, and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them to Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.

⁴⁶ So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men that drew the sword: all these, men of valour.

⁴⁷ And six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness to the cliff of Rimmon, and abode at the cliff of Rimmon four months.

⁴⁸ And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of [every] city as the cattle, and all that was found; even all the cities that were found did they set on fire.