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.

² Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

³ Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

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.

⁵ Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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:

¹² His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

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.

¹⁴ Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:

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.

¹⁶ Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

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.

¹⁸ I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

¹⁹ Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.

²⁰ Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹ Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.

²² Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

²³ The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:

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:)

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:

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.

²⁷ Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.

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.

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,

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.

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

³² The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.

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.

¹ The second lot came out for Simeon, even for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families. Their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Judah.

² They had for their inheritance Beersheba (or Sheba), Moladah,

³ Hazar Shual, Balah, Ezem,

⁴ Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah,

⁵ Ziklag, Beth Marcaboth, Hazar Susah,

⁶ Beth Lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities with their villages;

⁷ Ain, Rimmon, Ether, and Ashan; four cities with their villages;

⁸ and all the villages that were around these cities to Baalath Beer, Ramah of the South. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families.

⁹ Out of the part of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon; for the portion of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore the children of Simeon had inheritance in the midst of their inheritance.

¹⁰ The third lot came up for the children of Zebulun according to their families. The border of their inheritance was to Sarid.

¹¹ Their border went up westward, even to Maralah, and reached to Dabbesheth. It reached to the brook that is before Jokneam.

¹² It turned from Sarid eastward toward the sunrise to the border of Chisloth Tabor. It went out to Daberath, and went up to Japhia.

¹³ From there it passed along eastward to Gath Hepher, to Ethkazin; and it went out at Rimmon which stretches to Neah.

¹⁴ The border turned around it on the north to Hannathon; and it ended at the valley of Iphtah El;

¹⁵ Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages.

¹⁶ This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.

¹⁷ The fourth lot came out for Issachar, even for the children of Issachar according to their families.

¹⁸ Their border was to Jezreel, Chesulloth, Shunem,

¹⁹ Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath,

²⁰ Rabbith, Kishion, Ebez,

²¹ Remeth, Engannim, En Haddah, and Beth Pazzez.

²² The border reached to Tabor, Shahazumah, and Beth Shemesh. Their border ended at the Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages.

²³ This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar according to their families, the cities with their villages.

²⁴ The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families.

²⁵ Their border was Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph,

²⁶ Allammelech, Amad, Mishal. It reached to Carmel westward, and to Shihorlibnath.

²⁷ It turned toward the sunrise to Beth Dagon, and reached to Zebulun, and to the valley of Iphtah El northward to Beth Emek and Neiel. It went out to Cabul on the left hand,

²⁸ and Ebron, Rehob, Hammon, and Kanah, even to great Sidon.

²⁹ The border turned to Ramah, to the fortified city of Tyre; and the border turned to Hosah. It ended at the sea by the region of Achzib;

³⁰ Ummah also, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty-two cities with their villages.

³¹ This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages.

³² The sixth lot came out for the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families.

³³ Their border was from Heleph, from the oak in Zaanannim, Adaminekeb, and Jabneel, to Lakkum. It ended at the Jordan.

³⁴ The border turned westward to Aznoth Tabor, and went out from there to Hukkok. It reached to Zebulun on the south, and reached to Asher on the west, and to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise.

³⁵ The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth,

³⁶ Adamah, Ramah, Hazor,

³⁷ Kedesh, Edrei, En Hazor,

³⁸ Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath, and Beth Shemesh; nineteen cities with their villages.

³⁹ This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families, the cities with their villages.

⁴⁰ The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.

⁴¹ The border of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Irshemesh,

⁴² Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah,

⁴³ Elon, Timnah, Ekron,

⁴⁴ Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath,

⁴⁵ Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon,

⁴⁶ Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the border over against Joppa.

⁴⁷ The border of the children of Dan went out beyond them; for the children of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and lived therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.

⁴⁸ This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.

⁴⁹ So they made an end of distributing the land for inheritance by its borders. The children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun in the midst of them.

⁵⁰ According to the commandment of Yahweh, they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnathserah in the hill country of Ephraim; and he built the city, and lived there.

⁵¹ These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. So they made an end of dividing the land.