¹ And Jacob called his sons, and said to them: Gather yourselves together that I may tell you the things that shall befall you in the last days.

² Gather yourselves together, and hear, O ye sons of Jacob, hearken to Israel your father:

³ Ruben, my firstborn, thou art my strength, and the beginning of my sorrow: excelling in gifts, greater in command.

⁴ Thou art poured out as water, grow thou not: because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, and didst defile his couch.

⁵ Simeon and Levi brethren: vessels of iniquity, waging war.

⁶ Let not my soul go into their counsel, nor my glory be in their assembly: "be- cause in their fury they slew a man, and in their selfwill they undermined a wall.

⁷ Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn: and their wrath because it was cruel: I Will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel.

⁸ Juda, thee shall thy brethren praise: thy hands shall be on the necks of thy enemies: the sons of thy father shall bow down to thee.

⁹ Juda is a lion's whelp: to the prey, my son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?

¹⁰ The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations.

¹¹ Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, 0 my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.

¹² His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

¹³ Zabulon shall dwell on the sea shore, and in the road of ships, reaching as far as Sidon.

¹⁴ Issachar shall be a strong ass lying down between the borders.

¹⁵ He saw rest that it was good: and the land that it was excellent: and he bowed his shoulder to carry, and became a servant under tribute.

¹⁶ Dan shall judge his people like an- other tribe in Israel.

¹⁷ Let Dan be a snake in the way, a serpent in the path, that biteth the horse's heels that his rider may fall backward.

¹⁸ I will look for thy salvation, 0 Lord.

¹⁹ Gad, being girded, shall fight before him: and he himself shall be girded backward.

²⁰ Aser, his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield dainties to kings.

²¹ Nephtali, a hart let loose, and giving words of beauty.

²² Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and comely to behold; the daughters run to and fro upon the wall.

²³ But they that held darts provoked him, and quarrelled with him, and envied him.

²⁴ His bow rested upon the strong, and the bands of his arms and his hands were loosed, by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob: thence he came forth a pastor, the stone of Israel.

²⁵ The God of thy father shall be thy helper, and the Almighty shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the deep that lieth be- neath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

²⁶ The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come; may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren.

²⁷ Benjamin a ravenous wolf, in the morning shall eat the prey, and in the evening shall divide the spoil.

²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: these things their father spoke to them, and he blessed every one, with their proper blessings.

²⁹ And he charged them, saying: I am now going to be gathered to my people : bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Hethite,

³⁰ Over against Mambre in the land of Chanaan, which Abraham bought to- gather with the field of Ephron the Hethite for a possession to bury in.

³¹ There they buried him, and Sara his wife: there was Isaac buried with Rebecca his wife: there also Lia doth lie buried.

³² And when he had ended the commandments, wherewith he instructed his sons, he drew up his feet upon the bed, and died: and he was gathered to his people."

¹ Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken.

² Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

³ Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.

⁴ Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

⁵ Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him.

⁶ Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me."

⁷ She said, "Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age."

⁸ The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

⁹ Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

¹⁰ Therefore she said to Abraham, "Cast out this handmaid and her son! For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, Isaac."

¹¹ The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son.

¹² God said to Abraham, "Don't let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called.

¹³ I will also make a nation of the son of the handmaid, because he is your seed."

¹⁴ Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵ The water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

¹⁶ She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, "Don't let me see the death of the child." She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

¹⁷ God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Don't be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

¹⁸ Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation."

¹⁹ God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink.

²⁰ God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer.

²¹ He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

²² It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, "God is with you in all that you do.

²³ Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner."

²⁴ Abraham said, "I will swear."

²⁵ Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.

²⁶ Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today."

²⁷ Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

²⁸ Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹ Abimelech said to Abraham, "What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?"

³⁰ He said, "You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well."

³¹ Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore there.

³² So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.

³⁴ Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.