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Genesis Chapter 49

Jacob’s dying blessing

49:1 And Jacobיַעֲקֹב
(/ˈdʒeɪkəb/; Modern: Yaʿaqōv (help·info), Tiberian: Yaʿăqōḇ; Arabic: يَعْقُوب, romanized: Yaʿqūb; Greek: Ἰακώβ, romanized: Iakṓb) the name Yaʿaqōv יעקב is derived from ʿaqev עָקֵב “heel”, as Jacob was born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau. for more info click here
called to his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you [that] which shall befall you in the last days.
49:2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, you sons of Jacobיַעֲקֹב
(/ˈdʒeɪkəb/; Modern: Yaʿaqōv (help·info), Tiberian: Yaʿăqōḇ; Arabic: يَعْقُوب, romanized: Yaʿqūb; Greek: Ἰακώβ, romanized: Iakṓb) the name Yaʿaqōv יעקב is derived from ʿaqev עָקֵב “heel”, as Jacob was born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau. for more info click here
; and listen to Israel your father.
49:3 Reubenרְאוּבֵן
or Reuven Standard Rəʾūven, meaning “behold, a son”. he was the first of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob’s oldest son) For more info click here
, you [are] my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power
49:4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel ; because you went up to your father’s bed ; then defiled you [it] he went up to my couch.
49:5 Simeonשמעון
(/ˈsɪmiən/) is a given name (Biblical Šimʿon, Tiberian Šimʿôn), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek, it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. It is a cognate of the name Simon “he has heard” For more info click here
and Leviלֵוִי‎
(/ˈliːvaɪ/ LEE-vy; Modern: Levī,The Torah suggests that the name Levi refers to Leah’s hope for Jacob to join with her, implying a derivation from Hebrew yillaweh, meaning he will join, but scholars suspect that it may simply mean priest, either as a loan word from the Minaean lawi’u, meaning priest, or by referring to those people who were joined to the Ark of the Covenant. For more info click here
[are] brothers ; instruments of cruelty [are in] their habitations.
49:6 O my soul, come not you into their secret ; to their assembly, My honor, be not you united for in their anger they killed a man, and in their self-will they dug down a wall.
49:7 Cursed [be] their anger, for [it was] fierce ; and their wrath, for it was cruel I will divide them in Jacobיַעֲקֹב
(/ˈdʒeɪkəb/; Modern: Yaʿaqōv (help·info), Tiberian: Yaʿăqōḇ; Arabic: يَعْقُوب, romanized: Yaʿqūb; Greek: Ἰακώβ, romanized: Iakṓb) the name Yaʿaqōv יעקב is derived from ʿaqev עָקֵב “heel”, as Jacob was born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau. for more info click here
, and scatter them in Israel.
49:8 Judahיְהוּדָה
Modern: Yəhūda, Tiberian: Yŭhūḏā), literally “thanksgiving” or “praise,” is the noun form of the root Y-D-H (ידה), “to thank” or “to praise. The fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah. For more info click here
, you [are he] whom your brothers shall praise your hand [shall be] in the neck of your enemies ; your father’s children shall bow down before you.
49:9 Judahיְהוּדָה
Modern: Yəhūda, Tiberian: Yŭhūḏā), literally “thanksgiving” or “praise,” is the noun form of the root Y-D-H (ידה), “to thank” or “to praise. The fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah. For more info click here
[is] a lion’s whelp from the prey, my son, you are gone up he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion ; who shall rouse him up?
49:10 The sepulcher | ˈsepəlkər | (British sepulchre)- noun – a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. — Middle English: via Old French from Latin sepulcrum ‘burial place’, from sepelire ‘bury’. shall not depart from Judahיְהוּדָה
Modern: Yəhūda, Tiberian: Yŭhūḏā), literally “thanksgiving” or “praise,” is the noun form of the root Y-D-H (ידה), “to thank” or “to praise. The fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah. For more info click here
, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and to him [shall] the gathering of the people [be].
49:11 Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass’s colt to the choice vine ; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes
49:12 His eyes [shall be] red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
49:13 Zebulunזְבֻלוּן/זְבוּלֻן/זְבוּלוּן
Modern: Zəvūlūn) he name is derived from the Northwest Semitic root zbl, common in 2nd millennium BCE Ugaritic texts as an epithet (title) of the god Baal, as well as in Phoenician and (frequently) in Biblical Hebrew in personal names. For more info click here
shall stay at the haven of the sea ; and he [shall be] for an haven of ships ; and his border [shall be] to Zidon.
49:14 Issacharיִשָּׂשכָר‎
Modern: Yīssaḵar, Tiberian: Yīśśāḵār, “There is reward” the fifth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob’s ninth son) For more info click here
[is] a strong ass couching down between two burdens
49:15 And he saw that rest [was] good, and the land that [it was] pleasant ; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant to tribute.
49:16 Danדָּן
Dān, “judgment” or “he judged”) was the first of the two sons of Jacob and Bilhah (Jacob’s fifth son). His mother, Bilhah, was Rachel’s handmaid, who becomes one of Jacob’s concubines. For more info click here
shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
49:17 Danדָּן
Dān, “judgment” or “he judged”) was the first of the two sons of Jacob and Bilhah (Jacob’s fifth son). His mother, Bilhah, was Rachel’s handmaid, who becomes one of Jacob’s concubines. For more info click here
shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
49:18 I have waited for your salvation, O LORD.
49:19 Gadגָּד‎,
Modern: Gad, Tiberian: Gāḏ, “luck/fortunate”) was, the first of the two sons of Jacob and Zilpah (Jacob’s seventh son) and the founder of the Israelite tribe of Gad. For more info click here
, a troop shall overcome him but he shall overcome at the last.
49:20 Out of Asher his bread [shall be] fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
49:21 Naphtaliנַפְתָּלִי
(/ˈnæftəlaɪ/ Modern: Naftalī, Tiberian: Nap̄tālī, “my struggle”) was the sixth son of Jacob, the second of his two sons with Bilhah. He was the founder of the Israelite tribe of Naphtali. For more info click here
[is] a deer let loose he gives goodly words.
49:22 Josephיוֹסֵף
Yosef Meaning: Jehovah shall add, God will add, taken away or praise, fame taken away. For more info click here
[is] a fruitful bough, [even] a fruitful bough by a well ; [whose] branches run over the wall
49:23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot [at him], and hated him
49:24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty [God] of Jacobיַעֲקֹב
(/ˈdʒeɪkəb/; Modern: Yaʿaqōv (help·info), Tiberian: Yaʿăqōḇ; Arabic: يَعْقُوب, romanized: Yaʿqūb; Greek: Ἰακώβ, romanized: Iakṓb) the name Yaʿaqōv יעקב is derived from ʿaqev עָקֵב “heel”, as Jacob was born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau. for more info click here
;(from there [is] the shepherd, the stone of Israel)
49:25 [Even] by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb
49:26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my ancestors to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Josephיוֹסֵף
Yosef Meaning: Jehovah shall add, God will add, taken away or praise, fame taken away. For more info click here
, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brothers.
49:27 Benjaminבִּנְיָמִי
Bīnyāmīn Meaning: “Son of (the) right” or “Son of My right hand” was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob’s thirteenth child and twelfth and youngest son) For more info click here
shall ravin [as] a wolf in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
49:28 All these [are] the twelve tribes of Israel and this [is it] that their father spoke to them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

Jacob’s charge as to his burial


49:29 And he charged them, and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people bury me with my fathers in the cave that [is] in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
49:30 In the cave that [is] in the field of Machpelah, which [is] before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abrahamאַבְרָהָם
/ˈeɪbrəhæm, -həm/; ‎‎, Modern: ʾAvraham, As recounted in the Torah, his name was originally Avram which means “High Father” – “av” (אב) “father”, “ram” (רם) “high” – with the “ha” (ה) added in mark of his covenant with God. For more info click here
bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying place.
49:31 There they buried Abrahamאַבְרָהָם
/ˈeɪbrəhæm, -həm/; ‎‎, Modern: ʾAvraham, As recounted in the Torah, his name was originally Avram which means “High Father” – “av” (אב) “father”, “ram” (רם) “high” – with the “ha” (ה) added in mark of his covenant with God. For more info click here
and Sarah his wife ; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife ; and there I buried Leah.
49:32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that [is] therein [was] from the children of Heth.

Jacob’s death


49:33 And when Jacobיַעֲקֹב
(/ˈdʒeɪkəb/; Modern: Yaʿaqōv (help·info), Tiberian: Yaʿăqōḇ; Arabic: يَعْقُوب, romanized: Yaʿqūb; Greek: Ἰακώβ, romanized: Iakṓb) the name Yaʿaqōv יעקב is derived from ʿaqev עָקֵב “heel”, as Jacob was born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau. for more info click here
had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered to his people.