49

Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons

¹And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may ⚓tell you what shall befall you ⚓in the last days:
²“Gather together and hear, you sons of Jacob,
And listen to Israel your father.
³“Reuben, you are ⚓my firstborn,
My might and the beginning of my strength,
The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
⁴Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
Because you ⚓went up to your father’s bed;
Then you defiled it—
He went up to my couch.
⁵“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.
⁶⚓Let not my soul enter their council;
Let not my honor be united ⚓to their assembly;
⚓For in their anger they slew a man,
And in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.
⁷Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce;
And their wrath, for it is cruel!
⚓I will divide them in Jacob
And scatter them in Israel.
⁸“Judah,⚓ you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
⚓Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
⚓Your father’s children shall bow down before you.
⁹Judah is⚓a lion’s whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
⚓He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
¹⁰⚓The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor ⚓a lawgiver from between his feet,
⚓Until Shiloh comes;
⚓And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
¹¹Binding his donkey to the vine,
And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.
¹²His eyes are darker than wine,
And his teeth whiter than milk.
¹³“Zebulun⚓ shall dwell by the haven of the sea;
He shall become a haven for ships,
And his border shall ⚓adjoin Sidon.
¹⁴“Issachar⚓ is a strong donkey,
Lying down between two burdens;
¹⁵He saw that rest was good,
And that the land was pleasant;
He bowed ⚓his shoulder to bear a burden,
And became a band of slaves.
¹⁶“Dan⚓ shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷⚓Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse’s heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
¹⁸⚓I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!
¹⁹“Gad,⚓ a troop shall tramp upon him,
But he shall triumph at last.
²⁰“Bread from ⚓Asher shall be rich,
And he shall yield royal dainties.
²¹“Naphtali⚓is a deer let loose;
He uses beautiful words.
²²“Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a well;
His branches run over the wall.
²³The archers have ⚓bitterly grieved him,
Shot at him and hated him.
²⁴But his ⚓bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of ⚓the Mighty God of Jacob
⚓(From there ⚓is the Shepherd, ⚓the Stone of Israel),
²⁵⚓By the God of your father who will help you,
⚓And by the Almighty ⚓who will bless you
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
²⁶The blessings of your father
Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,
⚓Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
⚓They shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
²⁷“Benjamin is a ⚓ravenous wolf;
In the morning he shall devour the prey,
⚓And at night he shall divide the spoil.”
²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each one according to his own blessing.

Jacob’s Death and Burial

²⁹Then 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, ³⁰in 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 as a possession for a burial place. ³¹⚓There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, ⚓there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. ³²The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.” ³³And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

49

雅各的遺言

¹雅各叫了他的兒子來，說：「你們都來聚集，讓我把你們日後要遇到的事告訴你們。
²雅各的兒子們，你們要聚集，要聆聽，
聽你們父親以色列的話。
³呂便啊，你是我的長子，我的力量，
我壯年頭生之子，
極有尊榮，權力超羣。
⁴你卻放縱如水，必不得居首位；
因為你上了你父親的床，
你⚓上了我的榻，污辱了它！

⁵西緬和利未是兄弟；
他們的刀劍是殘暴的兵器。
⁶願我的心不與他們同謀，
願我的靈⚓不與他們合夥；
因為他們在烈怒中殺人，
任意割斷牛腿的筋。
⁷他們火爆的烈怒可詛，
他們兇殘的憤恨可咒！
我要把他們分散在雅各中，
使他們散居在以色列。

⁸猶大啊，你的兄弟必讚美你，
你的手必掐住仇敵的頸項，
你父親的兒子要向你下拜。
⁹猶大是隻小獅子；
我兒啊，你捕獲了獵物就上去。
他蹲伏，他躺臥，如公獅，
又如母獅，誰敢惹他呢？
¹⁰權杖必不離猶大，
統治者的杖必不離他兩腳之間，
直等細羅⚓來到，
萬民都要歸順他。

¹¹猶大把小驢拴在葡萄樹上，
把驢駒拴在佳美的葡萄樹上。
他在葡萄酒中洗衣服，
在葡萄汁⚓中洗長袍。
¹²他的眼睛比⚓酒紅潤，
他的牙齒比奶潔白。

¹³西布倫必住在海邊，
必成為停船的港口；
他的疆界必延到西頓。

¹⁴以薩迦是匹強壯的驢，
臥在羊圈之中。
¹⁵他看見居所安舒，
土地肥美，
就屈肩負重，
成為服勞役的僕人。

¹⁶但必為他的百姓伸冤⚓，
作為以色列支派之一。
¹⁷但必作道旁的蛇，
路邊的毒蛇，
咬傷馬蹄，
使騎馬的人向後墜落。

¹⁸耶和華啊，我等候你的救恩。

¹⁹迦得必被襲擊者襲擊⚓，
他卻要襲擊他們的腳跟。

²⁰亞設必出豐盛的糧食，
要供應君王的佳肴。

²¹拿弗他利是被釋放的母鹿，
他要生出可愛的小鹿⚓。

²²約瑟是多結果子的樹枝，
是泉旁多結果的枝子；
他的枝條伸出牆外。
²³弓箭手惡意攻擊他，
敵對他，向他射箭。
²⁴但他的弓仍舊堅硬，
他的手臂靈活敏捷，
這是因雅各的大能者的手，
從那裏，他是以色列的牧者，
以色列的磐石⚓。
²⁵你父親的上帝必幫助你；
全能者必賜福給你：
天上的福，
深淵下面蘊藏的福，
以及生育哺養的福。
²⁶你父親的福
勝過我祖先的福，
直到永世山嶺的極限。
這些福必降在約瑟的頭上，
臨到那與兄弟有分別之人的頭頂上。

²⁷便雅憫是隻抓撕掠物的狼，
早晨要吃他的獵物，
晚上要分他的擄物。」
²⁸這一切是以色列的十二個支派。這是他們的父親對他們所說的話，他按照各人的福分為他們祝福。

雅各的死和安葬

²⁹他又吩咐他們說：「我快要歸到我祖先⚓那裏。你們要將我葬在赫人以弗崙田間的洞裏，與我的祖先在一處， ³⁰就是在迦南地幔利對面的麥比拉田間的洞裏，那田是亞伯拉罕向赫人以弗崙買來作墳地的產業。 ³¹亞伯拉罕和他的妻子撒拉葬在那裏；以撒和他的妻子利百加也葬在那裏。我也在那裏葬了利亞。 ³²那塊田和田間的洞是向赫人買的。」 ³³雅各囑咐眾子完畢後，就把腳收在床上斷了氣，歸到他祖先⚓那裏去了。