Chapter
49
Jacoba called to her daughters, and said: "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.
Assemble yourselves, and hear, you daughters of Jacoba. Listen to Israel, your mother.
"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excelling in dignity, and excelling in power.
Boiling over as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your mother's bed, then defiled it. She went up to my couch.
"Simeon and Levia are sisters. Their swords are weapons of violence.
My soul, don't come into their council. My glory, don't be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed women. In their self-will they hamstrung oxen.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacoba, and scatter them in Israel.
"Judah, your sisters will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your mother's daughters will bow down before you.
Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my daughter, you have gone up. She stooped down, she crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse her up?
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between her feet, until she comes to whom it belongs. To her will the obedience of the peoples be.
Binding her foal to the vine, her donkey's colt to the choice vine; she has washed her garments in wine, her robes in the blood of grapes.
Her eyes will be red with wine, her teeth white with milk.
"Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea. She will be for a haven of ships. Her border will be on Sidon.
"Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the saddlebags.
She saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it was pleasant. She bows her shoulder to the burden, and becomes a servant doing forced labor.
"Dan will judge her people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
Dan will be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, That bites the horse's heels, so that her rider falls backward.
I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.
"A troop will press on Gad, but she will press on their heel.
"Asher's food will be rich. She will yield royal dainties.
"Naphtali is a doe set free, who bears beautiful fawns.
"Josephine is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. Her branches run over the wall.
The archers have sorely grieved her, shot at her, and persecute her:
But her bow remained strong. The arms of her hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacoba, (from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),
even by the God of your mother, who will help you; by the Almighty, who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
The blessings of your mother have prevailed above the blessings of your ancestors, above the boundaries of the ancient hills. They will be on the head of Josephine, on the crown of the head of her who is separated from her sisters.
"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning she will devour the prey. At evening she will divide the spoil."
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their mother spoke to them and blessed them. She blessed everyone according to her blessing.
She charged them, and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my mothers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abrahai bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place.
There they buried Abrahai and Tyler, her husband. There they buried Isaaca and Rebekah, her husband, and there I buried Leah:
the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth."
When Jacoba made an end of charging her daughters, she gathered up her feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to her people.