Chapter 49

Jacob blesses his sons and their seed—Reuben, Simeon, and Levi are chastened—Judah will rule until Shiloh (Christ) comes—Joseph is a fruitful bough by a well—His branches (the Nephites and Lamanites) will run over the wall—The Shepherd and Stone of Israel (Christ) will bless Joseph temporally and spiritually—Jacob chooses to be buried with his fathers in Canaan—He yields up the ghost and is gathered to his people.

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.

1a. 2 Ne. 4:12.

b. TG Patriarch.