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Genesis 49 |
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| 49:1
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. |
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| 49:2
Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto
Israel your father. |
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| 49:3
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength,
the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: |
 (49:3-27) What were the 12 tribes of Israel?
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| 49:4
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. |
 (49:4) "Reuben ... thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed."
Jacob says that Reuben will "not
excel" because he "went up to [his] father's couch [had sex with his
father's wife]." (see Genesis 35:22)
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| 49:5
Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their
habitations.
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| 49:6
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.
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| 49:7
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. |
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| 49:8
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. |
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| 49:9
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? |
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| 49:10
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. |
 (49:10) "he sceptre shall not depart from Judah, until Shiloh come."
The tribe of Judah will reign "until
Shiloh," but Israel's first king (Saul) was from the tribe of Benjamin (Acts 13:21), and most of the time after this
prophecy there was no king at all.
(49:11) "He washed his garments in wine ... His eyes shall be red with wine."
Did Judah really wash his clothes in wine? Were his eyes bloodshot from drinking too much? Or is this
a prophecy of Jesus? (I didn't know Jesus had a drinking problem.)
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| 49:11
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:
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| 49:12
His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
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| 49:13
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.
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| 49:14
Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: |
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| 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 unto tribute. |
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| 49:16
Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. |
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| 49:17
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. |
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| 49:18
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. |
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| 49:19
Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last. |
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| 49:20
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. |
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| 49:21
Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. |
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| 49:22
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose
branches run over the wall: |
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| 49:23
The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: |
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| 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 Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the
stone of Israel:) |
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| 49:25
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: |
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| 49:26
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. |
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| 49:27
Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey,
and at night he shall divide the spoil. |
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| 49:28
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. |
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| 49:29
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, |
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| 49:30
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. |
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| 49:31
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and
Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. |
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| 49:32
The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the
children of Heth. |
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| 49:33
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. |
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