HOLY BIBLE: Genesis 49 (original) (raw)

1 ἐκάλεσεν δὲ Ιακωβ τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ καὶ εἶπεν συνάχθητε ἵνα ἀναγγείλω ὑμῖν τί ἀπαντήσει ὑμῖν ἐ{P'} ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν 2 ἀθροίσθητε καὶ ἀκούσατε υἱοὶ Ιακωβ ἀκούσατε Ισραηλ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν 3 Ρουβην πρωτότοκός μου σύ ἰσχύς μου καὶ ἀρχὴ τέκνων μου σκληρὸς φέρεσθαι καὶ σκληρὸς αὐθάδης 4 ἐξύβρισας ὡς ὕδωρ μὴ ἐκζέσῃς ἀνέβης γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν κοίτην τοῦ πατρός σου τότε ἐμίανας τὴν στρωμνήν οὗ ἀνέβης 5 Συμεων καὶ Λευι ἀδελφοί συνετέλεσαν ἀδικίαν ἐξ αἱρέσεως αὐτῶν 6 εἰς βουλὴν αὐτῶν μὴ ἔλθοι ἡ ψυχή μου καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ συστάσει αὐτῶν μὴ ἐρείσαι τὰ ἥπατά μου ὅτι ἐν τῷ θυμῷ αὐτῶν ἀπέκτειναν ἀνθρώπους καὶ ἐν τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ αὐτῶν ἐνευροκόπησαν ταῦρον 7 ἐπικατάρατος ὁ θυμὸς αὐτῶν ὅτι αὐθάδης καὶ ἡ μῆνις αὐτῶν ὅτι ἐσκληρύνθη διαμεριῶ αὐτοὺς ἐν Ιακωβ καὶ διασπερῶ αὐτοὺς ἐν Ισραηλ 8 Ιουδα σὲ αἰνέσαισαν οἱ ἀδελφοί σου αἱ χεῖρές σου ἐπὶ νώτου τῶν ἐχθρῶν σου προσκυνήσουσίν σοι οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ πατρός σου 9 σκύμνος λέοντος Ιουδα ἐκ βλαστοῦ υἱέ μου ἀνέβης ἀναπεσὼν ἐκοιμήθης ὡς λέων καὶ ὡς σκύμνος τίς ἐγερεῖ αὐτόν 10 οὐκ ἐκλείψει ἄρχων ἐξ Ιουδα καὶ ἡγούμενος ἐκ τῶν μηρῶν αὐτοῦ ἕως ἂν ἔλθῃ τὰ ἀποκείμενα αὐτῷ καὶ αὐτὸς προσδοκία ἐθνῶν 11 δεσμεύων πρὸς ἄμπελον τὸν πῶλον αὐτοῦ καὶ τῇ ἕλικι τὸν πῶλον τῆς ὄνου αὐτοῦ πλυνεῖ ἐν οἴνῳ τὴν στολὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν αἵματι σταφυλῆς τὴν περιβολὴν αὐτοῦ 12 χαροποὶ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ οἴνου καὶ λευκοὶ οἱ ὀδόντες αὐτοῦ ἢ γάλα

1 Then Jacob summoned all his sons to him; Gather about me, he said, to hear what awaits you in the days still to come; 2 gather about me, sons of Jacob, and listen; it is Israel, your father, who speaks. 3 Thou, Ruben, art my first-born, my pride, my manhood’s first-fruits; thine was the privilege, thine the right to rule, 4 but all went to waste like water. Never mayst thou thrive, thou who wouldst lie between thy father’s sheets, and defile his bed. 5 Simeon and Levi are brothers indeed, warriors both, and ready tools of violence. 6 Never may this soul of mine take part in their conspiracy, this heart be of their company; raging, they slew their enemy, recklessly they broke down a city wall.[1] 7 A curse on this unrelenting rage of theirs, this bitter spite! I will distribute them here and there in Jacob, I will scatter them throughout Israel. 8 But thou, Juda, shalt win the praise of thy brethren; with thy hand on the necks of thy enemies, thou shalt be reverenced by thy own father’s sons. 9 Juda is like a lion’s whelp; on the hills, my son, thou roamest after thy prey; like a lion couched in his lair, a lioness that none dares provoke. 10 Juda shall not want a branch from his stem,[2] a prince drawn from his stock, until the day when he comes who is to be sent to us, he, the hope of the nations. 11 To what tree will he tie his mount; the ass he rides on? The vine for him, the vineyard for him; when he washes his garments, it shall be in wine, all his vesture shall be dyed with the blood of grapes. 12 Fairer than wine his eyes shall be, his teeth whiter than milk.[3]

1 Vocavit autem Jacob filios suos, et ait eis: Congregamini, ut annuntiem quæ ventura sunt vobis in diebus novissimis. 2

Congregamini, et audite, filii Jacob,
audite Israël patrem vestrum:

3
Ruben, primogenitus meus,
tu fortitudo mea, et principium doloris mei;
prior in donis, major in imperio. 4
Effusus es sicut aqua, non crescas: quia ascendisti cubile patris tui,
et maculasti stratum ejus. 5
Simeon et Levi fratres
vasa iniquitatis bellantia. 6
In consilium eorum non veniat anima mea,
et in cœtu illorum non sit gloria mea:
quia in furore suo occiderunt virum,
et in voluntate sua suffoderunt murum. 7
Maledictus furor eorum, quia pertinax:
et indignatio eorum, quia dura:
dividam eos in Jacob,
et dispergam eos in Israël. 8
Juda, te laudabunt fratres tui:
manus tua in cervicibus inimicorum tuorum,
adorabunt te filii patris tui. 9
Catulus leonis Juda:
ad prædam, fili mi, ascendisti:
requiescens accubuisti ut leo,
et quasi leæna: quis suscitabit eum? 10
Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda,
et dux de femore ejus,
donec veniat qui mittendus est,
et ipse erit expectatio gentium. 11
Ligans ad vineam pullum suum,
et ad vitem, o fili mi, asinam suam,
lavabit in vino stolam suam
et in sanguine uvæ pallium suum. 12
Pulchriores sunt oculi ejus vino,
et dentes ejus lacte candidiores.

[1] ‘Broke down a city wall’; the Hebrew text is generally understood as meaning ‘hamstrung an ox’.

[2] ‘A branch’; literally, ‘a rod’. The sense intended may be that of a royal sceptre. The meaning of the word rendered ‘who is to be sent to us’ is very uncertain in the Hebrew text. For ‘he, the hope of the nations’, the Hebrew text gives ‘he shall have the obedience of the nations’.

[3] The words used about Ruben, Simeon and Levi seem to be a reference, for the most part, to past events; cf. 35.22, and chapter 34 above. The blessing of Juda is more naturally understood of the position which the tribe of Juda was to occupy.

[4] No plausible explanation has been given of the sudden interruption introduced by this verse.

[5] The reference, and sometimes the meaning, of the shorter blessings contained in verses 13-21 is difficult to establish with certainty; but they probably allude to the future, not to the past. Those given to Dan and Gad involve a play upon words.

[6] Some think that Joseph is compared to a fruitful tree, whose branches (though the word ‘daughters’ never has this meaning elsewhere) spread along a garden wall. The blessing of Joseph is very uncertain in its interpretation throughout. It has been supposed that the reference is to the later prominence of Ephraim among the ten tribes that were separated from Juda (cf. e.g. Ps. 77.67).

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd