Jacob, aka Israel, calls all of his sons together to bless each of them before breathing his last. He dies at the age of 147, after living 17 years in Egypt.

Genesis 49

Jacob called his sons, and said “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.

2 Gather yourselves together and listen you sons of Jacob; 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:

4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed, then defiled it: you went up to my couch.

5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence.  meaning is uncertain (swords); could also be plans. 

6 Let me not enter their council, nor join their assembly; may my honor not be joined with their assembly;: for in their anger they have killed men, and they have willingly hamstrung oxen.

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, you are the one your brothers shall praise. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s children shall bow down before you.

9 Judah is a lion’s cub: from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him?

10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; to him the people will gather. 

11 He ties 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:

12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

13 Zebulun shall live at the seashore and become  a haven for ships; and his border shall be at Sidon.

14 Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between two sheepfolds; 

15 And he saw that rest was good, and that the land was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor.

16 Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper in the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that his rider falls backward.

18 I have waited for your salvation, O Lord.

19 Gad shall be attacked by raiders, but he will overcome at last.

20 Asher’s food will be rich, and he shall provide royal delicacies.

21 Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.

22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, with branches running over the wall:

23 The archers have bitterly attacked him, and shot at him with hostility. :

24 But his bow remained steady, and the arms were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob (from there is the shepherd, the mighty one of Israel).

25 Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 

26 The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of my ancestors; up to the farthest boundary of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, on the top of the head of the one that was separate from his brothers.

27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf: in the morning he shall devour his prey and at night he shall divide the spoil.”

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is what their father said to them as he blessed them, every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

29 And 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,

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 burial place.

31 They buried Abraham and his wife Sarah there; they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah there; and I buried Leah there. 

32 The purchase of the field and of the cave in it was from the children of Heth.”

33 When Jacob finished instructing his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.