---
title: Joseph Smith Translation (1867 edition)
description: Genesis from the Joseph Smith Translation (JST), 1867 edition.
authors:
  - Smith, Joseph, Jr.
collections:
  - joseph-smith
tags:
  - translation
published: "1867"
publisher: RLDS Publication Board
publisher_place: Plano, Illinois
publisher_note: "The title page reads: Published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; Joseph Smith, I. L. Rogers, E. Robinson, Publishing Committee; 1867."
edition: First edition (Plano, 1867)
language: en
type: book
chapter: 49
verse_count: 33
reference: "Joseph Smith Jr., *Joseph Smith Translation*, first edition (Plano, IL: RLDS Publication Board, 1867), Genesis, chap. 49, https://archive.org/details/holyscripturestr00smituoft."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/holyscripturestr00smituoft
  identifier: holyscripturestr00smituoft
  scan: University of Toronto / Trinity College Library copy, Internet Archive
  transcription: "OCR text of the 1867 scans (Toronto copy and a second copy, holyscriptures00smit), reconciled word by word; Romans was also checked against the page images. Method, per-chapter validation log and known limits: docs/jst-1867-import.md."
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: 1867 US publication
  source: https://archive.org/details/holyscripturestr00smituoft
  publication_year: 1867
---

# Genesis 49

*Jacob blesseth his sons— He dieth.*

**1** And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what 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 first-born, 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 self-will 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 law-giver 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 shall be for a 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 ieved Him 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 raven 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 burying-place.
**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.