³ Reuben, my firstborn are you,
my vigor and firstborn of my power,
    endowed with extra dignity,
    endowed with extra strength—
⁴ like water boiling over
you will not have extra,
for you got up into your father’s bed,
when you defiled a maid’s couch.

⁵ Simeon and Levi are brothers,
    instruments of violence are their knives.
⁶ In their secret counsel
    may my soul not enter.
In their contingent may my honor
    never be united.
For in their anger they slew men,
    and in their self-will they maimed oxen.
⁷ Cursed be their anger for it was strong
    and their rage for it was cruel—
    I will disperse them in Jacob,
    I will scatter them in Israel.

⁸ Judah, so you are—
    your brothers will praise you:
Your hand will be on your enemies’ neck.
Your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹ A lion’s cub is Judah—
    from the prey, my son,
    you have gone up.
He crouches, lies down like a lion,
    or like a lioness—
    who would rouse him?^[a]
10 The scepter will not pass from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,^[b]
    until he to whom it belongs will come.
To him will be the obedience of the peoples.^[c]
11 Binding his foal to the vine,
    his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,^[d]
    he washes his garments in wine,
    and in the blood of grapes his robe.^[e]
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
    and teeth that are whiter than milk.

¹³ Zebulun will dwell by the seashore,
    and be by a harbor for ships—
    his distant border reaches Sidon.

¹⁴ Issachar is a strong-boned donkey,
    lying down between two saddlebags.
¹⁵ He saw that a resting place was good,
    and that the land was pleasant.
He leaned his shoulder to bear a burden,
    and became a forced laborer.

¹⁶ Dan will judge his people,
    as one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷ Let Dan be a serpent beside a road,
    a viper beside a path,
who strikes a horse’s heels,
    so that its rider falls backward.
¹⁸ For your salvation I wait, Adonai!