5. The LORD brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." He said to Abram, "So will your offspring be."

6. He believed in The LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness.

7. He said to Abram, "I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it."

8. He said, "Lord God, how will I know that I will inherit it?"

9. He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."

10. He brought him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn't divide the birds.

11. The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

12. When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.

13. He said to Abram, "Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.

The LORD said to her,"Two nations are in your womb.Two peoples will be separated from your body.The one people will be stronger than the other people.The elder will serve the younger."

I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring will all the nations of the earth be blessed,

28. God give you of the dew of the sky,of the fatness of the earth,and plenty of grain and new wine.

29. Let peoples serve you,and nations bow down to you.Be lord over your brothers.Let your mother's sons bow down to you.Cursed be everyone who curses you.Blessed be everyone who blesses you."

30. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

31. He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, "Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that your soul may bless me."

32. Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?"He said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."

33. Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed."

34. When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, my father."

35. He said, "Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing."

36. He said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing." He said, "Haven't you reserved a blessing for me?"

37. Isaac answered Esau, "Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants. I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then will I do for you, my son?"

38. Esau said to his father, "Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father." Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

39. Isaac his father answered him,"Behold, of the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling,and of the dew of the sky from above.

40. By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother.It will happen, when you will break loose,that you shall shake his yoke from off your neck."

His father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a multitude of nations."

1. Jacob called to his sons, and said: "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.

2. Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob.Listen to ISRAEL, your father.

3. "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength;excelling in dignity, and excelling in power.

4. Boiling over like water, you shall not excel;because you went up to your father's bed,then defiled it. He went up to my couch.

5. "Simeon and Levi are brothers.Their swords are weapons of violence.

6. My soul, don't come into their council.My glory, don't be united to their assembly;for in their anger they killed men.In their self-will they hamstrung cattle.

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, your brothers will praise you.Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies.Your father's sons will bow down before you.

9. Judah is a lion's cub.From the prey, my son, you have gone up.He stooped down, he crouched as a lion,as a lioness.Who will rouse him up?

10. The scepter will not depart from Judah,nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,until he comes to whom it belongs.To him will the obedience of the peoples be.

11. Binding his foal to the vine,his donkey's colt to the choice vine;he has washed his garments in wine,his robes in the blood of grapes.

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

13. "Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea.He will be for a haven of ships.His border will be on Sidon.

14. "Issachar is a strong donkey,lying down between the saddlebags.

15. He saw a resting place, that it was good,the land, that it was pleasant.He bows his shoulder to the burden,and becomes a servant doing forced labor.

16. "Dan will judge his people,as one of the tribes of ISRAEL.

17. Dan will be a serpent on the trail,an adder in the path,That bites the horse's heels,so that his rider falls backward.

18. I have waited for your salvation, The LORD.

19. "A troop will press on Gad,but he will press on their heel.

20. "Asher's food will be rich.He will produce royal dainties.

21. "Naphtali is a doe set free,who bears beautiful fawns.

22. "Joseph is a fruitful vine,a fruitful vine by a spring.His branches run over the wall.

23. The archers have severely grieved him,shot at him, and persecute him:

24. But his bow remained strong.The arms of his hands were made strong,by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,(from there is the shepherd, the stone of ISRAEL),

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

26. The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of your ancestors,above the boundaries of the ancient hills.They will be on the head of Joseph,on the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.

27. "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf.In the morning he will devour the prey.At evening he will divide the plunder."

28. All these are the twelve tribes of ISRAEL, and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing.

29. He instructed 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 from Ephron the Hittite as a burial 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 field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth."

33. When Jacob finished charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.