Genesis 49:1-3

Amplified Bible

Israel’s Prophecy concerning His Sons

49 Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves [around me] that I may tell you what will happen to you and your descendants ^[a]in the days to come.

²
“Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob;
And listen to Israel (Jacob) your father.

³
“Reuben, you are my ^[b]firstborn;
My might, the beginning of my strength and vigor,
Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power [that should have been your birthright].

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Footnotes

Genesis 49:1 See Deut 33, where Moses blesses the same tribes in a similar prophetic way.
Genesis 49:3 Reuben was the eldest of Jacob’s twelve sons and therefore entitled to the birthright, which would make him successor to his father as head of the family or tribe, and inheritor of a double portion of his father’s estate. But Reuben forfeited all this by his conduct with Bilhah, his father’s concubine (35:22). By adopting Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and giving each of them a portion of the inheritance, Jacob virtually gave Joseph the extra portion of the land that would have gone to Reuben. Judah became the tribal leader in Reuben’s place (49:8-10).