Genesis 49:1-3

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

49 And Jacob called for his sons and said, Gather yourselves together [around me], that I may tell you what shall befall you ^[a]in the latter or last days.

²Gather yourselves together and hear, you sons of Jacob; and hearken to Israel your father.

³Reuben, you are my ^[b]firstborn, my might, the beginning (the firstfruits) of my manly strength and vigor; [your birthright gave you] the preeminence in dignity and the preeminence in power.

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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 (Gen. 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 Reuben’s extra portion of the land. And Judah became the tribal leader in Reuben’s place (Gen. 49:8-10).