⁸ “Judah,^[a](A) your brothers will praise you;
    your hand will be on the neck^(B) of your enemies;
    your father’s sons will bow down to you.^(C)
9 You are a lion’s^(D) cub,^(E) Judah;^(F)
    you return from the prey,^(G) my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah,^(H)
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,^[b]
until he to whom it belongs^[c] shall come^(I)
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.^(J)

¹⁷ “I see him, but not now;
    I behold him, but not near.^(A)
A star will come out of Jacob;^(B)
    a scepter will rise out of Israel.^(C)
He will crush the foreheads of Moab,^(D)
    the skulls^[a](E) of^[b] all the people of Sheth.^[c]

² “But you, Bethlehem^(A) Ephrathah,^(B)
    though you are small among the clans^[a] of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler^(C) over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,^(D)
    from ancient times.”^(E)

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’^[a]”^(A)