2. “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,listen to Israel your father.
3. “Reuben, you are my firstborn,my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
4. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,because you went up to your father’s bed;then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
5. “Simeon and Levi are brothers;weapons of violence are their swords.
6. Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company.For in their anger they killed men,and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
7. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,and their wrath, for it is cruel!I will divide them in Jacoband scatter them in Israel.
8. “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall 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 lionand as a lioness; who dares rouse him?