One Year Pray for America Bible - Flipbook - Page 102
January 24
his father refused. “I know,
my son; I know,” he replied. “Manas
seh will also become a great people,
but his younger brother will become
even greater. And his descendants will
become a multitude of nations.”
20 So Jacob blessed the boys that day
with this blessing: “The people of Is
rael will use your names when they
give a blessing. They will say, ‘May God
make you as prosperous as Ephraim
and Manasseh.’” In this way, Jacob put
Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.
21 Then Jacob said to Joseph, “Look,
I am about to die, but God will be with
you and will take you back to Canaan,
the land of your ancestors. 22 And beyond what I have given your brothers,
I am giving you an extra portion of the
land* that I took from the Amorites
with my sword and bow.”
92
I will scatter them among the
descendants of Jacob;
I will disperse them throughout
Israel.
19 But
Jacob called together all his
sons and said, “Gather around me,
and I will tell you what will happen to
each of you in the days to come.
8
9
10
49:1 Then
2
“Come and listen, you sons of
Jacob;
listen to Israel, your father.
3
“Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my strength,
the child of my vigorous youth.
You are first in rank and first
in power.
But you are as unruly as a flood,
and you will be first no longer.
For you went to bed with my wife;
you defiled my marriage couch.
4
5
6
7
“Simeon and Levi are two of a kind;
their weapons are instruments
of violence.
May I never join in their meetings;
may I never be a party to their
plans.
For in their anger they murdered
men,
and they crippled oxen just for
sport.
A curse on their anger, for it is
fierce;
a curse on their wrath, for it
is cruel.
11
12
“Judah, your brothers will praise
you.
You will grasp your enemies
by the neck.
All your relatives will bow
before you.
Judah, my son, is a young lion
that has finished eating its prey.
Like a lion he crouches and lies
down;
like a lioness—who dares to
rouse him?
The scepter will not depart from
Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from his
descendants,*
until the coming of the one to
whom it belongs,*
the one whom all nations will
honor.
He ties his foal to a grapevine,
the colt of his donkey to a choice
vine.
He washes his clothes in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth are whiter than
milk.
13
“Zebulun will settle by the
seashore
and will be a harbor for ships;
his borders will extend to Sidon.
14
“Issachar is a sturdy donkey,
resting between two
saddlepacks.*
When he sees how good the
countryside is
and how pleasant the land,
he will bend his shoulder to the
load
and submit himself to hard
labor.
15
16
17
“Dan will govern his people,
like any other tribe in Israel.
Dan will be a snake beside the
road,
a poisonous viper along the
path
