---
title: "Genesis 49 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/genesis/49/
description: "Jacob's prophetical blessings of his twelve sons: his death. Genesis 49 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Genesis 49

Genesis 49 is chapter 49 of 50 in the Book of Genesis. Here are all 32 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Jacob's prophetical blessings of his twelve sons: his death.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Genesis 49 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Then Jacob called his sons, and he said to them: “Gather together, so that I may announce what will happen to you in the last days.
2. Gather together and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father.
3. Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my sorrow: first in gifts, greater in authority.
4. You are being poured out like water, may you not increase. For you climbed onto your father’s bed, and you defiled his resting place.
5. The brothers Simeon and Levi: vessels of iniquity waging war.
6. Let not my soul go by their counsel, nor my glory be within their meeting. For in their fury they killed a man, and in their self-will they undermined a wall.
7. Cursed be their fury, because it was obstinate, and their indignation, because it was harsh. I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel.
8. Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be at the necks of your enemies; the sons of your father will reverence you.
9. Judah is a lion’s young. You have gone up to the prey, my son. While resting, you have lain like a lion. And just like a lioness, who would rouse him?
10. The scepter from Judah and the leader from his thigh will not be taken away, until he who will be sent arrives, and he will be the expectation of Gentiles.
11. Tying his young colt to the vineyard, and his donkey, O my son, to the vine, he will wash his robe in wine, and his cloak in the blood of the grape.
12. His eyes are more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
13. Zebulun will live at the seashore and by the outpost of ships, reaching as far as Sidon.
14. Issachar will be a strong donkey, reclining between the borders.
15. He saw that rest would be good, and that the land was excellent. And so he bent his shoulder to carry, and he became a servant under tribute.
16. Dan will judge his people just like any other tribe in Israel.
17. Let Dan be a snake in the way, a viper in the path, biting the hooves of horses, so that his rider may fall backward.
18. I will wait for your salvation, O Lord.
19. Gad, being girded, will fight before him. And he himself will be girded backward.
20. Asher: his bread will be fat, and he will provide delicacies to the kings.
21. Naphtali is a stag sent forth, offering words of eloquent beauty.
22. Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and stately to behold; the daughters run back and forth on the wall.
23. But those who held darts, provoked him, and they contend with him, and they envied him.
24. His bow sits in strength, and the bands of his arms and hands have been let loose by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there he went forth as a pastor, the stone of Israel.
25. The God of your father will be your helper, and the Almighty will bless you with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the abyss that lies beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26. The blessings of your father are strengthened by the blessings of his fathers, until the desire of the hills of eternity shall arrive. May they be at the head of Joseph, and at the summit of the Nazarite, among his brothers.
27. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning he will eat the prey, and in the evening he will divide the spoil.”
28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. These things their father spoke to them, and he blessed each one with their proper blessings.
29. And he instructed them, saying: “I am being gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30. opposite Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought, along with its field, from Ephron the Hittite, as a possession for burial.
31. There they buried him, with his wife Sarah.” And there Isaac was buried with his wife Rebekah. There also Leah lies preserved.
32. And having finished these commands by which he instructed his sons, he drew his feet onto the bed, and he passed away. And he was gathered to his people.

## Genesis 49 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Vocavit autem Jacob filios suos, et ait eis: Congregamini, ut annuntiem quæ ventura sunt vobis in diebus novissimis.
2. Congregamini, et audite, filii Jacob, audite Israël patrem vestrum:
3. Ruben, primogenitus meus, tu fortitudo mea, et principium doloris mei; prior in donis, major in imperio.
4. Effusus es sicut aqua, non crescas: quia ascendisti cubile patris tui, et maculasti stratum ejus.
5. Simeon et Levi fratres vasa iniquitatis bellantia.
6. In consilium eorum non veniat anima mea, et in cœtu illorum non sit gloria mea: quia in furore suo occiderunt virum, et in voluntate sua suffoderunt murum.
7. Maledictus furor eorum, quia pertinax: et indignatio eorum, quia dura: dividam eos in Jacob, et dispergam eos in Israël.
8. Juda, te laudabunt fratres tui: manus tua in cervicibus inimicorum tuorum, adorabunt te filii patris tui.
9. Catulus leonis Juda: ad prædam, fili mi, ascendisti: requiescens accubuisti ut leo, et quasi leæna: quis suscitabit eum?
10. Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda, et dux de femore ejus, donec veniat qui mittendus est, et ipse erit expectatio gentium.
11. Ligans ad vineam pullum suum, et ad vitem, o fili mi, asinam suam, lavabit in vino stolam suam et in sanguine uvæ pallium suum.
12. Pulchriores sunt oculi ejus vino, et dentes ejus lacte candidiores.
13. Zabulon in littore maris habitabit, et in statione navium pertingens usque ad Sidonem.
14. Issachar asinus fortis accubans inter terminos.
15. Vidit requiem, quod esset bona et terram, quod optima: et supposuit humerum suum ad portandum, factusque est tributis serviens.
16. Dan judicabit populum suum sicut et alia tribus in Israël.
17. Fiat Dan coluber in via, cerastes in semita, mordens ungulas equi, ut cadat ascensor ejus retro.
18. Salutare tuum expectabo, Domine.
19. Gad, accinctus præliabitur ante eum: et ipse accingetur retrorsum.
20. Aser, pinguis panis ejus, et præbebit delicias regibus.
21. Nephthali, cervus emissus, et dans eloquia pulchritudinis.
22. Filius accrescens Joseph, filius accrescens et decorus aspectu: filiæ discurrerunt super murum.
23. Sed exasperaverunt eum et jurgati sunt, invideruntque illi habentes jacula.
24. Sedit in forti arcus ejus, et dissoluta sunt vincula brachiorum et manuum illius per manus potentis Jacob: inde pastor egressus est, lapis Israël.
25. Deus patris tui erit adjutor tuus, et omnipotens benedicet tibi benedictionibus cæli desuper, benedictionibus abyssi jacentis deorsum, benedictionibus uberum et vulvæ.
26. Benedictiones patris tui confortatæ sunt benedictionibus patrum ejus, donec veniret desiderium collium æternorum: fiant in capite Joseph, et in vertice Nazaræi inter fratres suos.
27. Benjamin lupus rapax, mane comedat prædam, et vespere dividet spolia.
28. Omnes hi in tribubus Israël duodecim: hæc locutus est eis pater suus, benedixitque singulis benedictionibus propriis.
29. Et præcepit eis, dicens: Ego congregor ad populum meum: sepelite me cum patribus meis in spelunca duplici quæ est in agro Ephron Hethæi,
30. contra Mambre in terra Chanaan, quam emit Abraham cum agro ab Ephron Hethæo in possessionem sepulchri.
31. Ibi sepelierunt eum, et Saram uxorem ejus: ibi sepultus est Isaac cum Rebecca conjuge sua: ibi et Lia condita jacet.
32. Finitisque mandatis quibus filios instruebat, collegit pedes suos super lectulum, et obiit: appositusque est ad populum suum.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 269: The Almighty ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 3: “My strength” … He calls him his strength, as being born whilst his father was in his full strength and vigour: he calls him the beginning of his sorrow, because cares and sorrows usually come on with the birth of children. Excelling in gifts, etc., because the firstborn had a title to a double portion, and to have the command over his brethren, which Ruben forfeited by his sin; being poured out as water, that is, spilt and lost.
- Verse 4: This was not meant by way of a curse or imprecation; but by way of a prophecy foretelling that the tribe of Ruben should not inherit the pre-eminences usually annexed to the first birthright, viz., the double portion, the being prince or lord over the other brethren, and the priesthood: of which the double portion was given to Joseph, the princely office to Juda, and the priesthood to Levi.
- Verse 6: viz., Sichem the son of Hemor, with all his people, Gen. 34.; mystically and prophetically it alludes to Christ, whom their posterity, viz., the priests and the scribes, put to death.
- Verse 9: This blessing of Juda foretelleth the strength of his tribe, the fertility of his inheritance; and principally that the sceptre and legislative power should not be utterly taken away from his race till about the time of the coming of Christ: as in effect it never was: which is a demonstration against the modern Jews, that the Messiah is long since come; for the sceptre has long since been utterly taken away from Juda.
- Verse 19: “Gad being girded” … It seems to allude to the tribe of Gad; when after they had received for their lot the land of Galaad, they marched in arms before the rest of the Israelites, to the conquest of the land of Chanaan: from whence they afterwards returned loaded with spoils. See Jos. 4. and 12.
- Verse 22: To behold his beauty; whilst his envious brethren turned their darts against him, etc.
- Verse 24: That is, upon God, who was his strength: who also loosed his bands, and brought him out of prison to be the pastor, that is, the feeder and ruler of Egypt, and the stone, that is, the rock and support of Israel.
- Verse 26: That is, thy father's blessings are made more prevalent and effectual in thy regard, by the additional strength they receive from his inheriting the blessings of his progenitors Abraham and Isaac.
- Verse 26: These blessings all looked forward towards Christ, called the desire of the everlasting hills, as being longed for, as it were, by the whole creation. Mystically, the patriarchs and prophets are called the everlasting hills, by reason of the eminence of their wisdom and holiness.
- Verse 26: “The Nazarite” … This word signifies one separated; and agrees to Joseph, as being separated from, and more eminent than, his brethren. As the ancient Nazarites were so called from their being set aside for God, and vowed to him.
- Verse 29: That is, I am going to die, and so to follow my ancestors that are gone before me, and to join their company in another world.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Thu, Dec 17, 2026: Thursday of the Third Week of Advent — First Reading, Genesis 49:2, 8-10
- Sat, Jul 10, 2027 (computed): Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Genesis 49:29-32; 50:15-26a
- Fri, Dec 17, 2027 (computed): Friday of the Third Week of Advent — First Reading, Genesis 49:2, 8-10

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).