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?