3 ‘Reuben, you are my firstborn,my might, the first sign of my strength,excelling in honour, excelling in power.
4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel,for you went up onto your father’s bed,onto my couch and defiled it.
5 ‘Simeon and Levi are brothers –their swords are weapons of violence.
6 Let me not enter their council,let me not join their assembly,for they have killed men in their angerand hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce,and their fury, so cruel!I will scatter them in Jacoband disperse them in Israel.
8 ‘Judah, your brothers will praise you;your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;your father’s sons will bow down to you.
9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah;you return from the prey, my son.Like a lion he crouches and lies down,like a lioness – who dares to rouse him?