Genesis 49:2-4

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition

²Assemble and hear, O sons of Jacob;
listen to Israel your father.

³‘Reuben, you are my firstborn,
    my might and the first fruits of my vigour,
    excelling in rank and excelling in power.
⁴Unstable as water, you shall no longer excel
    because you went up on to your father’s bed;
    then you defiled it—you^[a] went up on to my couch!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Genesis 49:4 Gk Syr Tg: Heb he

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition (NRSVACE)

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.