The Sealed Book from the Mormon Plates
The Sealed Book of Moses
CHAPTER 11
Israel's patriarchal blessing on Judah and Joseph, and his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
1 Judah, your brothers will praise you; Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies and the sons of your father shall bow down before your seed. For how much it is still a lion's cub, it is not the time of Judah to eat prey. Bow down for a while, my son, and lay down upon the nations of the earth like an adult lion roaring. — "Who among men will dare to awaken him?"
2 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, the promised descendant; and the peoples of the earth shall be gathered unto Him for all generations of Israel, to rise again in the fullness of all times, as King over all nations.
3 And Jacob laid his hands upon the head of Joseph, and said: When the God of my fathers appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, he swore to me that he would give me and my seed the land for a perpetual possession. Behold, therefore, O my son Joseph, God hath blessed me, taking you far from me, to save the house of Israel, his servant, from death; in delivering my people and thy brethren from the famine that was grievous in the land.
4 Therefore, the God of thy fathers shall bless thee, and the fruit of thy loins, that they may be blessed above thy brethren, and above the house of thy father; for thou hast prevailed, and thy father's house has bowed down before thee, as it was shown thee in a dream, before you were sold to the Egypt by the hands of thy brethren; therefore, your brethren shall bow down to you from generation to generation, to the fruit of your loins forever.
5 And behold, thou shalt be a light unto my people in the last days, to deliver them in the days of their captivity, from bondage to the precepts of men; and to bring them salvation, when they are completely bowed down under the sin of obstinacy in their hearts.
6 You are, therefore, a fruitful branch together with the source of my power, coming from my priesthood; and its branches run about the wall that separates the lands beyond the sea. For how much the archers of death will give him bitterness, because they hate him without cause, but his bow will stand firm, and the arms of his offspring, they will be stretching the ropes of this last dart, coming from your bag of arrows, and will be strengthened by the hands of the valiant of Jacob, from where the shepherd and the stone of Israel come.
7 By the God of your father and by the Almighty, who will bless you with blessings from above; for how much the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the head of Ephraim, who was separated by the Lord off from among his brethren.
8 And now upon thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt, before I came to thee in this foreign land, behold, just as Reuben and Simeon will be blessed, for they are mine; then thy children shall be called after my name, for they are of the house of Israel.
9 But, behold, your offspring, which you shall bear after them, shall be yours; and they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance, in the tribes that shall come from their loins; therefore they shall be called, as the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim.