Moses’ Final Blessing on Israel
a“The Lord came from Sinai,
And dawned on them from bSeir;
He shone forth from cMount Paran,
And He came with dten thousands of saints;
From His right hand
Came a fiery law for them.
bAll His saints are in Your hand;
They csit down at Your feet;
Everyone dreceives Your words.
When the leaders of the people were gathered,
All the tribes of Israel together.
Nor let his men be few.”
“Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah,
And bring him to his people;
bLet his hands be sufficient for him,
And may You be ca help against his enemies.”
b“Let Your1 Thummim and Your Urim be with Your holy one,
cWhom You tested at Massah,
And with whom You contended at the waters of Meribah,
‘I have not bseen them’;
cNor did he acknowledge his brothers,
Or know his own children;
For dthey have observed Your word
And kept Your covenant.
And Israel Your law.
They shall put incense before You,
bAnd a whole burnt sacrifice on Your altar.
And aaccept the work of his hands;
Strike the loins of those who rise against him,
And of those who hate him, that they rise not again.”
“The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him,
Who shelters him all the day long;
And he shall dwell between His shoulders.”
a“Blessed of the Lord is his land,
With the precious things of heaven, with the bdew,
And the deep lying beneath,
With the precious things bof the everlasting hills,
And the favor of aHim who dwelt in the bush.
Let the blessing come b‘on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.’
And his horns like the bhorns of the wild ox;
Together with them
cHe shall push the peoples
To the ends of the earth;
dThey are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of Manasseh.”
There bthey shall offer sacrifices of righteousness;
For they shall partake of the abundance of the seas
And of treasures hidden in the sand.”
“Blessed is he who aenlarges Gad;
He dwells as a lion,
And tears the arm and the crown of his head.
Because a lawgiver’s portion was reserved there.
bHe came with the heads of the people;
He administered the justice of the Lord,
And His judgments with Israel.”
“O Naphtali, asatisfied with favor,
And full of the blessing of the Lord,
bPossess the west and the south.”
a“Asher is most blessed of sons;
Let him be favored by his brothers,
And let him bdip his foot in oil.
cWho rides the heavens to help you,
And in His excellency on the clouds.
And underneath are the everlasting arms;
bHe will thrust out the enemy from before you,
And will say, ‘Destroy!’
bThe fountain of Jacob calone,
In a land of grain and new wine;
His dheavens shall also drop dew.
bWho is like you, a people saved by the Lord,
cThe shield of your help
And the sword of your majesty!
Your enemies dshall submit to you,
And eyou shall tread down their high places.”
| << Deuteronomy 32:52 | Deuteronomy 33:2 >> |
Deuteronomy 33:1
And this is the blessing wherewith Moses - blessed, etc. - The general nature of this solemn introduction, says Dr. Kennicott, is to show the foundation which Moses had for blessing his brethren, viz., because God had frequently manifested his glory in their behalf; and the several parts of this introduction are disposed in the following order: -
1.The manifestation of the Divine glory on Sinai, as it was prior in time and more magnificent in splendor, is mentioned first.
2.That God manifested his glory at Seir is evident from Judges 5:4 : Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the fields of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, etc.
3.The next place is Paran, where the glory of the Lord appeared before all the children of Israel, Numbers 14:10.
Instead of he came with ten thousand saints, by which our translators have rendered meribeboth kodesh , Dr. Kennicott reads Meribah-Kadesh, the name of a place: for we find that, towards the end of forty years, the Israelites came to Kadesh, Numbers 20:1, which was also called Meribah, on account of their contentious opposition to the determinations of God in their favor, Numbers 20:13; and there the glory of the Lord again appeared, as we are informed Numbers 20:6. These four places, Sinai, Seir, Paran, and Meribah-Kadesh, mentioned by Moses in the text, are the identical places where God manifested his glory in a fiery appearance, the more illustriously to proclaim his special providence over and care of Israel.
Deuteronomy 33:1
And this is the blessing wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death - And he said
Deuteronomy 33:2. Jehovah came from Sinai, And he arose upon them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And he came from Meribah-kadesh: From his right hand a fire shone forth upon them.
Deuteronomy 33:3. Truly, he loved the people, And he blessed all his saints For they fell down at his feet, And they received of his words.
Deuteronomy 33:4. He commanded us a law, The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.
Deuteronomy 33:5. And he became king in Jeshurun; When the heads of the people were assembled, Together with the tribes of Israel.
We have already seen that Dr. Kennicott reads Meribah - Kadesh , the name of a place, instead of meribeboth kodesh , which, by a most unnatural and forced construction, our version renders ten thousands of saints, a translation which no circumstance of the history justifies. Instead of a fiery law, esh dath , he reads, following the Samaritan version, esh ur , a fire shining out upon them. In vindication of this change in the original, it may be observed,
1.That, though dath signifies a law, yet it is a Chaldee term, and appears nowhere in any part of the sacred writings previously to the Babylonish captivity: torah being the term constantly used to express the Law, at all times prior to the corruption of the Hebrew, by the Chaldee.
2.That the word itself is obscure in its present situation, as the Hebrew Bibles write it and esh in one word eshdath , which has no meaning; and which, in order to give it one, the Massorah directs should be read separate, though written connected.
3.That the word is not acknowledged by the two most ancient versions, the Septuagint and Syriac.
4.That in the parallel place, Habakkuk 3:3, Habakkuk 3:4, a word is used which expresses the rays of light, karnayim , horns, that is, splendours, rays, or effulgence of light.
5.That on all these accounts, together with the almost impossibility of giving a rational meaning to the text as it now stands, the translation contended for should be adopted.
Instead of All his saints are in his hand, Dr. Kennicott reads, He blessed all his saints - changing beyadecha , into barach , he blessed, which word, all who understand the Hebrew letters will see, might be easily mistaken for the other; the daleth and the resh being, not only in MSS., but also in printed books, often so much alike, that analogy alone can determine which is the true letter; and except in the insertion of the yod , which might have been easily mistaken for the apex at the top of the beth very frequent in MSS., both words have the nearest resemblance. To this may be added, that the Syriac authorizes this rendering. Instead of leraglecha , and middabberotheycha , Thy feet, and Thy words, Dr. Kennicott reads the pronouns in the third person singular, leraglaiv and middabberothaiv , His feet, His words, in which he is supported both by the Septuagint and Vulgate. He also changes yissa , He shall receive, into yisseu , They shall receive. He contends also that Mosheh , Moses, in the fourth verse, was written by mistake for the following word morashah , inheritance; and when the scribe found he had inserted a wrong word, he added the proper one, and did not erase the first. The word Moses, he thinks, should therefore be left out of the text, as it is improbable that he should here introduce his own name; and that if the word be allowed to be legitimate, then the word king must apply to him, and not to God, which would be most absurd. See Kennicott' s first Dissertation, p. 422, etc.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Deuteronomy 33:1:
| << Deuteronomy 32:52 | Deuteronomy 33:2 >> |
DISCLAIMER: Church of the Great God (CGG) provides these resources to aid the individual in studying the Bible. However, it is up to the individual to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21). The content of these resources does not necessarily reflect the views of CGG. They are provided for information purposes only.
Join 137,114+ readers
A Verse and a Thought,
Every Morning
Consistent Bible study is hard to start.
The Berean gives you the starting point: one scripture and a focused commentary in your inbox each morning — read it in minutes, or go as deep as you like.
Free, daily, and spam-free. We never share your address. Unsubscribe anytime.