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Deuteronomy 33

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Moses' Final Blessing and Doxology 1–5

1
And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. ​
2
And he said, Jehovah came from Sinai, And rose from Seir unto them; He shined forth from mount Paran, And he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them. ​
3
Yea, he loveth the people; All his saints are in thy hand: And they sat down at thy feet; Every oneshall receive of thy words. ​
4
Moses commanded us a law, An inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.
5
And he was king in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people were gathered, All the tribes of Israel together. ​

Blessings for the Tribes 6–25

6
Let Reuben live, and not die; Nor let his men be few. ​
7
And this isthe blessingof Judah: and he said, Hear, Jehovah, the voice of Judah, And bring him in unto his people. With his hands he contended for himself; And thou shalt be a help against his adversaries. ​
8
And of Levi he said, Thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy godly one, Whom thou didst prove at Massah, With whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; ​
9
Who said of his father, and of his mother, I have not seen him; Neither did he acknowledge his brethren, Nor knew he his own children: For they have observed thy word, And keep thy covenant. ​
10
They shall teach Jacob thine ordinances, And Israel thy law: They shall put incense before thee, And whole burnt-offering upon thine altar. ​
11
Bless, Jehovah, his substance, And accept the work of his hands: Smite through the loins of them that rise up against him, And of them that hate him, that they rise not again.
12
Of Benjamin he said, The beloved of Jehovah shall dwell in safety by him; He covereth him all the day long, And he dwelleth between his shoulders. ​
13
And of Joseph he said, Blessed of Jehovah be his land, For the precious things of heaven, for the dew, And for the deep that coucheth beneath, ​
14
And for the precious things of the fruits of the sun, And for the precious things of the growth of the moons,
15
And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, And for the precious things of the everlasting hills,
16
And for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof, And the good will of him that dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, And upon the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren. ​
17
The firstling of his herd, majesty is his; And his horns are the horns of the wild-ox: With them he shall push the peoples all of them, eventhe ends of the earth: And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, And they are the thousands of Manasseh. ​
18
And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; And, Issachar, in thy tents. ​
19
They shall call the peoples unto the mountain; There shall they offer sacrifices of righteousness: For they shall suck the abundance of the seas, And the hidden treasures of the sand. ​
20
And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: He dwelleth as a lioness, And teareth the arm, yea, the crown of the head. ​
21
And he provided the first part for himself, For there was the lawgiver’s portion reserved; And he camewiththe heads of the people; He executed the righteousness of Jehovah, And his ordinances with Israel. ​
22
And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion’s whelp, That leapeth forth from Bashan. ​
23
And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, And full with the blessing of Jehovah, Possess thou the west and the south. ​
24
And of Asher he said, Blessed be Asher with children; Let him be acceptable unto his brethren, And let him dip his foot in oil. ​
25
Thy bars shall be iron and brass; And as thy days, so shall thy strength be. ​

The Uniqueness of Israel's God 26–29

26
There is none like unto God, O Jeshurun, Who rideth upon the heavens for thy help, And in his excellency on the skies. ​
27
The eternal God isthy dwelling-place, And underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy from before thee, And said, Destroy. ​
28
And Israel dwelleth in safety, The fountain of Jacob alone, In a land of grain and new wine; Yea, his heavens drop down dew. ​
29
Happy art thou, O Israel: Who is like unto thee, a people saved by Jehovah, The shield of thy help, And the sword of thy excellency! And thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee; And thou shalt tread upon their high places. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Deuteronomy 33

Verse 1

Moses the man of God — The blessing is given 'before his death', as Jacob's was to his sons (Gen 49:1, 28). 'Man of God' is the title Caleb gives him, 'Moses the man of God' (Josh 14:6). Like Jacob's, it goes tribe by tribe, though Simeon is not named in this list.

Verse 2

from his right hand went a fiery law — Sinai, Seir and Paran mark the LORD's coming; Judg 5:4 names 'Seir' and Hab 3:3 'mount Paran'. The 'fiery law' translates eshdat, a word found nowhere else. Jude 14 uses almost the same words of the Lord's coming, 'ten thousands of his saints', and Stephen says the law was received 'by the disposition of angels' (Acts 7:53).

Verse 3

he loved the people — Chavav, to love, occurs only here, and 'sat down' (takka) is also found only here. The people are 'his saints' (qedoshim, holy ones), held 'in thy hand'. Deut 7:8 gives the ground of this love: 'because the LORD loved you'. Sitting 'at thy feet' to 'receive of thy words' is the posture of Mary, who 'sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word' (Luke 10:39).

Verse 5

he was king in Jeshurun — Many read the King here as the LORD (others take it of Moses), whose kingship Balaam saw in Israel's camp: 'the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them' (Num 23:21). Yeshurun is a name for Israel, from the word for upright, and is found only four times: Deut 32:15; 33:5, 26 and Isa 44:2.

Verse 6

Let Reuben live, and not die — Jacob had told Reuben, 'thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed' (Gen 49:4). Moses prays for survival and numbers, 'let not his men be few'. Reuben's count at Sinai was 'forty and six thousand and five hundred' (Num 1:21), and at the plains of Moab 'forty and three thousand and seven hundred and thirty' (Num 26:7).

Verse 7

Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah — The blessing is a prayer addressed to the LORD. 'An help' is ezer, the same word used of the LORD himself in vv.26 and 29. Judah went first to war after Joshua's death: 'Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand' (Judg 1:2). Hebrews notes that 'our Lord sprang out of Juda' (Heb 7:14).

Verse 8

Thummim and thy Urim — Elsewhere the two are named in the other order, 'the Urim and the Thummim' (Ex 28:30; Lev 8:8); only here is Thummim first. 'Massah' (Ex 17:7) and 'the water of Meribah' (Num 20:13) are places where Israel tempted and strove with the LORD, and Moses and Aaron, both of Levi, were told they 'believed me not' there (Num 20:12).

Verse 9

I have not seen him — Ex 32 shows such an act: Moses called, 'Who is on the LORD'S side?' and 'all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him' (Ex 32:26), and he told them to act 'every man upon his son, and upon his brother' (Ex 32:29). They 'observed thy word, and kept thy covenant'. Christ speaks of the same cost in Luke 14:26.

Verse 10

They shall teach Jacob thy judgments — Yarah, to teach, is the root of torah, law. The Levites' first duty is instruction: 'that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes' (Lev 10:11). Malachi says 'the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth' (Mal 2:7). Their second duty is the 'incense' and 'whole burnt sacrifice' at the altar.

Verse 12

The beloved of the LORD — Yedid is a loved one, as in 'so he giveth his beloved sleep' (Ps 127:2). Benjamin 'shall dwell in safety' (betach), the word that v.28 uses for all Israel. The tribe's inheritance included 'Jebusi, which is Jerusalem' (Josh 18:28), and the line 'he shall dwell between his shoulders' has been read of the city set in his land.

Verse 13

the precious things of heaven — Meged is a choice thing, and it occurs five times in vv.13–16, in the blessing of Joseph. The 'deep that coucheth beneath' answers Jacob's blessing, 'blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under' (Gen 49:25). Joseph's two tribes are Ephraim and Manasseh (v.17).

Verse 16

him that dwelt in the bush — The LORD who spoke to Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:2–4); Stephen speaks of 'the angel which appeared to him in the bush' (Acts 7:35). 'Separated from his brethren' is nazir, the word of the Nazirite, and repeats Jacob's phrase in his blessing of Joseph: 'him that was separate from his brethren' (Gen 49:26).

Verse 17

the horns of unicorns — Re'em, which the KJV renders 'unicorns', is a strong horned animal, as in 'the strength of an unicorn' (Num 23:22). The 'ten thousands of Ephraim' and 'thousands of Manasseh' keep the order Jacob gave: the younger brother 'shall be greater than he' (Gen 48:19). The horns push 'the people together to the ends of the earth'.

Verse 18

Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out — The 'going out' and the 'tents' are set side by side, and Jacob also joins the two sons in Gen 49:13–15. Zebulun 'shall dwell at the haven of the sea', and Issachar 'bowed his shoulder to bear'. Each is told to rejoice in his own work, Zebulun in going out and Issachar in his tents.

Verse 19

sacrifices of righteousness — Zibche tsedeq is a phrase of the Psalms: 'Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD' (Ps 4:5; see Ps 51:19). Zebulun and Issachar 'call the people unto the mountain', and the sea and sand supply the means: 'the abundance of the seas, and… treasures hid in the sand'. The word for abundance occurs only here.

Verse 20

he dwelleth as a lion — Jacob said of Gad, 'a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last' (Gen 49:19). The word 'enlargeth' (rachav) speaks of room given. In David's day the Gadites came with 'men of might, and men of war fit for the battle… whose faces were like the faces of lions' (1 Chr 12:8).

Verse 21

the first part for himself — Gad asked for land east of the Jordan, and 'Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad' that country (Num 32:33). The 'lawgiver' who gave it was Moses. Gad 'came with the heads of the people': they 'passed over armed before the children of Israel' (Josh 4:12), as Joshua required of them (Josh 1:14).

Verse 22

Dan is a lion's whelp — The words gur aryeh, 'lion's whelp', are those of Jacob's word on Judah (Gen 49:9). The verb 'leap' (zanaq) occurs only here. The tribe later took Laish in the north, 'and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father' (Josh 19:47), a city set in the valley 'by Bethrehob' (Judg 18:28).

Verse 23

satisfied with favour — Sabea, satisfied, with ratson, favour, and 'full with the blessing of the LORD'. 'West' is the Hebrew yam, the sea. Matthew places the Lord's home at Capernaum, 'upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim' (Matt 4:13), in the land 'by the way of the sea' (Matt 4:15).

Verse 24

dip his foot in oil — Asher's name recalls Leah's word at his birth, 'Happy am I' (Gen 30:13). The blessing speaks of children, of the favour of his brethren and of oil. Jacob said, 'Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties' (Gen 49:20), and Job speaks of oil in plenty: 'the rock poured me out rivers of oil' (Job 29:6).

Verse 25

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass — The Hebrew minal, translated 'shoes', occurs only here, as does dobe, 'strength'. Iron and brass are the metals of the land itself: 'a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass' (Deut 8:9). The second line, 'as thy days, so shall thy strength be', gives strength measured to each day.

Verse 26

There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun — The line echoes the song at the sea: 'Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?' (Ex 15:11). He 'rideth upon the heaven in thy help', the same ezer as in v.7; the Psalms say 'him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old' (Ps 68:33). The name Jeshurun returns from v.5.

Verse 27

The eternal God is thy refuge — The Hebrew says 'the God of old' (elohe qedem), and 'refuge', meonah, is a dwelling-place, the feminine of the maon, 'habitation', of Deut 26:15. The everlasting arms are beneath, so the people rest on them. 'Destroy them' is shamad, the word of Deut 31:3: the LORD himself destroys 'these nations'.

Verse 28

Israel then shall dwell in safety alone — 'Alone' is badad, as in Balaam's word, 'the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations' (Num 23:9). The words about 'corn and wine' and the dew of heaven recall Isaac's blessing of Jacob: 'God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine' (Gen 27:28).

Verse 29

Happy art thou, O Israel — Ashrei, 'happy', is the opening word of the Psalms, and the Psalter says, 'yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD' (Ps 144:15). Israel is 'saved by the LORD', as Isa 45:17 says, 'Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation'. 'Found liars' is kachash, the verb rendered 'shall submit themselves' in Ps 66:3.