CHAPTER 33

(1451 B.C.)

MOSES BLESSED ISRAEL

¹And this is the Blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the Children of Israel before his death.

²And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of Saints: from His right Hand went a fiery Law for them (from His celestial Seat, where myriads of Angels surround His Throne).

³Yea, He loved the people; all His Saints are in Your Hand: and they sat down at Your Feet; every one shall receive of Your Words (everyone shall be blessed who receives Your Words).

⁴Moses commanded us a Law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob (Israel inherited the Law, which placed them in a category all to themselves, far ahead of all the other nations of the world, at least as long as they obeyed that Law).

⁵And He was king in Jeshurun (meaning the Upright Ones, which was Gods tender name for His People), when the heads of the people and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together.

REUBEN

⁶Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few (Reuben was prophesied by Jacob to be unstable as water [Gen. 49:4]; but the Lord through Moses gives Reuben a promise, in effect saying that the Tribe would not die, despite the sin that had been committed [Gen. 35:22]).

JUDAH

⁷And this is the Blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and You be an help to him from his enemies (the Blessing of Judah is in the form of a prayer to the Lord; the prayer was answered in that Judahs hands were sufficient in that this Tribe brought forth the Messiah).

LEVI

⁸And of Levi he said, Let your Thummim and your Urim be with your Holy One, Whom you did prove at Massah, and with Whom you did strive at the waters of Meribah;

⁹Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed Your Word, and kept Your Covenant.

¹⁰They shall teach Jacob Your Judgments, and Israel Your Law: they shall put incense before You, and Whole Burnt Sacrifice upon Your Altar.

¹¹Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands; smite through the loins of them who rise against him, and of them who hate him, that they rise not again. (Even though Levi was cursed by God, as recorded in Genesis 49:5-7, that curse was wiped away because they have observed Your Word, and kept Your Covenant [Num. 25:1-13]. Moses passes over Simeon, possibly because, as Jacob foretold, he was to be scattered among his brethren [Gen. 49:7]. In fact, his inheritance was within the territory of Judah [Josh. 19:2-9]. So the blessing on Judah would have been the blessing on Simeon.)

BENJAMIN

¹²And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between His Shoulders (to be between the Shoulders is to be carried on the back [I Sam. 17:6]; as a father might thus bear his child, so should Benjamin be borne of the Lord).

JOSEPH

¹³And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of Heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath,

¹⁴And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon,

¹⁵And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,

¹⁶And for the precious things of the Earth and the fullness thereof, and for the good will of him who dwelt in the bush: let the Blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him who was separated from his brethren.

¹⁷His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the Earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh (Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons of Joseph, and it is actually two Tribes which Moses here blesses; all the blessings of all the Tribes will come to fulfillment in the Kingdom Age, and not before; if it is to be noticed, there is no reprimanding of the Tribes here whatsoever).

ZEBULUN AND ISSACHAR

¹⁸And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and, Issachar, in your tents.

¹⁹They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer Sacrifices of Righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand.

GAD

²⁰And of Gad he said, Blessed be he who enlarges Gad: he dwells as a lion, and tears the arm with the crown of the head.

²¹And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the Law-Giver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with Israel.

DAN

²²And of Dan he said, Dan is a lions whelp: he shall leap from Bashan.

NAPHTALI

²³And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the Blessing of the LORD: possess thou the west and the south.

ASHER

²⁴And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil (some have endeavored to claim that this pointed to crude oil, which was in the vicinity of the boundaries of the Tribe of Asher; however, it doesnt refer to that at all; it refers to the Moving and Operation of the Holy Spirit, Who is symbolized by oil).

²⁵Your shoes shall be iron and brass (refers to the fact that the dwelling of Asher shall be strong and impregnable); and as your days, so shall your strength be.

²⁶There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun (means the Upright One), Who rides upon the Heaven in your help, and in His excellency on the sky (the Lord is far above the ridiculous idol gods of the heathen nations).

²⁷The Eternal God is your Refuge, and underneath are the Everlasting Arms: and He shall thrust out the enemy from before you; and shall say, Destroy them (God is the Refuge or Dwelling-place of His People; over us is His sheltering protection, and underneath us is the support of His Everlasting Arms).

²⁸Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.

²⁹Happy are you, O Israel: who is like unto you, O people saved by the LORD, the Shield of your help, and Who is the Sword of your Excellency! and your enemies shall be found liars unto you; and you shall tread upon their high places. (As stated, all of these great predictions given by the Holy Spirit through Moses looked beyond the present time, and even the distant future, to the coming glad day when Israel will, at long last, fully accept the Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour, her Messiah, and her Lord. This will be at the Second Coming, commencing the Kingdom Age. Then Israel will fulfill all of these predictions.)