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This is the blessing , wherewith the man of God Moses blessed the children of Israel , before his death.
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And he said : The Lord came from Sinai , and from Seir he rose up to us : he hath appeared from mount Pharan, and with him thousands of saints. In his right hand a fiery law.
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He hath loved the people, all the saints are in his hand : and they that approach to his feet , shall receive of his doctrine.
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Moses commanded us a law, the inheritance of the multitude of Jacob .
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He shall be king with the most right, the princes of the people being assembled with the tribes of Israel .
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Let Ruben live, and not die , and be he small in number.
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This is the blessing of Juda . Hear , O Lord , the voice of Juda , and bring him in unto his people : his hands shall fight for him, and he shall be his helper against his enemies.
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To Levi also he said : Thy perfection, and thy doctrine be to thy holy man , whom thou hast proved in the temptation, and judged at the waters of contradiction :
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Who hath said to his father , and to his mother : I do not know you; and to his brethren : I know you not: and their own children they have not known . These have kept thy word, and observed thy covenant,
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Thy judgments , O Jacob , and thy law, O Israel : they shall put incense in thy wrath and holocaust upon thy altar .
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Bless , O Lord , his strength, and receive the works of his hands . Strike the backs of his enemies, and let not them that hate him rise .
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And to Benjamin he said : The best beloved of the Lord shall dwell confidently in him: as in a bride chamber shall he abide all the day long , and between his shoulders shall be rest.
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To Joseph also he said : Of the blessing of the Lord be his land , of the fruits of heaven , and of the dew , and of the deep that lieth beneath .
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Of the fruits brought forth by the sun and by the moon.
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Of the tops of the ancient mountains , of the fruits of the everlasting hills :
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And of the fruits of the earth , and of the fulness thereof. The blessing of him that appeared in the bush , come upon the head of Joseph , and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren .
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His beauty as of the firstling of a bullock, his horns as the horns of a rhinoceros: with them shall he push the nations even to the ends of the earth These are the multitudes of Ephraim and these the thousands of Manasses .
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And to Zabulon he said : Rejoice , O Zabulon, in thy going out; and Issachar in thy tabernacles .
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They shall call the people to the mountain : there shall they sacrifice the victims of justice . Who shall suck as milk the abundance of the sea , and the hidden treasures of the sands .
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And to Gad he said : Blessed be Gad in his breadth: he hath rested as a lion, and hath seized upon the arm and the top of the head.
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And he saw his pre-eminence, that in his portion the teacher was laid up: who was with the princes of the people, and did the justices of the Lord , and his judgment with Israel .
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To Dan also he said : Dan is a young lion , he shall flow plentifully from Basan.
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And to Nephtali he said : Nephtali shall enjoy abundance, and shall be full of the blessings of the Lord : he shall possess the sea and the south .
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To Aser also he said : Let Aser be blessed with children , let him be acceptable to his brethren , and let him dip his foot in oil .
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His shoe shall be iron and brass . As the days of thy youth, so also shall thy old age be.
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There is no other God like the God of the rightest: he that is mounted upon the heaven is thy helper . By his magnificence the clouds run hither and thither.
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His dwelling is above, and underneath are the everlasting arms : he shall cast out the enemy from before thee, and shall say : Be thou brought to nought.
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Israel shall dwell in safety, and alone. The eye of Jacob in a land of corn and wine, and the heavens shall be misty with dew .
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Blessed are thou, Israel : who is like to thee, O people, that art saved by the Lord ? the shield of thy help, and the sword of thy glory: thy enemies shall deny thee, and thou shalt tread upon their necks.