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Deuteronomy 33

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1 And this is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the sons of Israel before his death.

2 And he said, Jehovah came from Sinai, and rose from Seir to them; He shone·​·forth from Mount Paran, and He came with a myriad of the holy ones; from His right·​·hand went a fire·​·of·​·law for them;

3 Yea, He loves the peoples. All His holy ones are in Thy hand, and they were prostrated at Thy feet; every one shall receive* of Thy words.*

4 Moses commanded us a law, even the possession of the assembly of Jacob.

5 And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.

6 Let Reuben live, and not die; but his mortals will be few in number*.

7 And this is the blessing for Judah; and he said, Hear, Jehovah, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people: let his hands be many for him; and be Thou a help to him from his adversaries.

8 And for Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thine Urim be with thy merciful* Man, whom thou didst tempt at Massah*, and with whom thou didst strive by the waters of Meribah*;

9 who said to his father and to his mother, I have not seen him*; neither did he acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his sons; for they have kept what· Thou ·sayest, and observed Thy covenant.

10 They shall instruct Jacob in Thy judgments, and Israel in Thy law; they shall set incense into Thy nose, and a whole·​·burnt·​·offering on Thine altar.

11 Jehovah, bless his force, and be·​·well·​·pleased with the work of his hands; strike the loins of those who rise·​·up against him and hate him, so that they rise· not ·up again.

12 For Benjamin he said, The beloved of Jehovah shall abide securely in Him; He shall cover· him ·over all the day, and between His shoulders he shall abide.

13 And for Joseph he said, Blessed of Jehovah be his land, for the precious·​·things of the heavens, for the dew, and for the abyss that coucheth beneath,

14 and for the precious·​·things of increase from the sun, and for the precious·​·things produced by the months,

15 and for the beginnings of the ancient mountains, and for the precious·​·things of the eternal hills,

16 and for the precious·​·things of the earth and her fullness, and for the good·​·pleasure of Him who inhabits the bramble; let it come to the head of Joseph, and to the top·​·of·​·the·​·head of the Nazarite* of his brothers.

17 The firstborn of his ox is honor for him, and horns of the unicorn are his horns; with them he shall charge·​·at the peoples as·​·one to the ends of the earth; and they are the myriads of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

18 And for Zebulun he said, Be·​·glad, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents.

19 They shall call the peoples into the mountain; there they shall sacrifice sacrifices of justice; for they shall nurse on the abundance of the seas, and on a cache concealed by the sand.

20 And for Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlarges Gad; he abides as an old·​·lion, and tears the arm, yea, the top·​·of·​·the·​·head.

21 And he saw the first·​·parts for himself, because there was a part of the hidden* lawgiver, and thus came the heads of the people; he did the justice of Jehovah, and His judgments with Israel.

22 And for Dan he said, Dan is a lion’s whelp; he shall pounce from Bashan.

23 And for Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satiated with good·​·pleasure, and full with the blessing of Jehovah; possess thou the west and the south.

24 And for Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with sons; let him be well·​·pleasing to his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil.

25 Thy shoe shall be iron and bronze; and as thy days, so shall be thy renown.

26 There is none like to the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the heavens in thy help, and in His excellence on the higher·​·clouds.

27 The ancient God is thine abode, and beneath are the eternal arms; and He shall drive·​·out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Blot· them ·out.

28 And Israel shall securely inhabit alone; the fount of Jacob shall be upon a land of grain and must*; also his heavens shall drip dew.

29 Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like to thee, O people saved by Jehovah, the Shield of thy help, and He who is the Sword of thine excellence! and thine enemies to thee shall be denied, and thou shalt tread on their high·​·places.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Moses

  

At the inmost level, the story of Moses -- like all of the Bible -- is about the Lord and his spiritual development during his human life as Jesus. Moses's role represents establishing forms of worship and to make the people obedient. As such, his primary representation is "the Law of God," the rules God gave the people of Israel to follow in order to represent spiritual things. This can be interpreted narrowly as the Ten Commandments, more broadly as the books of Moses, or most broadly as the entire Bible. Fittingly, his spiritual meaning is complex and important, and evolves throughout the course of his life. To understand it, it helps to understand the meaning of the events in which he was involved. At a more basic level, Moses's story deals with the establishment of the third church to serve as a container of knowledge of the Lord. The first such church -- the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam and centered on love of the Lord -- had fallen prey to human pride and was destroyed. The second -- the Ancient Church, represented by Noah and the generations that followed him -- was centered on love of the neighbor, wisdom from the Lord and knowledge of the correspondences between natural and spiritual things. It fell prey to the pride of intelligence, however -- represented by the Tower of Babel -- and at the time of Moses was in scattered pockets that were sliding into idolatry. On an external level, of course, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt through 40 years in the wilderness to the border of the homeland God had promised them. Along the way, he established and codified their religious system, and oversaw the creation of its most holy objects. Those rules and the forms of worship they created were given as containers for deeper ideas about the Lord, deeper truth, and at some points -- especially when he was first leading his people away from Egypt, a time before the rules had been written down -- Moses takes on the deeper representation of Divine Truth itself, truth from the Lord. At other times -- especially after Mount Sinai -- he has a less exalted meaning, representing the people of Israel themselves due to his position as their leader. Through Moses the Lord established a third church, one more external than its predecessors but one that could preserve knowledge of the Lord and could, through worship that represented spiritual things, make it possible for the Bible to be written and passed to future generations.