The blessing of Moses upon the tribes shortly before his death.
This blessing of Moses follows in general the usage of patriarchal times, as seen in Noah, but especially inJacob, the great tribe-father (Gen. 49). It also follows the impulses of the great heart of Moses, now a patriarch of one hundred and twenty years, who had long outlived the associates of his earlier days; who had suffered and borne every thing for his people and had labored for them more than a father for his sons and daughters. In this parting hour he has some last blessings to bequeathe before his eyes shall close in death. Let us listen to his dying benedictions.
The first five verses apply generally to all the tribes. The last four also are general rather than special; while the intervening portion of the chapter (vs. 6–25) is made up of special benedictions upon the several tribes.——Note also that while the “Song” [chap. 32] is largely in the minor strain—a sad prophetic vision of the nation’s future apostasies and consequent calamities, this chapter is pure benediction—the outpouring of hopeful prayers and heartfelt good wishes, with no shade of anticipated disaster, no foreseen calamities.
1. And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
2. And 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.
3. Yea, he loved the people; and all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.
4. Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.
5. And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.
The first thing to be noticed was that greatest fact, equally of the life of Moses and of the life of all Israel, viz. the coming forth of the glorious God in majesty so sublime from the mountains of Sinai. How did the blaze of his glory illumine her towering summits and flash forth from all her hill-tops! Such a coming—when had the world ever seen before?——“Rose up from Seir” would suggest to a Hebrew the rising of the sun in his glory.——“He came with ten thousands of saints,” says our English version; but the Hebrew has it from—the same preposition which is used before Sinai, Seir, and Paran—certainly implying therefore that God came forth from the midst of those ten thousand holy ones in a sense analogous to that in which heshone forth from Sinai, Seir, and Paran. He must refer to holy angels to whom in great numbers Jacob was introduced at Bethel and Mahanaim. But whether the Lord came forth from them, leaving them in heaven, or shone forth from among them, attending him on Sinai, can not be certainly determined from the words used here. Other scriptures however speak of the law as given by the ministration of angels, and therefore fully imply their presence on Sinai at the giving of the law. See Ps. 68: 17, and Acts 7: 53, and Gal. 3: 19, and Heb. 2: 2.——The last clause of v. 1—“from his right hand went forth a fiery law for them”—involves grave difficulties of a sort which can not well be put before the English reader. The word translated “law” is unknown to the ancient Hebrew—is not the word used for law in v. 4 and in the Pentateuch generally. The best critical authorities would unite these two words which our translators supposed to mean “fire” and “law,” into one word of quite different signification, referring perhaps to the pillar of fire [Gesenius]; or to some geographical point [Fuerst]; or to flashes of lightning [Keil].——V. 3 is singularly abrupt, and consequently the course of thought is obscure. God was loving the people [continuous action]—i. e. all the nations and not the Hebrews only—showing that God shone forth from Sinai in love to the race. All his holy ones are his wards, upheld by his arm. They lie humbly at his feet; in filial loving obedience they receive his words—indicating most beautifully the spirit with which all true souls welcome God’s uttered words as to moral duty. It is perhaps possible that [as Keil suggests] the “holy ones” here are holy angels; yet I incline to apply the phrase without restriction to all holy beings, man certainly not excluded.——Moses gave us a law, as a legacy, inheritance, for the whole congregation of Jacob. He [God] was King in Jeshurun [over the upright people], even over all that great nation with its congregated tribes and their tribal leaders.
6. Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.