BIBLIOTHECA SACRA 114 (July,
1957): 225-34
[Copyright © 1957 Dallas
Theological Seminary; cited with permission;
digitally prepared for use at
THE LAST WORDS OF
MOSES:
DEUTERONOMY 33
By Carl Armerding,
Anyone at all conversant with the
commentaries on this
chapter must be aware of the fact that there are
difficulties
in it which are not easy to solve. But even though
we may
not be able to solve all the difficulties, we need
not on that
account miss the blessings which it contains.
After all, the
last words of Moses are "the blessing wherewith
Moses, the
man of God, blessed the children of
RELATION TO THE VALEDICTORY OF JACOB
In a previous article on "The
Last Words of Jacob"
(Bibliotheca
Sacra, 112:320-29, October-December, 1955),
we considered the valedictory of Jacob as he
commanded his
sons to gather themselves together that he might
tell them
that which would befall them "in the last
days." In the por-
tion now before us, they are
addressed as "the sons of Isra-
el." When addressed as the sons of Jacob, the
emphasis
appears to be on the natural side of things. But
when they
are addressed as the sons of
emphasis. The valedictory of Jacob was uttered
when the
people were still in
nounced as they were on the
point of entering the land of
promise. There is a lapse of more than two
centuries be-
tween the two. The blessing
of Moses has a background of
experience which the valedictory of Jacob could not
have even
though his personal experience may, in a sense,
foreshadow
that of the nation of which he was a patriarch.
(225)
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Sacra July, 1957
William Kelly says that the blessing of Moses
"is alto-
gether in reference to the
land which the people were on the
point of entering. This is perhaps the chief
difference as
compared with Jacob's blessing. In the latter
case, notice
was taken of the tribes from the beginning of their
history to
the end, and apart from their possessing the land or
not;
whereas the blessing that Moses pronounces here
is in strict-
est subordination to the
great object of Deuteronomy. . .
Moses
does not therefore show us historically the course of
things as when Jacob prophesied, but a more specific bene-
diction of the people in view of their place in
relation to Je-
hovah in the land"
(William Kelly, Lectures Introductory
Pentateuch, pp. 519 -20). "Nothing can
exceed the gran-
deur of the closing words of
Moses; and they will assuredly
be fulfilled in the future brightness and glory of
restored
Unlike the blessing of Jacob which begins with
an address
to Reuben his firstborn, that of Moses begins with
a majestic
vision of the Lord coming from Sinai, rising up from Seir,
and shining forth from
that the places here mentioned are related to
and Ishmael respectively, we may also note progress
in the
coming, the rising up, and the shining forth. It is
the Lord
in His government coming from, or with, His holy
ones and
having a law of fire in His right hand. The fact that
reference
is made to His coming from Sinai would seem to
connect this
with the initial giving of the law and all of the
fiery phenom-
ena, symbols of His
holiness, which attended that solemn
occasion.
But the same one who is light is also love (1 John 1:5;
4:8),
and in that order. "Yea, he loveth the peoples,
all his
saints are in thy hand, and they sit down at thy feet;
each
receiveth of thy words" (J.
N. Darby's translation). The
change from the third person "his" to the second
person "thy"
is not easy to explain. But we have a striking
parallel to this,
in Exodus 15:1-8. In any case, how reassuring to
note that
even though He comes to them with a law of fire He
loves
them and they are in His hand, the place of perfect
safety.
The Last Words of Moses 227
Moreover,
they sit down at His feet with perfect confidence,
Just
as Mary did when the Lord was here on earth; and like
her, each one receives of His words. These are
words
suited to the needs of each one. And they not only
hear His
words, they receive them (cf. Mark
The mediator of this covenant is next brought
before us.
Scripture
tells us that the law "was ordained by angels in the
hand of a mediator" (Gal.
"Moses
commanded us a law" and it became "the inheritance
of the congregation of Jacob." Moreover,
"he was king in
Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the
tribes were
gathered together." "Jeshurun. . . seems to be used as an
expression of particular affection; hence Calmet understands
it as a diminutive
of the word
seem to have apprehended the full force of the word
by trans-
lating it tou egapemenou, the beloved one, the object
of God's
especial delight" (Clarke's Commentary, in loco.). The fact
that Moses also exercised the functions of the priesthood
on
occasion makes him one of the most unusual
characters in
the Old Testament. In his divinely appointed
services for
the Lord, he combined the offices of prophet,
priest, and
king.
MESSAGES TO THE TRIBES
We have already noticed that Moses blessed the
people
as the sons of
arrangement of their names is also different. Jacob ar-
ranged them in three groups; first, the sons of Leah;
then the
sons of the bondmaids; and, finally, the sons of
Rachel.
Moses
also begins with the sons of Leah but before he com-
pletes the list he introduces
the sons of Rachel, parentheti-
cally as it were. We see a
similar arrangement in the
naming of the sons of the bondmaids. Gad was the son
of
Zilpah,
Leah's maid.
His name is followed by the names of
the two sons of Bilhah,
Rachel's maid. The list closes with
the name of Asher, son of Zilpah,
Leah's maid.
It is also of interest to notice that apart from
Reuben
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Bibliotheca
Sacra July, 1957
the names are grouped in pairs, and in each case we
find that
the natural order is reversed. We get an example of
a sim-
ilar procedure in Hebrews
11:32. But an earlier example of
the same is found in Genesis 48:12-20 where Jacob
is seen
putting Ephraim before Manasseh in spite of
Joseph's pro-
test. We are told that Jacob guided "his hands
wittingly" or
intelligently in blessing the lads.
In other words, he knew
exactly what he was doing. And Moses follows the
same pro-
cedure in Deuteronomy 33:17.
The omission of Simeon's name from this list has
been
the subject of much comment as well as speculation.
If it
had been included, and if the same procedure had
been fol-
lowed which we have noted in connection with the
arrange-
ment of the other names,
then Simeon's name would have
headed the list. The fact that his name comes from a
He-
brew root which means to hear is suggestive. One may hear
without being seen or named. But "faith
cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God" (Rom.
ing of faith will be the
first step in the restoration of
When
the "dry bones hear the word of the LORD" (Ezek. 37:
4),
their national revival will begin. Until they are like
branches "broken off" (Rom.
the unnamed Simeon here represents them in this
phase of
their national history.
Then, just as life follows the hearing of faith,
for "they
that hear shall live" (John
that Reuben may live and not die. The wording of
this prayer
suggests the idea of never-ending or eternal
life. "If the
casting away of them be the reconciling of the
world, what
shall the receiving of them be, but life from the
dead?"
(Rom.
day. And except the Lord of hosts had left unto
them a very
small remnant, they would have been like unto
been diminished and their men have been few. But
"
a nation is imperishable, in virtue of the divine
promise, but
the mass of the people is henceforth destined to
destruction
because of the divine sentence of judgment; and
only a rem-
The Last Words of Moses 229
nant which turns again will
finally propagate
ality and inherit the
glorious future" (Franz Delitzsch,
Commentary on Isaiah, I, 159).
In
brought again to their own people. "
wanderer, and separated from his people; his hand
has
brought him no sufficient help, and his enemies
have been
busy with him. All this suits exactly with what has
long been
their history, and predicts the deliverance awaiting
them in
the near future. No tribal name, it is evident,
would fill that
place but that of
does, that of Reuben" (F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible,
I, 619). As we all know, anti-Semitism has used
that par-
ticular tribe as its chief
target, separated for the time being
from the rest of the nation which is so often
referred to as
“the lost ten tribes." Again and again they have been
threat-
ened with extinction as in the
days of Pharoah and Haman,
and more recently in the days of Hitler. But the
same one
who heard their sighs and their groanings
then will hear again
and He will deliver them.
But in order to deliver them righteously His own right-
eousness and holiness must be
vindicated. "How God can
save, yet righteous be" is clearly seen in the
section dealing
with Levi (vv. 8-11). "We see, then, why Levi
has such a
special place in the blessing of Moses. We must
look through
the tribe and its individual history, to see, as in
other cases,
the One through whom the blessing comes for
is plainly the One with whom God's Thummim and Urim are,
the Holy One, proved at the place of proof, and
striven with
where the waters of life gushed out. A Moses and an
Aaron
might give way under pressure, but not the One for
whom
they stood" (ibid.).
The Levites had this to their credit: they
observed the
Word
of God, and they kept His covenant. In a sense, they
were worthy disciples of Jehovah in that they put
His claims
upon them above the claims of all other
relationships, no
matter how near and dear they might be (cf. Matt.
Thus
they were spiritually qualified on the one hand to teach
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Sacra July, 1957
their brethren the judgments and the law of the Lord;
on the
other hand they were privileged to put incense before
Him
and whole burnt sacrifice upon His altar. They had a minis-
try manward as well as Godward. And all of this, we be-
lieve, is prophetic of a day
yet to come. The section closes
quite appropriately with a prayer for blessing,
acceptance,
and victory.
MESSAGES TO THE SONS OF RACHEL
The portion dealing with Benjamin and Joseph
(vv. 12-
19)
gives us the blessed results of all this. The
description
of Benjamin as given here stands out in vivid
contrast to that
given in Genesis 49:27. Here we read: "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 shoul-
ders." Keil and Delitzsch remind us that
"there is nothing
strange in the change of subject in all three
clauses, since it
is met with repeatedly even in plain prose (e. g.,
2 Sam. 11:
13)."
This, too, is prophetic of that day when
again dwell in safety as "the beloved of the
LORD. "
The main theme of the blessing of Joseph is
fruitfulness,
an appropriate conclusion to this division of the
valedictory
of Moses. This section deserves much fuller
treatment than
we can give it here. But a few suggestions which
may be
useful in further study of the subject are in order.
To begin with, we note that the blessings are
both heav-
enly and earthly. But
strictly speaking "every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down
from the
Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shad-
ow of turning" (Jas.
of heaven" are here connected with "the
deep that coucheth
beneath." In a similar way, "the
precious fruits brought
forth by the sun" are linked with "the
precious things put
forth by the moon," suggesting their regular
recurrence
whether by day or by night.
These heavenly blessings are here followed by
earthly
blessings described as "the chief things of
the ancient moun-
The Last Words of Moses 231
tains" and "the
precious things of the lasting hills." "The
precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof" remind
us of Psalm 24:1 and are therefore suggestive of
the millen-
nial reign of our Lord.
The crowning blessing of all is "the good
will of him
that dwelt in the bush." The Hebrew word here
used for
is the same as that found in Exodus 3:2-4. It is
literally a
thorn bush, reminding us of the curse pronounced in
(Gen.
3:18). It was out of the burning thorn bush that Moses
heard God say: "I have surely seen the
affliction of my peo-
ple which are in
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring
them up
out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto
a land
flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:7-8).
It is the good will
of this one that is to "come upon the head of
Joseph, and upon
the top of the head of him that was separated from
his breth-
ren." The reader of
the original will recognize in the "sep-
arated one" the "Nazirite." And one has but to mention this
to show how suggestive of the Messiah and His
reign is all
that we have here in the blessing of Joseph.
Much of the foregoing is quite similar to
Jacob's bless-
ing of Joseph as given in
Genesis 49:22-26. But Moses con-
cludes his blessing of Joseph
with a prediction which goes
far beyond that. Looking ahead to a day yet to come
he says:
"His
glory [or "his majesty"] is like the firstling of his bul-
lock, and his horns are like the horns of Unicorns:
with them
shall he push the people together to the ends of the
earth" (v.
17).
Consistent with the scheme of interpretation which we
have used thus far, we can see in these words the
ultimate
triumph of the Messiah, of whom Joseph was the
type in his
day. Nothing like this ever happened in Joseph's
day. But a
greater than Joseph is here.
The introduction of Ephraim and Manasseh at this
point
reminds us that in blessing these two sons of
Joseph Jacob
said: "In thee shall
Ephraim
and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Ma-
nasseh" (Gen. 48:20).
Ephraim means double fruitfulness,
and Manasseh means forgetting (cf. Gen. 41:51-52).
The
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Sacra July, 1957
fact that "the ten thousands of Ephraim"
far outnumber "the
thousands of Manasseh" indicates that the
prophecy of Jacob
will be abundantly fulfilled when Messiah
"shall see of the
travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
"
After the long parenthesis which deals with the
sons and
grandsons of Rachel the beloved, Moses returns
again to the
sons of Leah. Zebulun, her
sixth son, is told to rejoice in
his going out. If this is also prophetic, as we
have reason to
believe that it is, then we have here a preview
of the ministry
of restored
Isa. 66:19; Matt. 24:14). And since Issachar's name means
hire or reward (cf. Gen. 30:18), we can see how appropriate
is the order of the names here.
In the blessing of these two brethren, we see
two lines
of ministry. The one goes forth, as it were, with
the gospel
of the kingdom. The other, rejoicing in his tents
or taber-
nacles, is presumably engaged
in a ministry which will com-
plement that of his brother.
Together they will invite the
peoples (Gentiles) to the mountain where they
offer the sac-
rifices of righteousness. The
language here is so similar
to that of Isaiah 2:2-3 and Micah 4:1-2 that we
are bound to
conclude that here also we have that which looks
on to the
millennium. The sacrifices to be offered then
(Ezek. 43:18
ff.) will be offered as
memorials of the infinitely greater
sacrifice of Him who fulfilled them all in the
offering up of
Himself. And these memorials will serve to keep
that blessed
fact always before the worshippers.
Finally, "the abundance of the seas, and of treasures
hid in the sand," show how that which is
largely unproductive
today will then yield its hidden riches, when all
nature is
brought under the beneficent sway of the King of
kings and the
Lord
of lords. And with this we come to the conclusion of
the second major division of our chapter.
MESSAGES TO THE SONS OF THE BONDWOMEN
The third division deals with the blessing on
the sons of
the bondmaids. It is arranged according to the
pattern used,
The Last Words of Moses 233
as we have seen in verses 6-19, for the sons of
the free
women, the sons of Rachel's maid coming in between
the sons
of Leah's maid. The keynote of this portion is the
execution
of "the justice of the LORD, and his
judgments with
But
it is evident as we read these verses that it is not His
judgment upon
ly, the section begins
with a note of praise to Him who "en-
largeth Gad" (cf. Isa. 49:19-20). And the verses which
follow this show how it will be done. "Like as
the lion and
the young lion roaring on his prey. . . so shall
the LORD of
hosts come down to fight for
thereof" (Isa.
31:4). "And he provided the first part for him-
self, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver,
was he
seated." He Himself had buried Moses in the
portion of Gad,
and because of that it is here called the
"portion of the law-
giver." When this is finally fulfilled, the
present dispensa-
tion will have ended and the
dispensation of law will be
resumed. Absolute righteousness will prevail
because "the
sceptre of his kingdom is a right
sceptre" (cf. Ps. 45:6).
Dan, the son of Bilhah,
Rachel's maid, is also likened
to a lion, or "a lion's whelp." The fact
that "he shall leap
from
will oppose "the Lion of the tribe of
the first time that opposition to Messiah has come
from that
quarter. According to Psalm 22:12,
beset Him round as He hung on the cross, forsaken of
God
and man. Typical of these was Og, king of
the last of the giants for which that land was
noted (Deut. 3:
11).
Israelites
actually entered the
mentators discern in these giants
types of the wicked spirits
which oppose the child of God even now (cf. Eph.
any case, we know that "antichrist shall come”
(1 John
"whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his
coming" (2 Thess.
2:8).
And we believe Dan to be a type of that one. His de-
struction prepares the way for
the satisfaction and the full
blessing of Jehovah which we see in the blessing
of Naphtali,
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Bibliotheca Sacra
July, 1957
the son of Bilhah,
Rachel's maid. And this blessing will be
so full that he is commanded to possess the west
and the
south in order to make room for it.
Finally, in Asher we reach a happy climax. These
blessings are not confined to that generation.
Asher shall
be blessed with children for "the mercy of
the LORD is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,
and his
righteousness unto children's
children" (Ps. 103:17). The
fact that Asher is to be acceptable to his brethren
may indi-
cate that there is to be no
feeling against him because he was
one of those who were chosen to stand on
(Deut.
27:13). He is to be allowed to dip his foot in oil, beau-
tiful figure of a walk in the
Spirit (Gal.
shall be of iron and brass, the symbols of strength
and en-
durance. And as his days so shall his strength
or rest be.
And
it is on that note that Moses concludes his blessing of
the sons of
In the last major division of this valedictory,
Moses re-
turns to the same theme with which he began, the one
who is
incomparable in His glory and in His
grace. "There is none
like the God of Jeshurun,
who rideth upon the heaven in thy
help, and in his excellency
on the sky." He is the eternal
one, the immutable one, who has ever been a refuge
of His
own. And His never-failing arms are their constant
support
and protection. And He shall not only thrust out
the enemy
before them, but command his destruction. "
dwell in safety alone." His land will be known
then as a land
of corn and wine, with the heavens dropping down
refreshing
dew upon it, thus insuring its continued freshness.
Well may
we join with the patriarch in saying: "Happy
art thou, O Isra-
el who is like unto thee, O people saved by the
LORD, the
shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!"
And
triumphant over every foe she may now enter "the rest
that remaineth for the
people of God" (Heb. 4:9).
This material is cited with gracious
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