AND THIS IS THE BLESSING
33
1And this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death.
2And he said: YHWH came from Sinai and rose from Seir for them. He shone from Mount Paran and came from ten thousands of the holy, slopes at His right, for them.
33:2. slopes at His right. No one knows what this line means. (Frank Cross and David Noel Freedman once wrote, “Conjectures are almost as numerous as scholars.”) I followed the consonantal text, taking Hebrew ’
dt as “slopes,” which is what it means in its only other occurrences in the Torah (Deut 3:17; 4:49). In both of those occurrences it refers to the slopes of Pisgah, east of the Dead Sea. In this verse, YHWH shines like the sun coming from the east over Seir and Paran, in which case the slopes of Pisgah would in fact be at His right.
3Also loving peoples, all holy ones are in your hand. And they knelt at your feet; they bore your words.
4Moses commanded us instruction, a possession, community of Jacob.
5And He was king in Jeshurun when the people’s heads were gathered: Israel’s tribes together.
6Let Reuben live and not die, but his men will be few in number.
33:6. few in number. The territory of Reuben was the most vulnerable of any tribe: located east of the Dead Sea, cut off from the tribes that were west of the Jordan. It virtually ceased to exist by the tenth century B.C.E.
7And this for Judah—and he said: Hear, YHWH, Judah’s voice, and bring him to his people. With his hands he strove for himself, and you’ll be a help from its foes.
8And for Levi he said: Your Tummim and your Urim are your faithful man’s, whom you tested at Massah, disputed with him over Meribah’s water.
9Who said of his father and his mother: “I haven’t seen him,” and didn’t recognize his brothers and didn’t know his children, for they observed what you said and kept your covenant.
33:9. father … mother … brothers … children. This has been taken in a narrow sense (by Rashi and others) to refer to the golden calf episode, in which Moses tells the Levites to “kill, each man, his brother and, each man, his neighbor and, each man, his relative” (Exod 32:27,29). And it has been understood more broadly, to refer to the Levites’ single-minded performance of their priestly duties, neither being distracted by one’s family nor showing favoritism to them. Alternatively, it might refer to the requirement that the high priest may not touch any dead bodies, even of his own parents (Lev 21:11).
10They’ll teach your judgments to Jacob and your instruction to Israel. They’ll set incense at your nose, entirely burnt on your altar.
33:10. entirely burnt on your altar. The term for “entirely burnt” (k
lîl) is used in connection with the offering that the priests make on the day of the high priest’s anointing (Lev 6:12–16). It thus especially symbolizes the priestly status of Levi.
11Bless, YHWH, his wealth and accept his hands’ work. Pierce his adversaries’ hips, and those who hate him, so they won’t get up.
12For Benjamin he said: Beloved of YHWH, he’ll dwell in security by Him. He shelters over him all day as he dwells between his shoulders.
13And for Joseph he said: Blessed of YHWH is his land, from the skies’ abundance, from dew, and from the deep, crouching below,
14and from the abundance of the sun’s produce and from the abundance of the moon’s output
15and from the top of the ancient mountains and from the abundance of the hills of antiquity
16and from the abundance of earth and what fills it and the favor of the one who dwelt in the bush. May it be on Joseph’s head, on the top of the head of the one separate from his brothers.
33:16. May it be. Following Cross and Freedman, I have read the Hebrew 
on the likelihood that it conflated two readings: “May it come” (
) and “May it be” (
). The latter is preferable on the basis of comparison with the parallel blessing of Joseph in Gen 49:26.
17His firstborn bull: it has majesty. And its horns are a wild ox’s horns. It will gore peoples with them, together, the ends of the earth. And they’re Ephraim’s ten thousands, And they’re Manasseh’s thousands.
18And for Zebulun he said: Rejoice, Zebulun, when you go out, and Issachar in your tents.
19They’ll call peoples to the mountain. There they’ll offer the sacrifices of virtue. For they’ll suck the seas’ bounty and the sand’s hidden treasures.
20And for Gad he said: Blessed is one who enlarges Gad. Like a feline, abiding and tearing an arm and the top of a head,
21so he saw the foremost for himself, for a ruler’s share was kept there. And the heads of the people came. And he did YHWH’s justice and His laws with Israel.
33:21. he saw the foremost for himself. Neither the length nor the content of this verse suits the tribe of Gad, which is covered in the previous verse. My colleague David Noel Freedman has suggested that it is rather intertribal and that the specific references are to Moses as the leader of the confederation of the tribes. This matches the picture of Moses in vv. 4–5.
22And for Dan he said: Dan is a lion’s whelp that leapt from Bashan.
33:22. Dan is a lion’s whelp. But in Jacob’s blessing “Judah is a lion’s whelp”! (Gen 49:9). Why are these two tribes described this way? Dan is the northernmost tribe, and Judah is the southernmost. So this produces an image of Israel protected by lions on either side. (Actually, Simeon is the southernmost tribe, but Simeon is unaccountably left out of this song.)
23And for Naphtali he said: Naphtali is full of favor and filled with YHWH’s blessing. He’ll possess west and south.
33:23. west and south. But Naphtali is located in the north and east of Israel. So this verse is understood to refer to the west and south of the Sea of Galilee (known also as Sea of Tiberias, or Sea of Kinneret).
24And for Asher he said: Blessed out of the sons is Asher. Let him be favored by his brothers and dipping his foot in oil.
25Your lock is iron and bronze, and your strength is as much as your days.
26There’s none like the God of Jeshurun, riding skies to help you and clouds in His majesty.
27The ancient God is a refuge; and below: the arms of the eternal. And He drove out an enemy before you and said, “Destroy!”
28And Israel will dwell secure, Jacob dwells alone. To a land of grain and wine; and its skies drop dew.
29Happy are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by YHWH, your strong shield who is your majestic sword?! And your enemies will fawn to you. And you: you’ll step on their high places.
33:29. Happy are you, Israel! These are the last words that the people hear from Moses. Strange: The first half is understandable as his final words, “Happy are you … a people saved by YHWH.” The second half is not what we might have expected: God is their strong shield and sword! “And your enemies will fawn to you. And you: you’ll step on their high places.” Why does he end with the defeat of enemies? Apparently an assurance that Israel does not have to fear enemies was important—and so it has in fact turned out in the people’s history in the three millennia following Moses. The presence of enemies has been a sad, constant fact of life. But Moses’ last words are an assurance that Israel will survive to fulfill the destiny that was the first promise to Abraham: to be a source of blessing for all the earth’s families.
33:29. high places. See the comment on Lev 26:30.