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)
226
Bibliotheca 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
228
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
230
Bibliotheca 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
232
Bibliotheca 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,
234
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).
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