the end that marks a new beginning

33

And this is the blessing, wherewith Moshe the man of God blessed the children of Isra’el before his death. ²And he said,

Yehovah came from Sinai,
And rose from Se’ir unto them;
He shined forth from mount Pa’ran,
And he came from the ten thousands of holy ones:
At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
³Yea, he loveth the people;
All his saints are in thy hand:
And they sat down at thy feet;
Every one shall receive of thy words.
⁴Moshe commanded us a Torah,
An inheritance for the assembly of Ya’akov.
⁵And he was king in Yeshurun,
When the heads of the people were gathered,
All the tribes of Isra’el together.

⁶Let Re’uven live, and not die;
Nor let his men be few.

⁷And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said,
Hear, Yehovah, the voice of Y’hudah,
And bring him in unto his people.
With his hands he contended for himself;
And thou shalt be a help against his adversaries.

⁸And of Levi he said,
Thy tumim and thy urim are with thy godly one,
Whom thou didst prove at Massah,
With whom thou didst strive at the waters of M’rivah;
⁹Who said of his father, and of his mother, I have not seen him;
Neither did he acknowledge his brethren,
Nor knew he his own children:
For they have observed thy word,
And keep thy covenant.
¹⁰They shall teach Ya’akov thine ordinances,
And Isra’el thy Torah:
They shall put incense before thee,
And whole burnt-offering upon thine altar.
¹¹Bless, Yehovah, his substance,
And accept the work of his hands:
Smite through the loins of them that rise up against him,
And of them that hate him, that they rise not again.

¹²Of Binyamin he said,
The beloved of Yehovah shall dwell in safety by him;
He covereth him all the day long,
And he dwelleth between his shoulders.

¹³And of Yosef he said,
Blessed of Yehovah be his land,
For the precious things of heaven, for the dew,
And for the deep that coucheth beneath,
¹⁴And for the precious things of the fruits of the sun,
And for the precious things of the growth of the moons,
¹⁵And for the chief things of the ancient mountains,
And for the precious things of the everlasting hills,
¹⁶And for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof,
And the good will of him that dwelt in the bush.
Let the blessing come upon the head of Yosef,
And upon the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
¹⁷The firstling of his herd, majesty is his;
And his horns are the horns of the wild-ox:
With them he shall push the peoples all of them, even the ends of the earth:
And they are the ten thousands of Efrayim,
And they are the thousands of M’nasheh.

¹⁸And of Z’vulun he said,
Rejoice, Z’vulun, in thy going out;
And, Yissakhar, in thy tents.
¹⁹They shall call the peoples unto the mountain;
There shall they offer sacrifices of righteousness:
For they shall suck the abundance of the seas,
And the hidden treasures of the sand.
²⁰And of Gad he said,
Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad:
He dwelleth as a lioness,
And teareth the arm, yea, the crown of the head.
²¹And he provided the first part for himself,
For there was the lawgiver’s portion reserved;
And he came with the heads of the people;
He executed the righteousness of Yehovah,
And his ordinances with Isra’el.

²²And of Dan he said,
Dan is a lion’s whelp,
That leapeth forth from Bashan.

²³And of Naftali he said,
O Naftali, satisfied with favor,
And full with the blessing of Yehovah,
Possess thou the west and the south.

²⁴And of Asher he said,
Blessed be Asher with children;
Let him be acceptable unto his brethren,
And let him dip his foot in oil.
²⁵Thy bars shall be iron and brass;
And as thy days, so shall thy strength be.

²⁶There is none like unto God, O Yeshurun,
Who rideth upon the heavens for thy help,
And in his excellency on the skies.

²⁷The eternal God is thy dwelling-place,
And underneath are the everlasting arms.
And he thrust out the enemy from before thee,
And said, Destroy.
²⁸And Isra’el dwelleth in safety,
The fountain of Ya’akov alone,
In a land of grain and new wine;
Yea, his heavens drop down dew.

²⁹Happy art thou, O Isra’el:
Who is like unto thee, a people saved by Yehovah,
The shield of thy help,
And the sword of thy excellency!
And thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee;
And thou shalt tread upon their high places.

34 And Moshe went up from the plains of Mo’av unto mount N’vo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Yericho. And Yehovah showed him all the land of Gil’ad, unto Dan, ²and all Naftali, and the land of Efrayim and M’nasheh, and all the land of Y’hudah, unto the hinder sea, ³and the South, and the Plain of the valley of Yericho the city of Date-Palms, unto Tzo’ar. ⁴And Yehovah said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Avraham, unto Yitzjak, and unto Ya’akov, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. ⁵So Moshe the servant of Yehovah died there in the land of Mo’av, according to the word of Yehovah. ⁶And he buried him in the valley in the land of Mo’av over against Beit-P’or: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. ⁷And Moshe was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. ⁸And the children of Isra’el wept for Moshe in the plains of Mo’av thirty days: so the days of weeping in the mourning for Moshe were ended.

⁹And Y’hoshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moshe had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Isra’el hearkened unto him, and did as Yehovah commanded Moshe. ¹⁰And there hath not arisen a prophet since in Isra’el like unto Moses, whom Yehovah knew face to face, ¹¹in all the signs and the wonders, which Yehovah sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, ¹²and in all the mighty hand, and in all the great terror, which Moshe wrought in the sight of all Isra’el.