PREFACE

And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, Get thee up into this mountain of Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people: because ye trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. For thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither into the land which I give the children of Israel.

And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said:

I

The LORD came from Sinai,

And rose from Seir unto them;

He shined forth from mount Paran,

And he came from the ten thousands of holy ones:
At his right hand was a fiery law unto them.

Yea, he loveth the tribes;

All their holy ones are in thy hand:

And they sat down at thy feet;

Every one received of thy words.

II

Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob (and he was king in Jeshurun), when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.

OF REUBEN

Let Reuben live, and not die;
And let not his men be few.

OF JUDAH

Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah,

And bring him in unto his people:

With his hands he contended for himself;

And thou shalt be an help against his adversaries.

OF LEVI

Thy Thummim and thy Urim are with him whom thou lovest,

Whom thou didst prove at Massah,

With whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; Who 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.

They shall teach Jacob thy judgements,

And Israel thy law:

They shall put incense before thee,

And whole burnt offering upon thine altar.

Bless, LORD, 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.

OF BENJAMIN

The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him;

He covereth him all the day long,

And he dwelleth between his shoulders.

OF JOSEPH

Blessed of the LORD be his land;

For the precious things of heaven, for the dew,
And for the deep that coucheth beneath,
And for the precious things of the fruits of the sun,
And for the precious things of the growth of the moons,
And for the chief things of the ancient mountains,

And for the precious things of the everlasting hills, And 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 Joseph,

And upon the crown of the head of him that is prince among his brethren.

The firstling of his bullock, 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 Ephraim,

And they are the thousands of Manasseh.