The
Blessing of Moses is the name sometimes given to a poem that appears in
DeuteronomyDeuteronomy or Devarim is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament, and the fifth of five books of the Jewish Torah or Pentateuch....
. The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the
Blessing of JacobThe Blessing of Jacob is a poem that appears in Genesis at .The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the Blessing of Moses, which has the same theme...
, which has the same theme. However, there is very little in common between the poems, except for describing one of the tribes as a judge, and another as a '
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
's whelp', though in the Blessing of Moses it is
GadAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Gad was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. The Tribe of Gad was allocated a region to the east of the...
that is the judge and
DanAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Dan, also sometimes spelled as "Dann", was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...
the whelp, whereas in the other poem it is Dan that is the judge and
JudahAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
the whelp.
The
Blessing of Moses is the name sometimes given to a poem that appears in
DeuteronomyDeuteronomy or Devarim is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament, and the fifth of five books of the Jewish Torah or Pentateuch....
. The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the
Blessing of JacobThe Blessing of Jacob is a poem that appears in Genesis at .The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the Blessing of Moses, which has the same theme...
, which has the same theme. However, there is very little in common between the poems, except for describing one of the tribes as a judge, and another as a '
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
's whelp', though in the Blessing of Moses it is
GadAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Gad was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. The Tribe of Gad was allocated a region to the east of the...
that is the judge and
DanAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Dan, also sometimes spelled as "Dann", was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...
the whelp, whereas in the other poem it is Dan that is the judge and
JudahAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
the whelp. Also, unlike the Blessing of Jacob, that of Moses is positive towards all the mentioned tribes.
According to the modern
documentary hypothesisThe documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
the poem was an originally separate text, that was inserted by the
DeuteronomistThe Deuteronomist is one of the sources of the Torah postulated by the Documentary Hypothesis that treats the texts of Scripture as products of human intellect, working in time. Martin Noth argued that there was an underlying unity in language and cultural content of the books from Deuteronomy to...
into the second edition (of two) of the text which became Deuteronomy (i.e. was an addition in 'Dtr2').
The poem notably does not describe
SimeonAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Simeon was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.At its height, the territory it occupied was in the southwest of Canaan, bordered on the east and south by the tribe of Judah; the boundaries with the tribe of Judah are vague, and it seems that Simeon may...
, which may provide a date for the composition of the poem, as Simeon are believed to have gradually lost their tribal identity, since its traditional territory was wholly within that of
JudahAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
. The poem also only mentions each tribe briefly, except for the tribes of
JosephThe Tribe of Joseph was one of the Tribes of Israel, though since Ephraim and Manasseh together traditionally constituted the tribe of Joseph, it was often not listed as one of the tribes, in favour of Ephraim and Manasseh being listed in its place; consequently it was often termed the House of...
and Levi, which may indicate both that the poem originated within the Levite priesthood, within the territory of the Joseph tribes, or more generally the northern
kingdom of IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel ) was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It existed roughly from the 930s BC until about the 720s BC, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
where
EphraimAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh together with Ephraim also formed the House of Joseph....
, part of the Joseph tribe, was the most prominent.
It is difficult to establish the connection of the blessing of Moses with that of Jacob. Most authorities maintain that the former depended directly upon the latter; and their chief argument is based on the passage on Joseph, part of which is contained also in Jacob's blessing. But there can hardly be a doubt that the passage on Joseph in Jacob's blessing was amplified from the material contained in the blessing of Moses. Otherwise a similar argument might be based upon the same arrangement in each blessing of the tribes of
ZebulunAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Zebulun was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel....
and
IssacharAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Issachar was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.At its height, the territory it occupied was immediately north of Manasseh, and south of Zebulun and Naphtali, stretching from the Jordan River in the east, to the coast in the west; this region included...
, and upon other points of agreement which, however, indicate a similarity of the matter rather than any direct connection. At all events, there are striking differences between the two blessings.
Dubious verses
The blessing of Moses, like Jacob's blessing, contains only a few benedictions, most of the verses describing the condition of the tribes at the time of the author. Like the text of Jacob's blessing, the text of these verses is not intact: the beginning (verses 2 and 3) has suffered much mutilation; and even with the help of the versions it is impossible to fill the gap. Perhaps the introduction and the conclusion were not written by the author of the blessing itself. Steuernagel, in his commentary on Deuteronomy, points out that the transition from verse 5 to verse 6 and from verse 25 to verse 26 is very abrupt, and that the contents of the introduction and the conclusion are of an entirely different nature from that of the other verses. Verses 26
et seq. seem to connect with verse 5; and the assumption is natural that the benedictory verses were later insertions. Verses 9 and 10 presumably were also the work of a later author.
Probable Date of Origin
However that may be, it is certain that the blessing of Moses is of later date than the kernel of Jacob's blessing. While in the latter Simeon and Levi (compare Genesis 34) are censured on account of their sin and are threatened with dispersion in Israel (Gen. 44:5-7), the blessing of Moses does not mention Simeon at all; and in it Levi appears as the tribe of priests, although not yet assured of the sacerdotal office, nor respected for holding it. Rather he meets with persecutions, and these probably from the persons who dispute his right to the priesthood (
DeuteronomyDeuteronomy or Devarim is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament, and the fifth of five books of the Jewish Torah or Pentateuch....
33:8ff). While in Jacob's blessing
ReubenAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Reuben was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...
is threatened with the loss of his birthright, the wish is expressed in the other blessing: "May Reuben live, and not die; and may not his men be few." This is a clear indication that Reuben before this time had sunk into a state of absolute insignificance. And while again the passage on Joseph in the one designates a period in which this tribe successfully defended itself against its enemies, the corresponding passage in the other (Gen. 49:22ff) points to a time when Ephraim maintained his power undiminished and defeated his enemies on all sides: "His [Joseph's] glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth" (Deut. 33:17). This verse certainly refers to a later time than the Syrian wars under
AhabAhab was king of Israel and the son and successor of Omri . William F. Albright dated his reign to 869 – 850 BC, while E. R...
. It more probably refers to the time of
Jeroboam IIJeroboam II was the son and successor of Jehoash, , and the fourteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which he ruled for forty-one years according to the 2 Kings . His reign was contemporary with those of Amaziah and Uzziah , kings of Judah...
, who was more successful than any of his predecessors in defeating Israel's enemies. It is likely that the passage on Gad alludes to the same period, in which this tribe successfully withstood the Syrians.
August DillmannChristian Friedrich August Dillmann was a German orientalist and biblical scholar.-Life:The son of a Württemberg schoolmaster, he was born at Illingen. He was educated at the University of Tübingen, where he became a pupil and friend of Heinrich Ewald, and studied under Ferdinand Christian Baur,...
's statement (in his
Commentary on Numbers and Deuteronomy, p. 415) that the blessing of Judah points to the period immediately after the separation of the two kingdoms is hardly correct. He bases his opinion on the fact that the praise of Levi and
BenjaminAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...
, together with what is said about Judah and Joseph, could apply only to this period. Steuernagel suggests that the allusion might be to the victory of the
EdomEdom is a name given to Esau in the Hebrew Bible, as well as to the nation descending from him. The nation's name in Assyrian was Udumi; in Syriac, ܐܕܘܡ; in Greek, Ἰδουμαία ; in Latin, Idumæa or Idumea....
ites (
II KingsThe Books of Kings are books included in the Hebrew Bible. They were originally written in Hebrew and are recognised as scripture by Judaism and Christianity...
14:7), which perhaps put a stop to the distress caused Judah by Edom. Perhaps, also, the allusion might be to the situation described in II Kings 12:18ff. At all events, without stretching a point, such passages as those on Benjamin and Levi may be assumed to refer to the beginning of the eighth century BC, and the passage on Joseph hardly presupposes the period of Jeroboam I. Hence Reuss (
Geschichte der Heiligen Schriften des Alten Testaments, p. 213), Cornill ("Einleitung in das Alte Testament," p. 72), and others are justified in considering the blessing of Moses to have originated in the eighth century BC. In any case, none of the verses indicates the authorship of Moses; this tradition is not implied in any feature of the blessing itself, and is merely referred to in the introductory and closing verses (31:30, 32:44a), which are intended to furnish a setting to the poem and to establish the connection between its various sections.
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