Moses gave the following blessing before he left (v1). It may well be that Joshua recorded it. He begins with the glory of The LORD, reminding them that He had led them all the way because He loves His people, and He gave them His law (v2-5). We all need the law to show us which is the right way to go. If we have no rules there is anarchy and chaos. God could have let them make their own way and most of them, if not all, would have died from starvation, or been defeated by their enemies along the way, on a physical level. On a spiritual level, they would have prostituted themselves to other gods and destroyed themselves. God showed His love for them throughout their journey even though most times they rebelled against Him. He had promised them a land many years before to their forefathers, beautiful, prosperous land, but they doubted often and disobeyed His commands.
He then proceeded to bless all the twelve tribes, starting with Reuben (v6). He would be relatively insignificant except that he would be blessed with with not a few men. We don’t read much of Reuben, he did plan to rescue Joseph from the pit but wasn’t strong enough to stand up to his brothers even though he was the eldest.
Judah (v7) his name means ‘Praise’. Moses prayed for blessing. Jacob’s prophecy (Genesis 49:10) had been, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah.” The Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah, and we know that it came to pass. Our Saviour was of the tribe of Judah. Judah, himself was not the wisest or most moral of men (see Genesis 38). He dealt badly with Tamar, his daughter-in-law and had sex with her thinking she was a prostitute. However, he later offered himself in place of Benjamin when Joseph wanted to keep him as a hostage. Jacob was, and Moses was probably looking further forward to the kings of Israel coming from the tribe of Judah and ultimately to The Lord Jesus Christ.
Levi (v8-11) had a unique place among the tribes. From them came the priests and they had no inheritance in the land, but God prescribed support for them from the other tribes. They were a special people and Moses conferred on them blessings because they had observed God’s word and kept His covenant. They were to teach God’s law to the people. Jacob’s prophecy (Genesis 49:7) was that they and Simeon would be scattered in Israel. For Levi this was a blessing, unlike Simeon who are not even mentioned in this list of tribes.
Benjamin (v12) is described as the ‘beloved of The LORD’ and became a special place and included the holy place of Jerusalem.
For some reason Simeon is not included but Joseph is (v13-17). Simeon and Levi had destroyed the men of Shechem in anger for raping their sister Dinah (Genesis 34). They were the third largest tribe when they left Egypt (Numbers 1:23) but by Numbers 26 they had become one of the smallest and weakest, thus, The LORD had said that He would scatter them both, and Simeon shared an allotment of land with Judah (Joshua 13). It seems that their actions led to a large number of them being wiped out in the desert wanderings. They were cursed, whereas Levi, even though scattered, was blessed. Levi was not allotted a portion of land but were supported by the other tribes in their service for The LORD
There was no tribe of Joseph but the two tribes of his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, a double portion, and truly blessed with more descendants than any of the other tribes. Joseph’s land will be blessed of The LORD with precious things of heaven. Jacob’s description of Joseph was ‘a fruitful bough by a well’. Well watered and fruitful and he was blessed by God, even though at times he must have doubted it, in the pit, sold as a slave, in prison even though he was innocent and forgotten.
Zebulun and Issachar (v18,19) were both in the area of Galilee and were blessed to use the Sea of Galilee and take of its riches and abundance.
Gad (v20,21) dwells as a lion and blessed is he who enlarges Gad. He administers God’s justice and provides many troops for David.
Dan (v22) is described as a lion’s whelp. This was a rather disparaging compliment, a young lion, not a powerful adult. Dan was quite a troublesome tribe. They failed to take the land allocated to them and were captives in their own land, the Canaan occupants confined them to the mountains, so they moved up to the north and took other land (Judges 18). Dan was responsible for introducing idolatry to the land (see Judges 18:30, 1 Kings 12) and a centre for idol worship (Amos 8:14).
Naphtali (v23). What a blessing! ‘Full of the blessing of The LORD’. This tribe were blessed with land near the Sea of Galilee where Jesus did a lot of His teaching. Blessed indeed! Little wonder Jacob said of Naphtali (Genesis 49:21) ‘he gives goodly words’, no more goodly than the words of Jesus.
Finally, we come to Asher (v24,25) described as ‘the most blessed of sons’ and ‘as your days so shall your strength be’.
After conferring blessings on the tribes, Moses concludes (v26-29) by saying “Happy are you, O Israel, there is no one like the God of Jeshurun.” Israel may be great, but God is greater still. He is there, in all His excellency, to help. We also have a well-known phrase – “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” God would protect Israel, and they would dwell in safety.
