Deuteronomy 33:1 ¶ And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. 2 And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them. 3 Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words. 4 Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. 5 And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.
Verse 2 may be a reference to a verse found in a book
that was not included in the canon of the Bible. See Jude 1:14;
Jude 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands
of his saints,
The Book of Enoch which most people are referring to
was written much later than Deuteronomy and was the product of several authors.
This reference in Jude to Enoch refers to either a written prophecy in a lost work,
possibly the Book of Enoch that was not regarded as given by inspiration and
failed the test in the early church, or simply something that Enoch said that
was passed down through Noah and his sons.
The wilderness of Paran is mentioned in relationship the
time after leaving Sinai.
Numbers 10:12 And the children of Israel took their
journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness
of Paran.
Here follows
blessings and prophecy.
Jeshurun is a
reference to Israel. See Isaiah 44:2.
Isaiah 44:2 Thus
saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the
womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou,
Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
Deuteronomy
33:6 ¶
Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.
Deuteronomy 33:7¶
And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, LORD, the voice
of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him;
and be thou an help to him from his enemies.
Deuteronomy 33:8 ¶And
of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy
holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst
strive at the waters of Meribah; 9 Who
said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he
acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children: for they have observed thy
word, and kept thy covenant. 10 They
shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense
before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar. 11 Bless,
LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins
of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not
again.
Verse 9 refers to following God without any respect to
persons even ones close in relation.
Deuteronomy 33:12 ¶
And of Benjamin he said, 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 shoulders.
Deuteronomy 33:13 ¶
And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the
precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,
14 And
for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the
precious things put forth by the moon, 15 And
for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of
the lasting hills,16 And
for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the
good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon
the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated
from his brethren. 17 His
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: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and
they are the thousands of Manasseh.
The word unicorn has been very
confusing to some who link it with a mythical horse with a horn on its head. Many skeptics have made hay
over this word found in several places in the Bible such as here and in Job,
the word,” unicorn.” A review of over 200 lexicons from the Early Modern
English Database reveals that a unicorn was understood to be an animal with one
horn.[1] Sounds understandable. The
technical name for the Indian Rhinoceros is Rhinoceros Unicornis.
Marco Polo, the famed Venetian traveler of the Medieval Period of Western
European history, referred to the Javan Rhinoceros as a unicorn among other one-horned
animals.[2]
The ancient Greeks referred to unicorns, not in their mythologies, but in
their natural histories, and although Ctesias made the earliest mention of
unicorns in his book, Indika it was
obvious he was just going on legend and had not seen them with his own eyes. He
described a wild ass colored white, red, and black. Such a fanciful description
was carried on by Aristotle and Strabo, and it was not until Pliny the Elder in
his On the Nature of Animals that he
describes something realistic, an Indian ox, a monoceros, which in all
likelihood was the Indian Rhino.
It is generally understood by the existence of them in the Lascaux cave
paintings in France that the Rhinoceros once had a much larger range of living
than it does today, the mythological horse with a horn being a totally separate
concept from the reality spoken of here in the Bible, evidenced in later Greek
writings, or found in nature and cave paintings.
The Rhinoceros is a wild animal, a wild beast. He’s not going to pull
your plow, plant your fields, or submit to your will. Go ahead, and try to
harness him up, if you think you can.
Deuteronomy 33:18 ¶
And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in
thy tents. 19 They
shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of
righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas,
and of treasures hid in the sand.
Compare verse 19 to Genesis 49:13 and Jacob’s blessing
of Zebulun.
Genesis 49:13
¶ Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of
the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto
Zidon.
Could the famed Phoenicians,
Baal worshippers, merchants, and explorers have had a connection with Zebulun?
Controversial authors say so but we have no evidence to confirm that.
Deuteronomy 33:20 ¶
And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as
a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head. 21 And
he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion
of the lawgiver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the
people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with Israel.
We will see Gad in the van, the foremost front, of
Joshua’s military expeditions in Joshua 4:12-13 and in Joshua 22:1-4 their
efforts are acknowledged.
Deuteronomy 33:22 ¶
And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan.
We’ll see Dan’s treachery in Judges 18:27-28. The
bulls of Bashan represent the enemies of Christ. See Psalm 22:12. The hill of
Bashan is contrasted with God’s hill. See Psalm 68:15. Bashan is criticized in
Amos 4:1.
Deuteronomy 33:23 ¶
And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the
blessing of the LORD: possess thou the west and the south.
Deuteronomy 33:24 ¶
And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children;
let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. 25 Thy
shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so
shall thy strength be.
Deuteronomy 33:26 ¶
There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the
heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. 27 The
eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the
everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall
say, Destroy them. 28 Israel
then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon
a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. 29 Happy art thou,
O Israel: 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 thine
enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high
places.
Jeshurun is a reference to Israel as per Isaiah 44:2.
I AM THAT I AM, the LORD, Jehovah, is the God of Jeshurun aka Jesurun.
[1] “Lexicons
of Early Modern English,” (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2015),
http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/search/results.cfm, (accessed
1.13.2015).
[2] Henry Yule, ed. & transl. The Book of Ser Marco Polo (London: John
Murray Publishers, 1903), 285. https://archive.org/stream/bookofsermarcopo002polo#page/n9/mode/2up (accessed
1.13.2015).
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