And of Levi he said,

Thy Thummim and thy Urim are with thy godly

one,

Whom thou didst prove at Massah,

With whom thou didst strive at the waters of

Meribah;

8

10 Who said of his father, and of his mother, I have 9 not "seen him;

Neither did he acknowledge his brethren,

Nor knew he his own children:

For they have observed thy word,

12

And keep thy covenant.

18 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments,

And Israel thy law:

They shall put incense before thee,

And whole burnt offering upon thine altar.

Bless, Yahweh, 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 he said,

The beloved of Yahweh shall dwell in safety by

him;

He covereth him all the day long,

And he dwelleth between his shoulders.

And of Joseph he said,

15 Blessed of Yahweh be his land;

For the precious things of heaven, for the dew,

And for the deep that coucheth beneath,

ΙΟ

II

I 2

13

And for the precious things of the fruits of the 14

sun,

8(Ex. 177). (Nu. 20:3).

14 Nu. 24 80 15Gen. 49: 25f.

10 Ex. 32: 29.

11 Gen. 29; 32. 12Ex. 34: 10-27. 13 Ex

4:10 16.

for him." Part II. must be consulted throughout this chapter, as the changes

in text and translation are very numerous.

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

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 16 that dwelt in the bush:
Let [the blessing] come upon the head of Joseph,
And upon the crown of the head of him that was
separate from his brethren.*

17

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 18ten thousands of Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of Manasseh.

And of Zebulun he said,

Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy 19going out;

And, Issachar, in thy tents.

They 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.

And 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.

20

"And he provided the first part for himself,

For there was the lawgiver's portion reserved;

16Ex. 322ff. 17Nu. 23: 22 18Nu. 10:36. 19Jos. 17: 16. 20Nu. 32::

: 2ff.

*Vv. 13-16 are peculiar in the fact that they reproduce so closely the blessing of Joseph by Jacob in Gen. xlix. 25f. We might, moreover, simply omit these verses and still have a perfect connection and a blessing of Joseph (vs. 17) corresponding in structure to that of Asher, vv. 24f. In fact the thought seems to approach a climax and conclusion in vs. 16, and vs. 17 to make a new beginning. Still there is no cogent reason for making a separation.

21 And he came [with] the heads of the people,
He executed the justice of Yahweh,
And his judgments with Israel.

And of Dan he said,

Dan is a lion's whelp,

That leapeth forth from Bashan.

And of Naphtali he said,

O Naphtali, satisfied with favour,

And full with the blessing of Yahweh :
Possess thou the west and the south.

And of Asher he said,

Blessed be Asher with children;

Let him be acceptable unto his brethren,
And let him dip his foot in oil.

Thy bars shall be iron and brass;

And as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
There is none like unto God, *O Jeshurun,
Who rideth upon the heaven for thy help,
And in his excellency on the skies.
The eternal God is [thy] dwelling place,
And underneath are the everlasting arms :
And he thrust out the enemy from before thee,
And said, Destroy.

24

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Yea, his heavens drop down dew.

29

Who is like unto thee, a people saved by Yahweh,
The shield of thy help,

And that is the sword of thy excellency!

And thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee;

And thou shalt tread upon their high places.

21 Nu. 32: 26f. 22Cf. 29: 5. 23 Jud. 5: 4. 24Gen. 49: 24. 25 Num. 239. 26Gen. 27: 28.

27(Gen. 15: 1.)

*A better translation of the text (not of the vowel-points) is that of Dillmann

34

(P) 'And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto mount (J) Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And Yahweh shewed him all the land 2 (Rj) of Gilead, unto Dan; and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the 3 hinder sea; and the South, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho 4 (J) the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.* 4And Yahweh said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, 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. 5 (E) So Moses the 'servant of Yahweh died there in the land 6 (P) (J) of Moab, according to the word of Yahweh. [. . .] And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab over (E) against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepul7 (P) chre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natu8 ral force abated. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping in the 9 mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did 10 (E) as Yahweh commanded Moses. And there hath not

7

arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom YahII (Rd) weh 'knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all 12 his servants, and to all his land; and in all the mighty hand, and in all the great terror, which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel.

132:49. 2Nu. 21:20 and refs. 3Jud. 1 16. 4 Ex. 33 1ff. 5Ex. 14:31; Nu. 12: 7f. Nu.20 29. Nu. 27: 18ff. Nu. 11. 25; ct. ch. 18: 15. Ex. 33: 11. Nu. 12:8. 10 Ex. 3: 19f.; 4: 29, etc.

and of the A. V. "the God of Jeshurun" (cf. Ps. lxviii. 36; cxlvi. 5). Here and in vs. 27 Elohim is of course necessary and affords no evidence against J. *The geographical explanation in vv. 2f. is not found in Sam. and is, therefore, probably a redactional expansion of late date, perhaps a "survival.” † In vs. 6 translate with margin R. V. " was buried."

PART II.

The separate documents J. E and P conjecturally restored in a revised translation, with textual emendations of good authority.