Deuteronomy chapter .xxxiij.
¶ This is the blessing wherewith Moses God's man blessed the children of Israel before his death
saying: The LORD came from Sinai and shewed his beams from Seir unto them, and appeared gloriously from mount Pharan, and he came with thousands of saints, and in his right hand a law of fire for them.
How loved he the people? All his saints are in his hand. They joined them selves unto thy foot and received thy words.
Moses gave us a law which is the inheritance of the congregation of Iacob.
And he was in Israel king when he gathered the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel together.
¶ Ruben shall live and shall not die: but his people shall be few in number.
This is the blessing of Iuda. And he said: hear LORD the voice of Iuda and bring him unto his people: let his hands fight for him: but be thou his help against his enemies.
¶ And unto Levi he said: thy perfectness and thy light be after thy merciful man whom thou temptest at Masa and with whom thou strivedest at the waters of strife.
He that sayeth unto his father and mother: I saw him not, and unto his brethren I knew not, and to his son I wot not: for they have observed thy words and kept thy testament.
They shall teach Iacob thy judgements and Israel thy laws. They shall put cense before thy nose and whole sacrifices upon thine altar.
Bless LORD their power and accept the works of their hands: smite the backs of them that rise against them and of them that hate them: that they rise not again.
¶ Unto Ben Iamin he said: The LORD's darling shall dwell in safety by him and keep himself in the haven by him continually, and shall dwell between his shoulders.
And unto Ioseph he said: blessed of the LORD is his land with the goodly fruits of heaven, with dew and with springs that lie beneath:
and with fruits of the increase of the son and with ripe fruit of the months,
and with the tops of mountains that were from the beginning and with the dainties of hills that last ever,
and with goodly fruit of the earth and of the fulness thereof. And the goodwill of him that dwelleth in the bush shall come upon the head of Ioseph and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from among his brethren,
his beauty is as a firstborn ox and his horns as the horns of an unicorn. And with them he shall push the nations together, even unto the ends of the world. These are the many thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasse.
¶ And unto Zabulon he said: Rejoice Zabulon in thy going out, and thou Isachar in thy tents.
They shall call the people unto the hill, and there they shall offer offerings of righteousness. For they shall suck of the abundance of the sea and of treasure hid in the sand.
And unto Gad he said: blessed is the rowmmaker Gad. He dwelleth as a lion and caught the arm and also the top of the head.
He saw his beginning, that a part of the teachers were hid there and come with the heads of the people, and executed the righteousness of the LORD and his judgements with Israel.
¶ And unto Dan he said: Dan is a lion's whelp, he shall flow from Basan.
And unto Nephthali, he said: Nephthali he shall have abundance of pleasure and shall be filled with the blessing of the LORD and shall have his possessions in the southwest.
And of Asser he said: Asser shall be blessed with children: he shall be acceptable unto his brethren and shall dip his foot in oil:
Iron and brass shall hang on thy shoes and thine age shall be as thy youth.
¶ There is none like unto the God of thee of Israel: he that sitteth upon heaven shall be thine help, whose glory is in the clouds,
that is the dwelling place of God from the beginning and from under the arms of the world: he hath cast out thine enemies before thee and said: destroy.
And Israel shall dwell in safety alone. And the eyes of Iacob shall look upon a land of corn and wine, moreover his heaven shall drop with dew.
Happy art thou Israel, who is like unto thee? A people that art saved by the LORD thy shield and helper and sword of thy glory. And thine enemies shall hide them selves from thee, and thou shalt walk upon their high hills.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.