29 Happy are you, O Israel: who is like you, a people whose saviour is the Lord, whose help is your cover, whose sword is your strength! All those who are against you will put themselves under your rule, and your feet will be planted on their high places.
O Israel, have faith in the Lord: he is their help and their breastplate. O house of Aaron, have faith in the Lord: he is their help and their breastplate. You worshippers of the Lord, have faith in the Lord: he is their help and their breastplate.
But the Lord will make Israel free with an eternal salvation: you will not be put to shame or made low for ever and ever.
The Lord God is my strength, and he makes my feet like roes' feet, guiding me on my high places. For the chief music-maker on corded instruments.
See, God is my salvation; I will have faith in the Lord, without fear: for the Lord Jah is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.
Say to God, How greatly to be feared are your works! because of your great power your haters are forced to put themselves under your feet.
He put him on the high places of the earth, his food was the increase of the field; honey he gave him out of the rock and oil out of the hard rock;
See, I have had orders to give blessing: and he has given a blessing which I have no power to take away. He has seen no evil in Jacob or wrongdoing in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the glad cry of a king is among them. It is God who has taken them out of Egypt; his horns are like those of the mountain ox. No evil power has effect against Jacob, no secret arts against Israel; at the right time it will be said of Jacob and of Israel, See what God has done! See, Israel comes up like a she-lion, lifting himself up like a lion: he will take no rest till he has made a meal of those he has overcome, drinking the blood of those he has put to death.
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe, and great will be your reward.
And the rest were put to death with the sword of him who was on the horse, even the sword which came out of his mouth: and all the birds were made full with their flesh.
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword: and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.
For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse. The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with the best of the meat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the best parts of the sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah, and much cattle will be put to death in the land of Edom.
In that day the Lord, with his great and strong and cruel sword, will send punishment on Leviathan, the quick-moving snake, and on Leviathan, the twisted snake; and he will put to death the dragon which is in the sea.
Put on your sword, make it ready at your side, O strong chief, with your glory and power.
Our souls are waiting for the Lord; he is our help and our salvation.
From the time when my name comes to their ears they will be ruled by me: men of other countries will, with false hearts, put themselves under my authority.
If a man is not turned from his evil, he will make his sword sharp; his bow is bent and ready.
And when they had made those kings come out to Joshua, Joshua sent for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, Come near and put your feet on the necks of these kings. So they came near and put their feet on their necks. And Joshua said to them, Have no fear and do not be troubled; be strong and take heart: for so will the Lord do to all against whom you make war.
How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your houses, O Israel!
So the three bands all gave a loud note on their horns, and when the vessels had been broken, they took the flaming branches in their left hands, and the horns in their right hands ready for blowing, crying out, For the Lord and for Gideon.
The haters of the Lord would be broken, and their destruction would be eternal.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 33
Commentary on Deuteronomy 33 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 33
Yet Moses has not done with the children of Israel; he seemed to have taken final leave of them in the close of the foregoing chapter, but still he has something more to say. He had preached them a farewell sermon, a very copious and pathetic discourse. After sermon he had given out a psalm, a long psalm; and now nothing remains but to dismiss them with a blessing; that blessing he pronounces in this chapter in the name of the Lord, and so leaves them.
Deu 33:1-5
The first verse is the title of the chapter: it is a blessing. In the foregoing chapter he had thundered out the terrors of the Lord against Israel for their sin; it was a chapter like Ezekiel's roll, full of lamentation, and mourning, and woe. Now to soften that, and that he might not seem to part in anger, he here subjoins a blessing, and leaves his peace, which should descend and rest upon all those among them that were the sons of peace. Thus Christ's last work on earth was to bless his disciples (Lu. 24:50), like Moses here, in token of parting as friends. Moses blessed them,
He begins his blessing with a lofty description of the glorious appearances of God to them in giving them the law, and the great advantage they had by it.
Deu 33:6-7
Here is,
Deu 33:8-11
In blessing the tribe of Levi, Moses expresses himself more at large, not so much because it was his own tribe (for he takes no notice of his relation to it) as because it was God's tribe. The blessing of Levi has reference.
Deu 33:12-17
Here is,
Deu 33:18-21
Here we have,
Deu 33:22-25
Here is,
Deu 33:26-29
These are the last words of all that ever Moses, that great writer, that great dictator, either wrote himself or had written from his dictation; they are therefore very remarkable, and no doubt we shall find them very improving. Moses, the man of God (who had as much reason as ever any mere man had to know both), with his last breath magnifies both the God of Israel and the Israel of God. They are both incomparable in his eye; and we are sure that in this his judgment of both his eye did not wax dim.
Now lay all this together, and then you will say, Happy art thou, O Israel! Who is like unto thee, O people! Thrice happy the people whose God is the Lord.