Study Desk

For Yahweh's portion was his people, Jacob the share of his inheritance.

He found him in a desert land, and in a howling, desert wasteland; he encircled him, he cared for him, he protected him like the apple of his eye.

And Jeshurun grew fat, and he kicked; you grew fat, you bloated, and you became obstinate; and he abandoned God, his maker, and he scoffed at the rock of his salvation.

Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

For Yahweh will judge on behalf of his people, and concerning his servants; he will change his mind when he sees that their power has disappeared, and there is no one left, confined or free.

Call for songs of joy, O nations, concerning his people, for the blood of his servants he will avenge, and he will take reprisals against his foes, and he will make atonement for his land, his people."

You shall die on that mountain that you are about to go up there, and you will be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and he was gathered to his people,

Now this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death.

Then he said, "Yahweh came from Sinai, and he dawned upon them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran, and he came with myriads of holy ones, at his right hand a fiery law for them.

Moreover, he loves his people, all the holy ones were in your hand, and they bowed down to your feet, each one accepted directions from you.

"May Reuben live, and may he not die, and let his number not be few."

And he said this of Judah, "Hear, O Yahweh, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people; his own hands strive for him, and may you be a help against his foes."

The one saying of his father and of his mother, ‘I have not regarded them,' and his brothers he did not acknowledge, and his children he did not know, but rather they observed your word, and your covenant they kept.

Bless, O Yahweh, his substance, and with the work of his hands you must be pleased; smite the loins of those who attack him, and those hating him, so that they cannot arise."

Of Benjamin he said, "The beloved of Yahweh dwells securely, the Most High shields all around him, all the day, and between his shoulders he dwells."

And of Joseph he said, "Blessed by Yahweh is his land, with the choice things of heaven, with dew, and with the deep lying down beneath,

and with the choice things of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of the one who dwelt in the bush. Let them come to the head of Joseph, and to the crown of the prince among his brothers.

As the firstborn of his ox, majesty belongs to him, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he drives people together, and they are the myriads of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."

And he selected the best part for himself, for there the portion of a ruler is included, and he came with the heads of the people; he did the righteousness of Yahweh, and his regulations for Israel."

And of Asher he said, "Blessed more than sons is Asher; may he be the favorite of his brothers, dipping his feet in the oil.