father nor mother, but should always give place to the direction of light and righteousness,-that is, of an enlightened and true judgment. So far there is no doubt. As to the history of Aaron, included here, my opinion is this. At Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, (Numbers xx.) the people murmured against Moses and Aaron, for want of water: the place acquired the name of the place of contention, and the waters of contention, like that in Rephidim, Exod. xvii. Aaron held out, as it appears, bravely against the people, and probably even against his own kindred, the tribe of Levi: at least, the history gives no hint of his having proved weak, and mentions him expressly with distinction in connexion with Moses, having taken part with his God. (Numbers xx. 1— 8.) So distinguished were his truth and steadfastness, Moses brings them here, before his eyes, as a memorial in the sight of God and an example to his posterity. He wishes that God may not permit the downfal of the family of that man, whom he had himself chosen, who had endured so much for him, whose days had been so embittered: that, as it had hitherto observed his commandments, it may be true to Him hereafter, and execute his laws in Israel. So far is the remembrance good; but weakness mixed itself at last with strength. Moses and Aaron mistrusted: they struck the rock, they spoke doubtful words before the people: there God contended with them: Aaron must be disrobed and die; Moses himself must not see the promised land :—the mournful history comes up before his sight as he pronounces the blessing even on his own tribe. He wishes that such a history may never be renewed; that the supremacy in the name of God (the light and right) may never be taken away from his posterity, as it was then taken from Aaron and conferred on his son. He warns the tribe of Levi; brings before them the truth and steadfastness of Aaron;-but at the same time the melancholy transaction presents itself, as it naturally must, in the last moments of his life, when he was about to suffer for its guilt, and to be excluded from the possession that was before him. In this connexion, the benediction is highly modest, domestic, and impassioned. To Benjamin he said: The beloved of the Lord, he shall dwell safely; The Most High covereth him all the day, And letteth him rest between his wings. You see that, in the second line, I read with the Greek translator y (the Most High) instead of the idle ry; (upon him) since otherwise none of the lines agree with each other. As the aged Jacob implored the divine protection for his youngest son, from whom he was so unwillingly separated, on his way to Egypt, when Judah so affectionately became surety for him to his father ;-so the aged Moses asks for him the same on his march into the land of promise. The image of the Most High is here taken from the accompanying cloud of the divine presence, or rather from the eagle hovering over its young; (Deut. xxxii. 11.) a favourite figure with Moses. Between his shoulders means the same as upon his back, or between his wings, as we find in several other places. A beautiful picture, amiably and tenderly conceived, but which has been much mistaken. To Joseph he said: Blessed of Jehovah be thy land, Whatever precious the sun ripens, Whatever springs most precious on the hills of the East, The earth's costliness and abundance, Come through the blessing of Him, who dwelt in the bush, Come upon the crown of the prince among his brethren. As the firstling of the steer is his strength, To the very end of the land. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, That Jacob's, and, in the last passage, Balaam's blessing, is the foundation of this portion, cannot escape notice: still the merits of Joseph are reposing before the eye of the prophet, and his sons are arrayed in the glorious beauty of their father:-yet it seems to me that the blessing of the patriarch, part by part, is more original and stronger. The sources of felicity, which this latter mentions, go generations back, from the God of his own life's destinies to the blessing of his father, his grandfather, till he comes to the hills of the primeval world: he named them all, and laid them on the head of his princely son, who, in the array of a prince stood by his bed-side, distinguished from his brethren. With Moses this is changed. There stands no Joseph more, but the camp of a numerous people panting after refreshment. How can he bless them more appropriately than with the refreshment they long for? Moses has no line of ancestors, from whose mouth he can bless Joseph with so much closeness, and particularly as Jacob did of course these portions of the piece must be altered. Jacob spoke of the fruitfulness of heaven and earth as the blessing of his father, which he now transmitted to his son :--in the benediction of Moses only the physical sources of this fertility, the cornucopiæ as it were of nature, from above, from beneath, monthly, yearly, far and near, of present and past generations, could be alluded to. There is no need of my pointing out to you that in the last words, where the myriads of Ephraim, and only the thousands of Manasseh are mentioned, there is reference to the benediction of Jacob, (Gen. xlviii. 14-20) and to the preference which he gave to Ephraim. The comparison of valiant hosts to the horns and strength of a steer, is very common in the East. To Zebulon he said: Rejoice, Zebulon, in thy out-going; And in thy cottages, Issachar. The tribes shall proclaim your mountain, To offer sacrifices of righteousness there. There they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, The reference is here unquestionably to the commerce of Zebulon but it does not follow that he himself should engage in it, or go out upon the sea. The outgoing, v. 19, means the going out of dwellings; as the next line about Issachar shows: and supposing Zebulon to have availed himself of his neighbourhood to Sidon and the trafficing coast, his industry might, in various ways, have made him a sharer of their treasures, and even of the luxuries of foreign nations, and brought him acquainted with them as the commercial friends of the Sidonians, without going from home; and there the tribes, according to Moses, should proclaim the neighbouring Tabor as the mountain of the Lord, to offer there, and there only, right sacrifices: thus would these also, the brother-tribes, have a portion among the precious things of the land. According to Jacob's hint, Zebulon was leaning upon the border of Sidon; according to the image of Moses, he is a child upon that border, who sucks the abundance of the sea, treasures, which he does not himself bring, but which flow in for him through Sidon by means of his neighbourhood and his industry. The glass which is alluded to here, at that time as precious as *The ground for supposing that glass is meant by "the hidden treasures of the sand” is, that on the borders of Zebulon's possession, the river Be gold, was not imported, but was a Phenician manufacture for exportation. We see from this blessing how little Moses was of a pedantic despot, blindly separating the Jews from all that was not Jewish. Zebulon should improve his vicinity to Sidon, and also the united tribes of the land should enjoy the advantage of it, through his means and the neighbourhood of mount Tabor. Issachar, on the contrary, remained in his cottages, rejoicing in the beautiful landscape which presented new views at every step; for it was such a country that his tribe in fact acquired. To Gad he said: Blessed be He, who maketh room for Gad! As a lion he dwelleth, And maketh a prey of shoulder and head. The prime of the land he chose, There lies well-protected the hero's possession; To execute the decisions of Jehovah, And his judgments with Israel. The meaning of the whole is clear. Gad came into possession, according to the history, of the first portion in the conquered land; still he consented to march on with Israel, and to help finish its wars, the judgments of Jehovah. There is the room, which God made for Gad, while he and his forces were straitened: here are the firstlings of the prey, which he devours from the bills of Bashan. He was to be a brave tribe, as the blessing of his ancestor had already designated. Moses honours him with a comparison to the lion, with the name of martial chief, numbers him among the heads of the people, and is animated at the thought of his marching still onwards and completing the conquest. We find in the history of David, that the tribe of Gad contained at that time valiant men. To Dan he said: Will spring forth out of Bashan. You remember the darting serpent in the foot-path, in Jacob's benediction: and bear in mind Dan's land of bush and mountain and cave. lus flowed into the Mediterranean sea; from the sands of which stream, at its mouth, the first glass was made in very ancient times.-Strabo, Lib. xvi. Pliny, Hist. Nat. Lib. xxxvi. c. 26. Tacitus, Hist. Lib. v. c. 7. Josephus, de Bel. Jud. ii. c. 9. To Naphthali he said: Full of the blessing of Jehovah, To Asher he said: Blessed be Asher before the sons of Jacob! Iron and brass be thy bars; As long as thy life let thy strength endure! Here the blessing of Moses grows more noble; and the conclusion is with the whole soul of the lawgiver, who uttered the princely, immortal covenant-song. None, O Israel, is like God, Who rideth in the heavens for thy help, Upon the high clouds in his majesty. From his dwelling-place stretcheth down the God of the dawning He thrust from before thy face The enemy far away, And said: perish! And Israel shall dwell safely alone : The eye of Jacob beholds A land full of corn and wine. Favoured Israel, Who is like thee? Thou people, whom God delivered, He, the shield of thy help, He, the sword of thine excellency. They will feign to thee,-thine enemies,- And thou shall tread on their high places. What a legislator who so concluded! What a people, who had such a God, such assistance, such ordinances and promises! |