may also my covenant be broken with David | been by one personating the part of my servant, that he should not have a son to Moses, and something is said about reign upon his throne, and with the Levites the Priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant and the Levites that minister unto me,' xxxiii.20-22. 827. D.xxxiii.12.' "Of BENJAMIN he said, The beloved of Jehovah shall dwell securely (by Him, E.V.); He shall cover him at all times, and dwell be tween his shoulders.' KNOBEL notices the peculiar order in which the tribes are here mentioned, differing from any other in which they are found in the Bible; and he explains this fact by supposing that the writer meant to notice them in a kind of 'geographical order from South to North.' But it will be seen at once that this account of the matter is not at all satisfactory; since, even if we suppose that Levi, being so closely connected with Jerusalem, might properly be placed between Judah and Benjamin, yet Gad lay on the eastern side of Jordan, to the north of Reuben, and is placed between Issachar and Dan, both on the western side, with which it had no geographical relations. 828. Perhaps, the following explanation of the order here observed may be more satisfactory. Reuben comes first, as usual, as first born, and it is possible also, as having been, from his position, on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, each, corresponding, probably, in some measure to their circumstances either then or aforetime, as well as to those which the writer fondly hoped to see in due time revived through the Mercy of God, when Judah should be brought to his people' again. 829. KNOBEL notes as follows on the blessing of Benjamin, p.347: Benjamin dwells securely, since Jehovah, as his Protector, hangs over him, and has His earthly abode between the ridges of Benjamin The writer points to Gibeon, where the Tabernacle stood after the destruction of Nob through Saul. The modern Djib, two full hours north-west from Jerusalem, with four fountains and springs, lies on a ridge in the middle of a fruitful and pleasant valley or basin, which consists of broad valleys or plains, and is surrounded by different mountains. The length of the beautiful valley is, from east to west, word katheph, 'wing, shoulder,' in geographical notices, signifies not the side generally, but tain or mountain-ridge, N.xxxiv.11, Jo.xv.8, the mountain-side, which rises to the moun10, xviii. 12,13,16,18,&c. The passage cannot, therefore, apply to Jerusalem, since Jehovah dwelt there not between mountain-ridges, but on Moriah. So, too, it does not suit Jerusalem, if we take katheph in the sense of 'side,' and understand the notice of the territory of Benjamin, generally. For Jerusalem lay on the south side of this tribal territory, and not in the midst of Benjamin. The phrase, 'between the shoulders,' occurs also 18.xvii.6. The suspended javelin hung down from the right shoulder to the left hip, and so between the shoulders. ten English miles, the breadth five miles. The 830. There is, however, no good reason to believe that the 'Tabernacle' ever was transferred from Nob to less exposed to the consequences of the great Assyrian invasion, than the other Gibeon, as KNOBEL, and many other trans-Jordanic tribes, which lay more eminent writers suppose. It is true the directly in the track of the invading Chronicler states that it was at Gibeon hosts. The remnant of Reuben, there-in the time of David and Solomon, fore, in Josiah's time may really have 1Ch.xvi.37-40, xxi.29, 2Ch.i.3–6: e.g.— been more considerable than those of 'David left there, before the Ark of the Gad and Eastern Manasseh. Then covenant of Jehovah in Jerusalem, Asaph and come Judah, Levi, Benjamin, the only his brethren to minister before the Ark consubstantial tribes remaining in Josiah's tinually, as every day's work required, and time, Simeon having disappeared (804- before the Tabernacle of Jehovah, in the high Zadok the Priest and his brethren the Priests, 810), and Judah forming, with Benjamin, place that was at Gibeon, to offer burnt-offerthe kingdom of Judah. Hence we findings unto Jehovah upon the Altar of the burntJeremiah joining together repeatedly 'the cities of Judah, and the places about Jerusalem, and the land of Benjamin,' xvii, 26, xxxii.44, xxxiii. 13 The other tribes had all been carried captive. They are named, however, one after another, as they must have to do according to all that is written in the Law of Jehovah, which he commanded Israel.' 1Ch.xvi.37-40. offering continually, morning and evening, and 831. But the more authentic history, in the books of Samuel and Kings, says nothing whatever of the Tabernacle being at Gibeon, which is the more remarkable, since in the latter it is the Tabernacle with profane hands, as recorded that 'Solomon went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high-place; a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.' 1K.iii.4. The writer would surely have mentioned the existence of the Mosaic Tabernacle and the Brazen Altar of Bezaleel at Gibeon at this time, as some reason for Solomon's sacrificing there, if he knew that they were there, more especially as in the previous verse, v.3, he blames Solomon for 'sacrificing and burning incense in high places.' 832. We might ask, again, which, in the opinion of the Chronicler, was the place which Jehovah had chosen to put his Name in,'-Gibeon, with its Tabernacle and Brazen Altar, where 'Zadok and the Priests' attended, but where the Ark was not,-or Mount Zion, where the Ark and Mercy-Seat were placed, and where God dwelt between the cherubims,' though only the Levites, Asaph and his brethren,' were stationed to 'minister before it continually'? Under such circumstances, the people would have paid a very divided allegiance. And it is difficult to understand how Solomon could sacrifice before the Ark at Jerusalem, 1K.iii.15, when neither the Priests were there, nor the Brazen Altar, upon which alone it was lawful for him to sacrifice, according to the Law laid down in L.xvii.8,9,— to touch the Ark itself. 'When the Tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the Tabernacle is to be pitched, the Lerites shall set it up; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death,' N.i.51. Since, therefore, the Tabernacle was so much more cumbrous than the Ark, much greater preparations must have been made for moving it than for merely taking up the Ark; and, surely, some notice would have been taken in the history of so remarkable an event. 834. Above all, how was it that the Ark, when brought back from the Philistines, was not restored to the 'Tabernacle of Moses,' by the directions of Samuel, if that Tabernacle was really at hand, instead of being stored away for so many years in the house of Abinadab, 1S.vii.1,2? And what need was there for David to have built a Tabernacle on Mount Zion, to hold the Ark, if the 'Tabernacle of the Congregation' was actually in existence? Surely, no tent that he could build was so fitted to receive it as this grand ancient Mosaic Tabernacle, so venerable through its age, and so unspeakably sacred from its history,-framed, even as to its minutest details, as is supposed, after the express instructions of Jehovah, according to the pattern which Moses saw in the Mount,' E.xxv.40,xxvi.30,-sanctified by the most holy and stupendous events, glorious with so many grand associations, endeared by the most precious memories,-which had shared all along the fortunes of Israel, and had passed through so many most astonishing and awful scenes in the wilderHence, in Jo.xxii. 29, the trans-Jor-ness-at the entrance of which not only danic tribes are made to say— Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt-offering or a sacrifice, and bringeth it not unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, to offer it unto Jehovah, even that man shall be cut off from among his people. 'God forbid that we should rebel against Jehovah, and turn this day from following Jehovah to build an altar for burnt offerings, for meat-offerings, or for sacrifices, beside the Altar of Jehovah our God, that is before His Tabernacle.' 833. Further, if the Tabernacle was ever moved from Shiloh to Nob, and from Nob to Gibeon, how is it that we have no account of such removal, either in the books of Samuel or of Chronicles? It was just as great an act of sacrilege, according to the Pentateuch, to touch Moses and Aaron had stood, but the Divine Presence itself had more than once been seen, when 'Jehovah came down in the pillar of a cloud, and stood in the door of the Tabernacle, and talked with them,' N.xi.25,xii.5. 835. Though so splendid, also, with its costly curtains of 'fine twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet,' its coverings of goats' hair and rams' skins, its boards of shittim-wood with their sockets of silver, upon which alone, as we are told, E.xxxviii. 27, were spent a hundred talents (34,000l.) of silver, boundary of Benjamin, it was thus yet (according to the views of KNOBEL,) between the shoulders of the tribe, i.e. it had been often removed, and might, between the southern ends of the therefore, without any very serious eastern and western sides of it-supdifficulty have been removed again,ported, like the head, between the nay, (according to the Chronicler) it shoulders, as it were, and not lower had certainly been once removed to down upon the back. Gibeon, and was not worn out, and unfit for further sacred uses, since Zadok and the Priests were stationed at it. Surely, such a Tabernacle as this would never have been allowed by the pious David to remain standing empty of the Ark which belonged to it, whether it stood at Shiloh or at Gibeon. He would not have dared to substitute for it one built by his own contrivance. It would have been an act of sacrilege to have done this. He must have brought up such a Tabernacle to Jerusalem, as the only fitting home for the Ark. We may, surely, say with confidence, it is certain that he would have done so, had such a Tabernacle really been at that time in existence. 837. It may be noticed that it is the Deuteronomist alone, who speaks, as here, of Jehovah 'dwelling' in Jerusalem, and that the phrase, 'to rest safely,' occurs only in v.12,28 of this chapter, and in Jer.xxiii.6,xxxiii.16, Ps.xvi.9, Pr.i.33, in the first of which passages we have the whole phrase, as in D.xxxiii. 28, Israel shall dwell safely.' We must not forget, also, that Jeremiah himself was one of the Priests that were at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin'; so that, when at home, he lived in one of the gates of Benjamin,' and felt, doubtless, a special tenderness for the tribe, which is here called the 'darling of Jehovah.' CHAPTER XXII. THE BLESSING OF MOSES, 838. D.xxxiii. 13-17. Blessed of Jehovah be his land, For treasures of heaven above [E.V. 'for the dew'], And of the deep that lieth beneath, And for treasures brought forth by the sun, And for treasures of the lasting hills, And for the goodwill of Him that dwelt in the 836. We shall have occasion to consider more fully hereafter the history of those times, and the special history of the Ark and the Tabernacle. But we have, as we believe, shown sufficiently that there is no real ground for supposing that the Tabernacle was at Gibeon in the time of Saul. And, even if it had been, the Ark was not there, and that was the sign of Jehovah's Presence; He would scarcely be said to 'dwell' at a place where the Ark was not. From this, however, it appears that the very ground, on which KNOBEL'S opinion rests, is gone from under him. And we fall back on the explanation that he rejects, viz. that the words do refer to Jerusalem, where the Ark was, and where Jehovah was specially said to 'cause His Name to dwell! The word Katheph, 'shoulder,' is, in fact, used for 'side' in N.xxxiv. 11, 'the side of the sea of Chinnereth,' and so in 1K.vi.8,39, the right side of the House,' 2Ch.iv.10, he set 839. This blessing on Joseph certhe sea on the right side of the east tainly presents at first sight some diffiend,' 2Ch.xxiii.10, from the right side culty, since the Ten Tribes, of which of the Temple to the left side of the Ephraim was the head, had been carTemple.' Possibly, the idea in the ried into Captivity in the days of writer's mind was this, that, as Jeru-Hezekiah, and therefore such language salem lay in the middle of the southern as the above would seem altogether The blessing shall come upon the head of Joseph, And upon the crown of the consecrated of his brethren. His firstborn steer is his glory; And his horns are like the horns of a buffalo With them he shall push the people together to S inapplicable to them in the time of Josiah. But a close consideration of the question will show that there is absolutely no one time in the history of the people, to which the different parts of the Blessing' will apply. any portion of it, and that the mention of Jehovah 'dwelling' between the shoulders of Benjamin,—¿.e. as we have seen, in Jerusalem,—as well as the high commendation of the Levites, points distinctly to a Jewish writer. But what Jewish writer, during the existence of the separate kingdoms, would have written of Judah so mildly and of Joseph so warmly, as the writer of this Blessing does? 840. MOSES could not have written it; for, if, looking down with prophetic eye along the stream of time, he had been moved by Divine impulse to utter these intimations as to the future destinies of the tribes of Israel, it is impossible that he should have dismissed the illustrious tribe of Judah, from which David and David's son, the Messiah, were to spring, with a few mournful words, and glorified the tribes of Joseph-who in later days were to be distinguished by rebellion, idolatry, and even apostacy from the worship of Jehovah-with such extra-seen, the words spoken about the other ordinary laudation as this. 841. Nor will the time of SAMUEL suit better for all parts of the Blessing: since, though Judah was not yet famous, and Ephraim was very flourishing, yet Levi was quite in the background, and the remarkable language, which we have just been considering, v.8-11, could hardly have been used with reference to that tribe. Nor will the days of DAVID answer to the requirements of the case; for then Judah could not have been passed over so lightly, with so little distinction, or, rather, with a prayer expressive of sadness, while the praise of Joseph is loud and triumphant. A similar consideration forbids still more decidedly the supposition of its having been composed in the age of SOLOMON, When the splendour of Judah was at its highest. 842. After Solomon's time, and the division of the two kingdoms, the question first arises, was the writer one of the northern or the southern kingdom? The glorification of Joseph might be thought, at first sight, to indicate the former. But, on the other hand, we observe that the Levitical Priesthood was confined to Jerusalem, and the roll of the Tetrateuch was, no doubt, kept in their charge,-that there is no trace of the hand of a writer of the northern kingdom to be found in 843. Thus we are brought down to the time after the Captivity of the Ten Tribes, without finding any period, which suits all the parts of the Blessing. As far, therefore, as Joseph is concerned, there is no reason why it should not have been written Josiah's time, as well as any other; and this time suits best, as we have in chief tribes. It is plain also that such laudatory language would be more likely to be used of Joseph by a pious Jewish writer, when the northern kingdom no longer existed, and when all the best feelings of an Israelite would go forth in tender pity and hope towards his brethren in their time of distress, than while it still stood forth as the rival, and, by its idolatries, the corruptor of Judah. 844. Compare, in this point of view, the language of Jeremiah, xxxi, and especially the following verses: At the same time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people,' v.1. 'Again I will bui d thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel; thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry,' v.4. For there shall be a day that the watchmen upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, unto Jehovah our God,' v.6. 'Behold. I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the wastes of the earth, ... a great company shall return with supplications will I lead them; I will thither. They shall come with weeping, and cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born,' v.8,9. Hear the word of Jehovah, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He him, as a shepherd doth his flock. that scattered Israel, will gather him, and keep For Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, &c.' v.10-12. And, from beginning to end, the extreme fertility is well known, and whole chapter sets forth these delight- whose qualities were not affected by ful prophetic anticipations of the the captivity of its inhabitants. The future reunion of Israel and Judah, chief of these correspondences are given and their happy estate in those blessed below:days which were coming, when chastisement should have done its work effectually, v.18, and the gracious promise should be fulfilled, v.33, 'I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' 845. In short, the most reasonable explanation of the matter seems to us to be, that the Deuteronomist has here expressed confidently a prophetic hope for the future prosperity and glory of Joseph, as he has for the reunion of all the tribes under the sway of Judah, for the continuance of a pious and faithful Priesthood in the tribe of Levi, and for the permanent resting of Jehovah 'between the shoulders' of Benjamin. He views the whole people reunited once more; and thus, after briefly touching upon each of the other tribes, with a few words suggested by their situation, character, or past or present circumstances, he closes the address by imagining all Israel compacted again into one great nation, rejoicing once more in the favour and blessing of Jehovah, v.26-29: There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, Who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, And underneath are the Everlasting Arms; before thee, And shall say, Destroy them. G.XLIX. v.25, Blessings of the heavens above, They shall be upon the head of Joseph, v.13, From treasures of the heavens above, And from the deep that lieth beneath. .15, And from treasures of the everlasting hills. v.16, It shall come upon the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the consecrated of his brethren. 847. It is plain that the writer had before him the Blessing of Jacob.' And, though he has not used its expressions in dealing with Reuben, Judah, Levi, or Benjamin, the tribes which were still in existence, and of which he could speak in accordance with their present circumstances, yet, when he comes to the captive Joseph, as if at a loss almost what to say, he refers to the older document, and adapts its very words with slight changes and amplifications. But, as before observed, the greater portion of the blessing refers entirely to the fertility of the land, including the goodness of Him that dwelt in the bush,' by which, probably, allusion is made to the expressions in E.iii.8, a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey.' Joseph is spoken of here, and in G.xlix.26, as 'consecrated by his brethren,' because the tribe of Ephraim was recognised as The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of the leader of the Northern tribes, (as corn and wine; Also his heavens shall drop down dew. Who is like unto thee, O people saved by Jehovah, Judah was of the Southern,) from a very early age down to the time of the Captivity. 848. In v.17 is described the strength The shield of thy help, and Who is the sword of this populous tribe, which, when of thy excellency! And thine enemies shall dissemble (use glozing restored to its pristine vigour, as the speeches) unto thee, Prophet hoped, would push the nations And thou shalt tread upon their high places.' with its horns, like a Reem or buffalo, 846. This view of the blessing on as once it did of old in the days of Joseph will be found confirmed, when David. Then should the son of David we examine the language of it, which, reign triumphantly once more in the except v.17, is in many places a literal place which Jehovah had chosen to transcript of the words addressed to set His Name there,' and Ephraim be Joseph in Jacob's Blessing, G.xlix.22- the 'strength of his head,' and Judah 26, and respects only, as the reader his 'Lawgiver.' Joseph's 'firstborn will perceive, the land of Joseph, whose steer' is Ephraim, whom Jacob 'set |