Moshe's Last Poem

(48) That very day the Eternal spoke to Moshe: (49) Ascend these heights of Avarim to Mount Nevo, which is in the land of Moab facing Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites as their holding. (50) You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend, and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aharon died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin; (51) for you both broke faith with Me among the Israelite people, at the waters of Merivat-Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to uphold My sanctity among the Israelite people. (52) You may view the land from a distance, but you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelite people.

(1) This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before he died. (2) He said:

The Eternal came from Sinai;

And shone upon them from Seir;

And appeared from Mount Paran,

And approached from Rivevot-Kodesh [lit, the legions of the holy],

With a fiery law for them at the right hand.

(3) Yet a lover of the people,

All their holy ones are in Your hand.

And they followed in Your steps,

Carried Your words with them,

(4) Moshe commanded us a Torah

As the heritage of the congregation of Jacob.

(5) Then there was a King in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people assembled, The tribes of Israel together.

(6) May Reuben live and not die,

Though few be his numbers.

(7) And this he said of Judah:

Hear, Eternal One, the voice of Judah

And restore him to his people.

Though his own hands strive for him,

Help him against his foes.

(8) And of Levi he said:

Let Your Tummim and Urim

Be with the man who was devoted to You,

Whom You tested at Massah,

Challenged at the waters of Merivah;

(9) Who said of his father and mother,

“I will not see them.”

His brothers he was not familiar with,

His own children he did not know.

So that they would keep your words,

And guard Your covenant.

(10) They shall teach Your laws to Jacob And Your Torah to Israel.

They place incense in Your nose

And whole-offerings on Your altar.

(11) Bless, Eternal One, his strength,

And favor the work of his hands.

Smite the loins of those who rise against him.

And let his haters rise no more.

(12) Of Benjamin he said:

Beloved of the Eternal,

He rests securely beside God;

Ever does God protect him,

As he rests between God's shoulders.

(13) And of Joseph he said:

Blessed of the Eternal be his land

With the bounty of dew from heaven,

And of the deep that couches below;

(14) With the bountiful yield of the sun, And the bountiful crop of the moons;

(15) With the best from the ancient mountains,

And the bounty of hills immemorial;

(16) With the bounty of earth and its fullness,

And the favor of the Presence in the Bush. May these rest on the head of Joseph,

On the crown of the elect of his brothers.

(17) Like a firstling bull in his majesty,

He has horns like the horns of the wild-ox; With them he gores the peoples,

The ends of the earth one and all.

These are the myriads of Ephraim,

Those are the thousands of Manasseh.

(18) And of Zevulun he said:

Rejoice, O Zevulun, on your journeys,

And Issachar, in your tents.

(19) They invite their kin to the mountain, Where they offer righteous sacrifices.

For they draw from the riches of the sea And the hidden hoards of the sand.

(20) And of Gad he said:

Blessed be He who enlarges Gad!

Poised is he like a lion

To tear off arm and scalp.

(21) He chose for himself the best,

For there is the portion of the revered chieftain,

Where the heads of the people come.

He executed the Eternal's judgments

And His decisions for Israel.

(22) And of Dan he said:

Dan is a lion’s cub

That leaps forth from Bashan.

(23) And of Naphtali he said:

O Naphtali, sated with favor

And full of the Eternal's blessing,

Take possession on the west and south.

(24) And of Asher he said:

Most blessed of sons be Asher;

May he be the favorite of his brothers,

May he dip his foot in oil.

(25) May your doorbolts be iron and copper,

And your security last all your days.

(26) O Jeshurun, there is none like God, Riding through the heavens to help you, Through the skies in His majesty.

(27) The ancient God is a refuge,

A support are the arms everlasting.

He drove out the enemy before you

By His command: Destroy!

(28) Thus Israel dwells in safety, Untroubled is Jacob’s abode,

In a land of grain and wine,

Under heavens dripping dew.

(29) O happy Israel! Who is like you,

A people delivered by the Eternal,

Your protecting Shield, your Sword triumphant!

Your enemies shall come cringing before you, And you shall tread on their backs.

(1) And Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.

(2) Assemble and hearken,

O sons of Jacob; Hearken to Israel your father:

(3) Reuben, you are my first-born,

My might and first fruit of my vigor, Exceeding in rank

And exceeding in power.

(4) Unstable as water, you shall excel no longer;

For when you mounted your father’s bed, You brought disgrace—my couch he mounted!

(5) Simeon and Levi are a pair;

Their weapons are tools of violence.

(6) Let not me not be included in their secret plans,

Let not my being be counted in their assembly.

For when angry they slay men,

And when pleased they maim oxen.

(7) Cursed be their anger so fierce,

And their wrath so relentless.

I will divide them in Jacob,

Scatter them in Israel.

(8) You, O Judah, your brothers shall praise;

Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes;

Your father’s sons shall bow low to you.

(9) Judah is a lion’s cub;

On prey, my son, have you grown.

He crouches, lies down like a lion,

Like the king of beasts—who dare rouse him?

(10) The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet; So that tribute shall come to him

And the homage of peoples be his.

(11) He tethers his donkey to a vine,

His donkey's foal to a choice vine;

He washes his garment in wine,

His robe in blood of grapes.

(12) His eyes are darker than wine;

His teeth are whiter than milk.

(1) Moshe went up from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nevo, to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho, and the Eternal showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan; (2) all Naphtali; the land of Ephraim and Manasseh; the whole land of Judah as far as the Western Sea; (3) the Negeb; and the Plain—the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar. (4) And the Eternal said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ‘I will assign it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross there.”

(5) So Moses the servant of the Eternal died there, in the land of Moab, at the command of the Eternal. (6) God buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, near Beth-peor; and no one knows his burial place to this day.