Deuteronomy 33:13-16

Blessing on Joseph

33:13 Of Joseph he said:

May the Lord bless his land

with the harvest produced by the sky, ¹  by the dew,

and by the depths crouching beneath;

33:14 with the harvest produced by the daylight ² 

and by ³  the moonlight; ⁴ 

33:15 with the best ⁵  of the ancient mountains

and the harvest produced by the age-old hills;

33:16 with the harvest of the earth and its fullness

and the pleasure of him who resided in the burning bush. ⁶ 

May blessing rest on Joseph’s head,

and on the top of the head of the one set apart ⁷  from his brothers.

Deuteronomy 33:2

33:2 He said:

A Historical Review

The Lord came from Sinai

and revealed himself ⁸  to Israel ⁹  from Seir.

He appeared in splendor ¹⁰  from Mount Paran,

and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. ¹¹ 

With his right hand he gave a fiery law ¹²  to them.

Deuteronomy 21:3

21:3 Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ¹³  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke –

Ezra 1:6

1:6 All their neighbors assisted ¹⁴  them with silver utensils, ¹⁵  gold, equipment, animals, and expensive gifts, not to mention ¹⁶  all the voluntary offerings.

The Song of Songs 4:13

4:13 Your shoots are a royal garden ¹⁷  full of pomegranates

with choice fruits:

henna with nard,

Isaiah 39:2

39:2 Hezekiah welcomed ¹⁸  them and showed them his storehouse with its silver, gold, spices, and high-quality olive oil, as well as his whole armory and everything in his treasuries. Hezekiah showed them everything in his palace and in his whole kingdom. ¹⁹ 

[33:13]  ¹ tn Heb “from the harvest of the heavens.” The referent appears to be good crops produced by the rain that falls from the sky.

[33:14]  ² tn Heb “goings forth of the sun.”

[33:14]  ³ tn Heb “and from the harvest of the yield of.” This has been simplified in the translation to avoid redundancy.

[33:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “the moon.” Many English versions regard this as a reference to “months” (“moons”) rather than the moon itself (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

[33:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “head” or “top.”

[33:16]  ⁶ tn The expression “him who resided in the bush” is frequently understood as a reference to the appearance of the Lord to Moses at Sinai from a burning bush (so NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT; cf. Exod 2:2-6; 3:2, 4). To make this reference clear the word “burning” is supplied in the translation.

[33:16]  ⁷ sn This apparently refers to Joseph’s special status among his brothers as a result of his being chosen by God to save the family from the famine and to lead Egypt.

[33:2]  ⁸ tn Or “rose like the sun” (NCV, TEV).

[33:2]  ⁹ tc Heb “to him.” The LXX reads “to us” (לָנוּ [lanu] for לָמוֹ [lamo]), the reading of the MT is acceptable since it no doubt has in mind Israel as a collective singular.

[33:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “he shone forth” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[33:2]  ¹¹ tc With slight alteration (מִמְרִבַת קָדֵשׁ [mimrivat qadesh] for the MT’s מֵרִבְבֹת קֹדֶשׁ [merivvot qodesh]) the translation would be “from Meribah Kadesh” (cf. NAB, NLT; see Deut 32:51). However, the language of holy war in the immediate context favors the reading of the MT, which views the Lord as accompanied by angelic hosts.

[33:2]  ¹² tc The mispointed Hebrew term אֵשְׁדָּת (’eshdat) should perhaps be construed as אֵשְׁהַת (’eshhat) with Smr.

[21:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[1:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “strengthened their hands.”

[1:6]  ¹⁵ tc The MT reads בִּכְלֵי־כֶסֶף (bikhley khesef, “with silver vessels”). However, part of the LXX manuscript tradition reads ἐν πᾶσιν ἀργυρίῳ (en pasin arguriw), which reflects an alternate Hebrew reading of בַּכֹּל־בַּכֶּסֶף (bakkol-bakkesef, “everywhere, with silver”). The textual variant involves (1) simple omission of yod (י) between two words, a common scribal mistake; (2) haplography of the preposition bet (בּ); and (3) an alternate vocalization tradition of the first term.

[1:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “besides” or “in addition to.”

[4:13]  ¹⁷ sn The noun פַּרְדֵּס (pardes, “garden, parkland, forest”) is a foreign loanword that occurs only 3 times in the Hebrew Bible (Song 4:13; Eccl 2:5; Neh 2:8). The original Old Persian (Avestan) term pairidaeza designated the enclosed parks and pleasure-grounds which were the exclusive domain of the Persian kings and nobility in the Achaemenid period (HALOT 963 s.v. פַּרְדֵּס; LSJ 1308). The Babylonian term pardesu means “marvelous garden,” in reference to the enclosed parks of the kings (AHw 2:833.a and 3:1582.a). The term passed into Greek as παραδείσος (paradeisos, “enclosed park, pleasure-ground”), referring to the enclosed parks and gardens of the Persian kings (LSJ 1308). The Greek term was transliterated into English as “paradise.”

[39:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “was happy with”; NAB, NASB “was pleased”; NIV “received the envoys gladly.”

[39:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “there was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house and in all his kingdom.”