Letting Go

¹ This is the blessing that Moses the man of God gave the Israelites before he died. ² He said: The LORD came from Sinai: from Seir he shone like the dawn on us, from Paran Mountain he beamed down. Thousands of holy ones were with him; his warriors were next to him, ready. ³ Yes, those who love the nations all his holy ones—were at your command; they followed your footsteps; they got moving when you said so. ⁴ Moses gave the Instruction to us it’s the prized possession of Jacob’s assembly. ⁵ A king came to rule in Jeshurun, when the people’s leaders gathered together, when Israel’s tribes were one. ⁶ “I pray that Reuben lives, doesn’t die, though his numbers are so few.” ⁷ Moses said this to Judah: “LORD, listen to Judah’s voice! Bring him back to his own people, strengthen his hands; be his help against every enemy.” ⁸ Then he told Levi: “Give your Thummim to Levi, your Urim to your faithful one the one you tested at Massah, the one you challenged by Meribah’s waters; ⁹ the one who said of his own mother and father: ‘I don’t consider them as such’; of their siblings: ‘I don’t recognize them’; of their own children, ‘I don’t know them’ but who obeyed your words and who guarded your covenant! ¹⁰ They teach your case laws to Jacob, your Instruction to Israel. They hold sweet incense to your nose; put the entirely burned offering on your altar. ¹¹ I pray that the LORD blesses Levi’s strength, favors his hard work, and crushes the insides of his enemies so that those who hate him can’t fight anymore.” ¹² He said to Benjamin: “The LORD’s dearest one rests safely on him. The Lord always shields him; he rests on God’s chest.”