Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
Underneath Are the Everlasting Arms
Deuteronomy 33:18-29
18 About Zebulun he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and Issachar, in your tents. · WEB
The blessings end in a description of God as a dwelling place with arms underneath, and the last word to Israel is that they are happy.
The remaining tribes are blessed briefly and concretely — the sea and the sand for Zebulun and Issachar, iron and bronze for Asher, a tribe compared to a lion, another whose bars are iron and bronze Deuteronomy 33:18–25.
One line among them is worth taking out and keeping: as your days, so your strength will be Deuteronomy 33:25. Strength matched to the length of the demand, issued daily rather than stockpiled.
Then the poem turns from the tribes to the God who has them, and the last four verses are the highest ground in the book.
There is no one like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help Deuteronomy 33:26. The affectionate name is used again, and what is said about God is put in terms of usefulness — he rides the sky for your help.
Then verse 27, which has comforted more people than any other sentence in Deuteronomy.
The eternal God is your dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms.
Two images, and they work in opposite directions. A dwelling place is something you are inside; arms underneath are something you are held by. A people with no houses yet, camped east of a river, are told that their address is God himself, and that the floor beneath them is a pair of arms that do not tire.
The promise of safety follows, and it is domestic rather than military: Israel dwells in safety... in a land of grain and new wine Deuteronomy 33:28.
And the last verse Moses ever speaks to the nation begins with a word that has not been prominent in thirty-three chapters of law, warning and curse.
You are happy, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help, the sword of your excellency? Deuteronomy 33:29.
The book that contains the longest curse passage in Scripture ends its last speech by calling them happy. And the reason given is not their land, their law or their prospects. It is the one who saved them, described as their shield and their sword — both the defense and the weapon, so that nothing in the description belongs to them at all.
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