Underneath Are the Everlasting Arms
18 About Zebulun he said, “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and Issachar, in your tents. 19 They will call the peoples to the mountain. There they will offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they will draw out the abundance of the seas, the hidden treasures of the sand.” 20 About Gad he said, “He who enlarges Gad is blessed. He dwells as a lioness, and tears the arm and the crown of the head. 21 He provided the first part for himself, for the lawgiver’s portion was reserved for him. He came with the heads of the people. He executed the righteousness of Yahweh, His ordinances with Israel.” 22 About Dan he said, “Dan is a lion’s cub that leaps out of Bashan.” 23 About Naphtali he said, “Naphtali, satisfied with favor, full of Yahweh’s blessing, Possess the west and the south.” 24 About Asher he said, “Asher is blessed with children. Let him be acceptable to his brothers. Let him dip his foot in oil. 25 Your bars will be iron and bronze. As your days, so your strength will be. 26 “There is no one like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, in his excellency on the skies. 27 The eternal God is your dwelling place. Underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrust out the enemy from before you, and said, ‘Destroy!’ 28 Israel dwells in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, In a land of grain and new wine. Yes, his heavens drop down dew. 29 You are happy, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help, the sword of your excellency? Your enemies will submit themselves to you. You will tread on their high places.”
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? Your enemies will submit themselves to you. You will tread on their high places.”
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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