I am not sure I understand your question. Are you asking why Moses could not enter the Promised Land? Simply, there were times when he put himself equal to G*d. I also think there was a second reason, he was by now very old and his health was failing. Imagine the stress of 40 years of being the hammer... G*d made the laws and Moses was the enforcer, the 3 million people seemed to have spent every waking moment thinking of things to complain about or ways to break G*d's laws and not get caught. If you read the bible you can not help but notice that he was tired of doing a thankless job and he probably was relieved at the end, although saddened that he would not see the promised land.
When you read Deuteronomy 33, you have to know that Moses did not author it or even dictate it to a scribe... Moses is referred to in the 3d person. There are issues in translations of this Chapter, many odd words appear and many misspellings. To me it is as if one editor took all the verbal stories and what was written, copied everything down and kept what the editor liked and tossed the rest aside without much regard to syntax errors. Regardless, we can make sense of it.... and it is important to understand why the blessings were given in the way they were. So... shall we dig in?
It would be helpful to you to have an old map of the region... for the sequence of the blessings do not follow tradition... first born and so on. So, you can use the map I provided or download one for your use. Beginning with Reuben the next tribe mentioned is Judah, where the Israelites would first cross into the Promised Land. Then after Levi, the order of tribal blessings follow a path that heads northward through Benjamin, and then into the contiguous regions of Ephraim and Manasseh (the Joseph tribes), next Zebulun and its neighbor to the east, Issachar. Continuing east we watch the blessing order in Deuteronomy 33 cross back over the Jordan (into the Transjordan region) and into the territory of Gad, then north to Dan, south from Dan to Naphtali, and finally westward to Asher. Levi, which was given no territory, is dealt with in between the blessings given to Judah and Benjamin, undoubtedly because this was the area where Jerusalem would one day exist and where the priests of Levi would serve at the great Temple.
You ask about Rueben, he and Gad along with approximately ½ of the clans formed tribe of Manasseh and settled on the east side of the Jordan River (the so-called Trans-Jordan). Their placement is logical, Ruben was Jacob’s firstborn son. Although earlier Jacob removed the firstborn rights of inheritance traditionally due to Reuben because he had sexual relations with Jacob’s concubine Bilah. So the firstborn inheritance was split into two part, and one part of it went to Judah and the other part to Joseph (technically it went to Joseph’s son Ephraim). Judah was given the right to rule over Israel while Ephraim was given the double-portion part of the firstborn blessing, meaning wealth and abounding fruitfulness ABOVE all of his other brothers.
The blessing is in the form of a plea to the Lord that the tribe of Reuben would “live and not die." He was not asking that Ruben become immortal, he was asking for G*d to watch over the tribe and not allow it to become extinct through absorption of it by another tribe of Israel OR by Reuben being conquered and assimilated by a foreign culture. And it would seem that G*d heard this request, for we see it survived as a separate tribe well into the time of the Judges and it is also mentioned in the earliest era of the Kings.
The next tribe is the Levites, G*d set them apart early on as Priest and the blessing is focused around their role in society as teachers of G*d’s Law and officiators of the all-important rituals. Specifically the use of the Urim and the Thummim. Moses prays that these stones would remain in the hands of the Levites (“faithful ones”), and that G*d would continue to reflect his will through the use of those two stones. After the subject of the Urim and Thummim, Moses refers to the Levites as those who were tested at Massah and Meribah. This is important, all Israel went through this ordeal but it was a test. Would the Levites who were being measured by the Lord, qualify or be the right choice to be His personal Priests.
Benjamin would occupy a small territory as a sort of buffer region between the two most powerful tribes: Ephraim and Judah. It is in this territory that the Temple would be built. Then we have the Joseph Tribes and the placement is important, for in my opinion (being a farmer myself) got the best placement.... the blessing from the deep (artisan wells), abundance of rain and sun, fertile lands that could produce almost year round, the hills with wood and metals.... a perfect area for an agrarian society to prosper. Although others seemed to be more blessed with their inheritance.... Joseph got the cherry on top!
At this point I think it prudent to bring up one of the issues I mentioned earlier, and oddity one would think. Verse 17, says that he is like a firstling bull in majesty and that he has horns like a Wild Ox. A firstling Bull is one of the highest sacrifices that can be offered at the Tabernacle, 2nd only to the mature 3-year old bull and it denotes great strength. A Wild Ox goring its enemies is symbolic of a strong warrior that is mighty in battle. Ephraim eventually dominated the northern regions of Israel with 9 other northern tribes (including his brother tribe Manesseh) coming under its dominance. They eventually extended their reach to the ends of the earth but it came in an ironic way; they were conquered by the Assyrians and forcibly scattered throughout the vast Asian continent. They became the "lost" as they interbred with gentiles and lost their Hebrew identity.... this was prophesied by Hosea and Isaiah, and in the Book of Hosea G*d said that those 10 tribes would become a lo-ammi, a non-people. But, it did not say that they would remain lost...
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As for the rest of the blessings.... there is only two worth much attention. Gad was one of the 3 tribes that, all or in part, decided to accept territory OUTSIDE of the Promised Land as their portion. And then there is Simeon. Simeon was cursed along with Levi because together the two conspired to attack the helpless residents of Shechem in ages past, for family revenge. History proves that Simeon wound up as a very small, non-influential tribe and found itself completely surrounded by Judah’s territory so it was pretty well doomed from the get-go. Not terribly long after the tribes of Israel settled in Canaan the tribe of Simeon was absorbed by Judah and they vanished as a separate territory and generally speaking as a separate self-governing tribe. Interesting....this reduced the 12 tribes to only 11.
Does this help.... or confuse?
I am not sure I understand your question. Are you... (
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