Week 10 Deuteronomy
In Deuteronomy 33 Moses gives his final blessing to the tribes of Israel.
When I was reading it I remembered Jacob’s just-before-dying farewell to his boys. It seemed like there was an echo between the chapters.
It crossed my mind to go back and compare the two lists. There is a predictive, prophetic element in both of them, and I wondered whether there were any differences.
At least, I wondered until I realized how long that would take. So I stopped wondering.
But one thing I did do was compare to lists for name-order (that was the quickest and easiest comparison).
In Jacob’s list the order is: the six sons of Leah; then the four sons of his not-actual-wives Zilpah & Bilhah; and then finally Rachel’s two boys.
Moses’ list starts like he will follow that format: Jacob’s #1, #2, and #3 are Moses’ #1, #3, and #2 – which is pretty close. But after that Moses heads in a different direction. Also, in Moses’ list everyone except Levi and Joseph only get one or two verses – so there’s added content with those two (Jacob also highlighted Joseph (so he’s a key player in both lists) but he also featured Judah, not Levi). And for some reason Simeon and Issachar are not on Moses’ list. It’s hard to figure why not.
Comparing the lists left me with a couple of questions I didn’t have before, which means I have a couple of questions I don’t have answers for.
Note: the Jacob list is in Genesis 49.