Deuteronomy 33:6 - Meaning and Application

Here is the blessing of Reuben. Reuben had lost the honor of his birthright, yet Moses begins with him. We should not take pleasure in the shame of those who have fallen, or try to keep a stain on them forever, even when it was deserved at first (Deuteronomy 33:6).

Moses asks and predicts two things for Reuben. First, that the tribe would be preserved. Reuben was a border tribe on the east side of the Jordan, so Moses says, in effect, “Let it live, and let it not be destroyed by its neighbors or swallowed up among them.” He may also be thinking of the chosen men of Reuben who had already received their land, left their families there, and were ready to cross over armed before their brothers (Numbers 32:27). In that case, the prayer is, “Protect them in this honorable campaign, and cover their heads in the day of battle.”

Second, Moses prays that Reuben would remain numerous. Even if its former honors were gone, and it would not rise to greatness, let it still multiply. As Bishop Patrick suggests, the sense may be, “Let Reuben live and not die,” even if his men are few. Though he should not expect to flourish as Jacob said he would not (Genesis 49:4), let him at least not perish. Some of the Aramaic paraphrases take this even further and apply it to the life to come: let Reuben live with eternal life and not suffer the second death, or let him live in this world and not suffer the death that the wicked face in the world to come.

Here is the blessing of Judah, placed before Levi because our Lord came from Judah, and, as Dr. Lightfoot says, because the kingdom has a higher rank than the priesthood. The blessing in (Deuteronomy 33:7) may refer to the whole tribe. Moses prays and foretells that God would hear Judah’s prayers, settle him in his own land, prosper all his work, and give him victory over his enemies. Judah is assumed to be both a praying tribe and an active tribe. Moses is saying, “Lord, hear his prayers, and give success to all he undertakes. Let his hands be enough for him in both farming and war.” Prayer should always go with effort, and then we may expect blessing.

Or this blessing may point especially to David, the king from Judah, as a type of Christ. Then the prayer is that God would hear David’s prayers, as in (Psalm 20:1), and Christ was always heard, too (John 11:42). It also asks for victory over enemies and success in his great work, as in (Psalm 89:20) and the verses that follow. The request that God would bring him to his people seems to point to Jacob’s prophecy about Shiloh, that to him the gathering of the peoples would come (Genesis 49:10).

The tribe of Simeon is left out of the blessing, because Jacob had placed a mark on it, and it had done nothing to restore its honor, unlike Levi. Simeon had also been reduced more than any other tribe in the wilderness, and Zimri, who had recently sinned so openly in the matter of Peor, came from that tribe. Or it may be that Simeon’s land was joined to Judah’s, so Simeon was included in Judah’s blessing. Some copies of the Septuagint connect Simeon with Reuben: “Let Reuben live and not die, and let Simeon be numerous.”