Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 31

Verses 1-13

(See the Deuteronomy Book Comments for Introductory content and Homiletic suggestions).

XIV

THIRD, FOURTH, AND FIFTH ORATIONS

Deuteronomy 27:1-31:13

It is customary to classify the words of Moses in Deuteronomy into three orations, a song and a benediction, but this classification is not exact. His third address is contained in Deuteronomy 27-28. A fourth distinct address with its introduction is contained in Deuteronomy 29-30. A fifth address distinct in introduction and matter is to be found in Deuteronomy 31, covering only thirteen verses. So that there are at least five distinct addresses, besides the song and benediction, each with an appropriate historical introduction. We consider in this discussion the third, fourth, and fifth addresses.

THE THIRD ORATION

This oration first provided for a most elaborate and impressive renewal and ratification of the covenant when Israel shall have entered the Promised Land, and closes with a most earnest exhortation to obedience, including a notable and far reaching prophecy of the curses that will certainly follow disobedience. The parts of this third oration are very distinct:

(1) Associating with him the elders of Israel, he directs that on entrance into the Land of Promise, plastered monumental stones shall be erected on Mount Ebal and thereon plainly inscribed all the laws of the covenant, as a perpetual memorial and witness of their possession of the land by Jehovah’s power and grace, conditioned upon their observance of the terms of the covenant. What a lasting library of stone! What a witness to the grounds of their tenure of the land!

(2) The erection of an altar after the model given in the original covenant at Sinai (Exodus 20:24-26) and the sacrifice thereon of burnt offerings as originally provided, thus renewing the ratification of the covenant.

(3) The sacrifice of peace offerings followed by a Joyful communion feast showing forth peace with Jehovah (arising from the blood of the covenant) and their enjoyment of him.

(4) Then associating himself with the priests and Levites, he provides for the solemn announcement that they are Jehovah’s people and must obey him.

(5) He then charges the whole people that on this great day they must take their places in two great divisions, six tribes on Gerizirn and six on Ebal, prepared to repeat after the Levites the responsive blessings and curses of the law.

He directs that on this great day the Levites shall stand in the valley between the two mountains and solemnly pronounce alternatively twelve blessings and twelve curses, the first eleven of each special statutes as specimens of the whole, and the twelfth of each touching the whole law as a unit. That as each course on disobedience is pronounced by the Levites, the six tribes on Ebal shall repeat it, and as the alternate blessing on obedience is pronounced, the other six tribes on Gerizirn shall repeat it, and when the twelfth blessing and curse touching the whole covenant are repeated, then all the tribes on both mountains in one loud, blended chorus shall say, "Amen." We shall find in Joshua all these directions becoming history. The history of the world furnishes no parallel in solemnity and sublimity to this great transaction in conception here, and in fulfilment later.

Deuteronomy 28 is devoted to exhortation based upon these directions and prophecies. It is difficult to summarize this awful exhortation, but we may profitably emphasize the following points of the exhortation:

(1) If you keep this covenant you shall be blessed in national position and with God. Jehovah shall be your God and ye shall be the head and not the tail; shall be above and not below. Jehovah shall smite all your enemies. Coming against you in one way, they shall flee in seven ways. All other nations shall see that you are called by Jehovah’s name and shall be afraid. Jehovah will establish you as a holy people unto himself.

If ye keep this covenant ye shall be blessed in all places: in the city, in the field, in the home, in the barn, and in the kitchen.

Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, in vineyards, in the seasons, and in business (lending to others but not borrowing), in health, in your outgoings and incomings, and especially in peace of mind and joy of heart.

(2) But if you disobey this covenant and break it, all these groups of blessings shall be reversed into their opposites: Ye shall lose your exalted position among the nations, and with God. Ye shall be outcasts from God; ye shall be the tail of all nations and not the head. Ye shall be beaten in wars; ye shall flee in all battles; ye shall be dispersed seven ways where you went out one. Now you see this curse is national, just like the corresponding blessing was national. Ye shall be cursed in all places: in the city, in the home, in the field, in the barn, in the kitchen, and in all lands of dispersion.

Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, vineyards, wars, outgoings, incomings, and especially shall ye be cursed in your mind and heart. Ye shall have neither peace of mind nor joy of heart. Here is the curse of mind and heart; it is as awful a thing as I ever read in my life:

“And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even I And at even thou shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see" (Deuteronomy 28:65-67). Note particularly the awful picture of their disaster when besieged by enemies, as set forth in Deuteronomy 28:49-57, so literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was taken by Titus in A.D. 70, and so fearfully depicted by Josephus. The prophecy closes with a reversal of their deliverance from Egypt since as captives they again shall be transported back in ships to become once more a nation of slaves in Egypt. This going into Egyptian bondage we shall find verified in the closing days of Jeremiah. His book of Lamentations furnishes the commentary on a part of this fearful prophecy. Poor man! he himself was carried there, and died there at the downfall of the Jewish monarchy.

FOURTH ORATION

The fourth address is contained in Deuteronomy 29-30, according to our chapter divisions. The occasion of this address as set forth in the introductory verse is a special present renewing of the Sinaitic covenant by oath, but it is not followed by ratification by sacrifices. The address recites again their miraculous deliverance from Egypt by Jehovah with signs and wonders, his merciful providence in miraculously supplying all their needs throughout their wanderings even though they had not eyes to see nor heart to appreciate. These blessings were light by night and shade by day, guidance in travel, water from the rock, bread from heaven, clothing and shoes that did not wax old or wear out, oracles for perplexities, forgiveness of sin through faith in the antitype of sacrifices, healing when poisoned, health so miraculous that there was not a feeble one in all the host, deliverance in battle. And now after reciting the Egyptian deliverance and the providential miracles while wandering, he tells them that they all stand before Jehovah to renew the oath of the covenant. Particularly note how comprehensive the statement of the human parties to the covenant:

"Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy sojourner that is in the midst of thy camps, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou mayest enter into the covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into his oath, which Jehovah thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee this day unto himself for a people, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he spake unto thee, and as he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, etc."

Elders, tribes, officers, men, women, children, sojourners, and slaves and their children to the latest posterity, and as a national unit, and all touching every individual are bound by this covenant. Now later after that statement of the case he commences his exhortation:

(1) He warns against the arising of any root or germ of bitterness (Deuteronomy 29:18). How radical the law! It does not wait to condemn the stem, or branches, or flowers, or fruit, but strikes at the root hidden from sight. So our Saviour interprets the law condemning the heart fountain from which flow all the streams of blasphemy, murder, adultery, and other overt actions. And so the wise man: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." And so the letter to the Hebrews quotes this very passage (Hebrews 12:15) warning them "lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled."

(2) The second point in his exhortation is that he warns them against the vain confidence of security, even though the law be broken. He describes a man or a woman in confidence saying to the heart: "I am all right if I did break the law," that vain confidence of feeling secure with the law broken, and then he goes on to show that nothing under the heavens is so certain as that Jehovah saw that breach of the covenant and will punish it.

(3) He foretells that other nations in future days, seeing the awful desolation of their once beautiful land, shall count it a land accursed of God on account of the sins of Israel. That is just exactly what you would say if you were to go there and look at the country. You would be astonished that such a land was ever described as flowing with milk and honey; you would not be able to understand how such a land ever was so beautiful and fruitful as described. You would see it under a curse.

(4) He warns them that while some things are hidden, inscrutable, the property of God, the revealed things touching both blessing and curse belong to them and to their children. Whatever God reveals, that is worthy of study; whatever he hides, let it alone.

(5) Then he graciously unfolds this special mercy of God, that if when smitten and scattered and oppressed by all other nations they will in far-off lands of exile and dispersion repent and turn to God, he will forgive and restore them. It was this promise of restoration that prompted the notable paragraph in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:33-40), and encouraged the later prophets, like Zechariah, Ezekiel and Daniel in days of exile, and still later the Apostles, like Paul in his discussion, Romans 11, concerning the restoration of the Jews.

(6) He then assures them that obedience to this law is neither too hard nor too far off, but very nigh to them. Alas, it was both too far off and too hard to be obeyed by unrenewed and unbelieving hearts without faith in Christ. It remained for Paul, a later Jew, and the only other man in all show how by faith alone this salvation was both nigh and easy. (See Romans 10.)

He closes with a most touching invocation to both heaven and earth to bear witness that he that very day set before them these awful, inexorable alternatives: Life and good go together; death and evil are indissoluble.

FIFTH ORATION

This, the last and shortest address, is contained in Deuteronomy 31:1-13. The first part, verses Deuteronomy 31:1-8, touchingly refers to his age, "I am now one hundred and twenty years old," and to the vacation of his office. The great leader can no more go out and come in before them. But they need neither despair nor fear on that account. God’s cause does not die with its great advocates. Moses indeed will be gone, but Jehovah himself will remain their guide and protector. And even a human successor, Joshua, has already been trained to be their captain.

The second part of this last oration directs that every seventh year, the year of release, the great Land Sabbath, a sabbath a year long, the whole people must be assembled, men, women and children, and that very year in which they have to do no work because the land lies idle, is to be devoted to studying and understanding the entire Pentateuch. I am sometimes blamed for devoting so much time to the Pentateuch. Here is my warrant. The year of the Land Sabbath was to be so devoted. It calls for a year. Happy the man who can master it in one year. What a Sunday school is here, men, women and children devoting a year to the study of the Law! Let us here find the original Sunday school idea; that it is not a school for only little children. The Sunday school idea is that men, women, and children shall come together and hear and be made to understand that Word of God. For example of fulfilment, see the remarkable history in Nehemiah 8:1-8. Illustrations may be given of the tremendous power of even a month’s concentration of mind on one study, viz.: the case of a thirty days’ school in geography, arithmetic, writing or mathematics. I would suggest the trial of one summer month devoted to the Pentateuch, the Gospels, Paul’s Letters, Eschatology, the Prophets) the Poetical Books, or the Monarchy.

QUESTIONS

1. What chapters contain the third oration and of what does it consist?

2. Itemize the provisions for a renewal of the covenant after entrance into the Promised Land.

3. Of what does the twenty-eighth chapter consist?

4. Give a summary of the exhortation based on the required renewal of the covenant.

5. What the blessings promised for obedience?

6. What the curses threatened for disobedience?

7. What chapters contain the fourth oration?

8. What its occasion?

9. In what does it consist?

10. Wherein does this retaking of the oath of the covenant in Oration Four, before they cross the Jordan, differ from the full renewal of the covenant required after they cross the Jordan, aa set forth in Oration Three?

11. What blessings recited here?

12. Who were the human parties to the covenant?

13. Give a summary of the exhortation of the Fourth Oration.

14. How does he close this oration?

15. Where do we find the Fifth Oration?

16. In what does it consist?

17. Did they ever, apart from the one case cited in Nehemiah, attempt even to keep any part of this Land Sabbath, or its culmination, the Year of Jubilee?

18. What exact and awful judgment in their later history became the penalty for disregarding the seventh year, or Land Sabbath, and its accompanying year-study of the Law?

19. Cite the scriptures that prove the enforcement of the penalty for not keeping it.

Verses 14-29

(See the Deuteronomy Book Comments for Introductory content and Homiletic suggestions).

XV

THE SONG, PRAYER, AND BENEDICTION OF MOSES

Deuteronomy 31:14-33:29; Psalm 90

This section has its scope from Deuteronomy 31:14-33:29, and in connection with it we study the ninetieth Psalm. The theme of this section is the Song of Moses, Prayer of Moses, and Benediction of Moses.

The introduction gives the origin, reason and purpose of the song. The origin is God; God commanded it and God inspired it. The reason is that he foresaw the apostasy of Israel. The purpose was that the song should be a witness.

The poetic and prophetic form of this inspired piece of writing was well adapted to secure the object that God had in view. The songs of the people were memorized by the people. I suppose that every Israelite child learned that song by heart, so that from the lips of any child in the nation there could be a recitation that would witness against the people if they did apostasize from Jehovah.

It is not my purpose to discuss here the prayer of Moses, but merely tell you that Psalm 90, ascribed to Moses and rightly so, was composed about this time. It contrasts the eternity of Jehovah with the transitory life of man, and it accounts for the transitory life of man by his sin. Sin made his life short. The Psalm concludes with a prayer that God would so teach us the number of the few days here so as to apply our hearts unto wisdom, and that he would establish the work of our hands upon us. It is a masterly production. The benediction is also poetic and prophetic. It softens the hard parts of the song. It is more hopeful but does not reach so far into the future.

Before concluding these introductory remarks, it is necessary to compare the song, the ninetieth Psalm and the benediction with a previous song of Moses which you will find in the book of Exodus, and which we considered when we went over that book, and with the book of Job, which this author ascribes to Moses. The Exodus song Moses wrote to commemorate the deliverance of the children of Israel from Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s destruction in the Red Sea. In Revelation 15 we have this reference to this first song of Moses: "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that come off victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, standing by the sea of glass, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages."

The sea of glass mingled with fire was the Red Sea in a type. The Red Sea divided, standing up in frozen walls, Israel passed through that grave like canyon, and the pillar of fire being the lid of it, the light of the pillar of fire shone on the icy walls and was reflected back and forth, so that it looked like a sea of glass mingled with fire. They were baptized in that sea and that cloud, and escaping in that way Moses writes the song of deliverance. Now, in the book of Revelation John uses that passage through those icy walls mingled with fire and the song that commemorated it to typify the deliverance of the saints in resisting the oppressions by an apostate church. So we have this clear assurance that Moses is the author of a song that will be sung in heaven. It is a great thing to be the author of the ballads of a nation here on earth; it is a greater thing to be the author of songs that we shall sing in the land of everlasting deliverance. Now, these matchless hymns all show clearly a common author; the Exodus song of deliverance, the song that we are now about to study, the ninetieth Psalm composed about the same time, and the benediction. These poetic and prophetic hymns of Moses are not to be surpassed in the poetry of the world. He was great in prose, he was great in history, he was as great as any man upon whom the afflatus rested as a writer of poetry.

The next thing in our introduction is that Moses is described as having finished the Pentateuch, including the song, and filing the book with the priests, and having it placed inside the ark of the covenant, so that throughout their future it should be a witness. When we come to study 2 Kings we learn that the finding of the lost Pentateuch in the days of Josiah and the reading of it brought about a great reformation among the people of Judah. After that monarchy fell, after Judah went into captivity, and on their return from captivity, through the decrees of the Persian king in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the same Pentateuch, a copy of which Ezra brought back with him, is read in the hearing of all the people, causing them to reestablish the commonwealth of Israel. A song is not so susceptible of analysis as a logical argument, hence all attempts at an analytical summary of this song fail to satisfy, but I am sure that we can agree on these things:

The song commences with invoking heaven and earth as auditors. All heaven might well listen, all earth might well listen, should listen to this song, so sweet that it might be compared to the falling rain in the time of a drought, or the distilling dew upon the parched ground. The theme of the song is evident: Jehovah’s fidelity and Israel’s infidelity. It not only commences with a statement of that fact, but it goes on to develop in the thought just what Jehovah did to prove that he was faithful and just what Israel did to prove that he was unfaithful.

There are two illustrations in that song that need to be studied by a public speaker. Nine times in the song Jehovah is compared to a rock, indicating stability, his being the place of refuge. Then the eagle upon the mountaintop, wishing to brain her young, will scatter the sticks of her nest and push the young birds over the precipice, and they shrieking seem about to fall to destruction, but she swoops down under them and carries them on her wings and soars away; then she gets far under them and lets them fall again. After a while they learn to fly and are very proud of themselves. This illustration is to show how Jehovah has borne this ever falling people on his wings. Both of these illustrations are very beautiful. This song sets forth the character of Jehovah in his sovereignty, in his holiness, in his justice, in his fidelity, and in his mercy. The song also sets forth the character of the people as foolish, perverse, ungrateful, wicked, and rebellious. The song then submits evidence to prove these affirmations of distinction between the character of Jehovah and the character of his people. It tells us what Jehovah did and what they did. Jehovah, when he divided the nations, away back yonder soon after the days of Noah, as we learned when we passed over Genesis, at the time when he divided the nations of the earth, he allotted Palestine, which we call the Holy Land, to his foreseen people. He intended at that time that they should have this territory. They were not yet in existence except in their ancestors, and their direct ancestor, Abraham, had not yet been born, but even then God, who owned all the land, selected that strategic, eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea connecting Mesopotamia and its great cities, Babylon and Nineveh, with Egypt. It was a passageway between nations north and south as well as of commerce and caravans east and west. It was the best place in the world to plant a people that should become the religious teacher of all nations.

The song tells how he found them, referring to their history in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; they were a desolate people in the howling wilderness, utterly helpless, and as an eagle bears up her young, he bore them up and brought them safely to the point where this song is now being sung. Then he made that nation his inheritance, Jacob being God’s portion. He selected a particular line from Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve sons all the way down, and he said, "These people shall be my lot, my inheritance, and I will use them in carrying out my purposes for the salvation of the world." He regarded this nation as the very apple of his eye. He was just as sensitive with reference to them as the eye is sensitive to an unfriendly touch. Finally, this song, which is prophetic and regards the future as if it were present, states that he put them in possession of the land and blessed them beyond the power of words to express. Now, the song tells us what they did:

"When Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked." A very expressive proverb. You may see a poor, gaunt hack horse that you may safely approach and lead by the mane, without a bridle. But when you feed him and care for him, and curry him, and he becomes sleek, the first thing that you know he kicks. The bounding life within him abhors restraint. This illustration shows what the people did. Their prosperity under good treatment becomes the occasion of their revolt. They sacrificed to idols, things that were nothing, and they sacrificed to demons who were the authors of this idolatry. Now, having contrasted what he did with what they did, the song, still looking far ahead into the future, tells what he will do; inasmuch as they have provoked him to jealousy by selecting a people that have hitherto been no people. In other words, here is a plain intimation of the things fulfilled in the New Testament days, viz.: The kingdom of heaven is taken away from the Jews and given to a people that will bring forth fruits of righteousness.

The song tells us that he will make expiation for the land, foretelling the time when the Antitype of their sacrifices in the person of the true Lamb of God shall make the great expiation for sin. The song tells further that they, on account of their sin, referring, of course, to their sin against this expiation, will be dispersed among all nations and there have an awful time for an awful length of time.

Having thus shown what he would do, he now discloses through the song what his mercy will be in the last day; that there is coming a time when he will look with pity upon this poor downtrodden, oppressed people, and have compassion and pour out upon them the grace of supplication, and when in their penitence they look to him whom they have pierced, he will forgive them.

The last great thought of the song is similar to the thought of Paul in Romans 11, viz.: that if the casting off of the children of Israel be life to the Gentile world, what shall their restoration be but life from the dead? If their downfall brought Joy to other nations, how much more shall their restoration bring joy to other nations? And so this song calls upon all people to rejoice when his people are forgiven and restored. Benediction, Deuteronomy 33. Here you must compare our text with Genesis 49 and also Revelation 7. In Genesis 49, Jacob, the old dying patriarch, summoned his children before him and pronounced a benediction upon each of them. And in Revelation 7 there is an account of the 144,000 redeemed by the power of the gospel out of the twelve tribes of Israel. Now, when we look at these lists as given in Genesis 49, Deuteronomy 33 and Revelation 7, we find that the order in which the names come is not the same in any two accounts. In Genesis, Jacob blesses them in this order: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin. Moses blesses them in this order: Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali and Asher. He leaves out Simeon. In Revelation the order is this: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph (which is Ephraim) and Benjamin, leaving out Dan.

Why does Moses leave out Simeon? You will remember that in submitting to the seductive counsels of Balaam, Zimri of the tribe of Simeon committed the presumptuous sin punished by Phinehas. It may be that all of the 24,000 people that perished in that plague were of the tribe of Simeon, which in turn may account for the fact that this tribe, according to the first census numbering 59,300, is found by the second census, immediately following, to be only 22,000. Now, I say that the sin of Zimri may have prompted Moses to leave out Simeon.

But I will give you a reason much more probable. In the allotment of the tribes Simeon got no special territory, and as Moses is thinking of the tribes as they occupy the land, we can see how he might leave out Simeon, since Simeon’s territory is included in Judah’s. When we come to Revelation, it is hard to tell why Dan is left out. It may be because that after going over to the Promised Land Dan left his territory by a migration which you will discover in Judges, went outside of the Promised Land and captured a home and there set up an alien worship. It may be that on this account he is left out. I do not dogmatize on that. Jewish Christians say that Dan was left out because of the character of the tribe as described by Jacob: "A serpent in the way, an adder in the path." When we were going over Genesis, I called your attention to that awful secret band among the Mormons called the "Danites," based upon the prophetic character of Dan in Genesis, and the song of Joaquin Miller, which utterly wiped them off the face of the earth.

The next thought arising from a comparison of these lists is that some who in Jacob’s blessing had a dark prospect ahead of them found a brighter prospect in the case of their descendants in Moses’ time. For instance, read what is said about Reuben in Genesis 49 and immediately following with what Moses predicts concerning him. Reuben’s prospects brighten in the Mosaic account, and so with some other. Levi, in the prophecy of his father Jacob, in Genesis 49, has a dark prospect before him, but in the Mosaic blessing his prospects are intensely brightened. In this case the children are doing better than the fathers.

Without going over it all, it is my suggestion that the reader take Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33 and compare tribe by tribe, and see what the variations are in this lapse of time. The lesson to be learned from this is that a family through its head may start out bad and give taint to all the descendants of that man, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations, but after a while some of the children will establish themselves in righteousness and bring honor to that name. And likewise a family may start out with a distinguished head and for quite a long time the descendants of this man will share in his fame and glory, but if they do nothing themselves to keep up his reputation, then they become more exposed in their worthlessness by the very fact that they had an illustrious sire.

I can illustrate: There was once a canvass going on in McLennan County for County Attorney, one of the candidates was accustomed in opening his speeches to refer to his progenitors; that as far back as records went they were illustrious people. The opposing candidate got up and said: "Fellow citizens, I know but little about my progenitors. If they were good men they ought to have held office in their time, but on account of their goodness I should not hold office now; so, replying to all that my very well-descended opponent has said in favor of his candidacy, I will just make this remark: I would rather be a horse without a pedigree than a pedigree without a horse." He was elected.

QUESTIONS

1. What the literary form of the sixth and seventh addresses of does the introduction to the sixth address contain?

2. What does the introduction to the sixth address contain?

3. What the origin, reason and purpose of this song?

4. Why was the poetic and prophetic form of this address well adapted to secure its object?

5. What the subject of Psalm 90, how does it account for the transitory life of man and whose exposition of it was commended?

6. What the form of the benediction, and how does it compare with certain parts of the song?

7. With what preceding song of Moses should the sixth address be compared?

8. What other book besides the Pentateuch does the author ascribe to Moses and what the similarity of the problem in this book with the problem of his own people when he wrote it?

9. Expound the allusion to this preceding song in Revelation 15:2-4.

10. What can you say of Moses as a poet?

11. How was the Pentateuch, when finished, preserved and when do we hear of it again?

12. Give an analysis of this song as follows: (1) The invocation. (2) The theme. (3) The illustrations. (4) The characters set forth. (5) The strategic position of God’8 people. (6) God’s care for his people. (7) The prophecies.

13. With what other scripture must the benediction be compared? the prophecies concerning the names?

14. In comparing the tribe lists in these three scriptures, what variations do you find as to the order of names, omission of names and the prophecies concerning the names?

15. What lessons on heredity and individuality may be learned from the fact that in the Mosaic benediction when compared with the benediction of Jacob, the prospect brightens for some tribes and darkens for others? What illustration given by the author?

16. Why did Moses leave out Simeon, and Revelation omit Dan?