I’m just going to get this out of the way now because it’s going to come up a lot later on. I can’t make heads nor tails of pretty much any kind of poetry. I know that’s a sweeping generalizations, but it’s especially true for poetry that was written in a very different time or culture than mine, or that’s been translated from another language. I tell you this now because I’m sifting through the song of Moses which he recites to the whole assembly of the twelve tribes of Israel right before he dies. This is his concluding argument, so you know it’s important, but it’s kind of obtuse in the way it’s worded. So, I’m doing the best I can, but you may be better off reading it for yourself.
This is going to come up again in the book of Psalms.
Moses says that God is perfect and amazing and created everything, but all of you (Israelites) are going to screw up this good thing you’ve got going and God is going to absolutely ream you for it. Like no punishment or plague we’ve seen so far, God is going to destroy everything you love and spread you to the wind.
This is going to happen. God already knows it even. You’re going to fail at this one thing that the Lord has told you to do. But eventually, once all this hardship knocks some sense into you and you come back to the Lord, then He’ll take you back and things will be good again.
After his speech, Moses gives each tribe a blessing, just like Jacob gave each son a blessing. Ephraim and Manasseh have to share one. They’re all mostly about prosperity and the accumulation of more land, which is odd because I thought that land ownership was permanent, but it’s still a nice sentiment.
Finally, Moses climbs to the top of a mountain as God instructs him, sees all the lands promised to them from the time of Abraham, and dies. The people grieve for 30 days, then Joshua is filled with wisdom and takes control of the camp to prepare for the invasion of the promised land.
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