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The blessing of the tribes by Moses consisted largely in a prophetic foreshadowing of the lots which these tribes were severally to occupy in the conquered territory of Canaan. The first distinct example of this fact meets us in the case of Benjamin, who, although he was the youngest of all the sons of Jacob, stands fourth in this significant enumeration which the man of God was inspired to make before his death. It has been suggested that the spirit of prophecy caused Moses to look far beyond the merely temporal aspect of the history of Israel, and to recognise its typical relations with the spiritual kingdom of Messiah; and that the peculiar arrangement of the names was partly meant to indicate certain of these hidden mysteries. Such an opinion would be fully confirmed by a review of the order in which the tribes have been marshalled thus far. Reuben is mentioned first, not so much by courtesy and in remembrance of his birthright, as to mark with emphasis the mournful lessons of his fall. The real leader and head of Israel is Judah, and the blessing makes haste to rest on him with the first of its utterances in which no ambiguity lies. But the royal destinies of Judah are incomplete if separated from the priestly destinies of Levi. Messiah, that seed for whose sake Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had received their divine election, was to be a "priest upon his throne"; and therefore the blessing of the third son is made by Moses to follow immediately upon the blessing of his sceptred brother. So the keynote of the entire prediction is struck in a spiritual rather than in a temporal sense; remembering which fact, we cease to wonder at finding the name of Benjamin next in the enumeration to that of Levi. For the local centre of Jehovah's spiritual kingdom in Israel was fixed in the lot of Benjamin. The famous temple of Solomon was built upon the hill between the city of David and the Mount of Olives; and was wholly in the territory of Benjamin, though, according to the Rabbins, a part of its outer courts fell within the lot of Judah. This fact furnishes the most exact and beautiful explanation of all the peculiar expressions which meet us in Benjamin's blessing. For the God and King of Israel may be said literally to have thus dwelt between the two mountain ridge's which formed the extremity of the lot of this tribe, and Benjamin dwelt "alongside" the holy spot; not "around" it, but stretching out from it as from the point where his safety and honour had their origin; all which is implied in the preposition which Moses uses when he says, "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him." Further, the phrase, "He will cover him all the day long," may very fairly be taken as referring to the cloud of glory which was inseparably associated with the earthly dwelling place of Jehovah, and which in the wilderness had been spread for a covering over all the tribes. That sign of the Divine protection was now to rest specially over Benjamin; and beneath the shadow of the Almighty he was to abide securely day and night. The history of the tribe of Benjamin from the time when the Temple was built upon his frontier hill of Moriah yields a very complete commentary upon the splendid promise of his blessing. This member of the Hebrew commonwealth did dwell in safety that was all the more noteworthy by contrast with the calamities which befell not only the tribes which cast in their lot with Ephraim, but also the outlying portions of the kingdom of Judah. A kind of charmed circle of peace and security was drawn around the towers of Salem, and all the land of Benjamin seemed to be within that happy region. Egypt might come up against Israel from the south, and Syria might invade his territory from the north; the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes, might be confederate to assault it from the east; and these hostile floods more than once filled all the breadth of Immanuel's land; but the tableland of Benjamin was ever the last to be overflowed, and often escaped even the spray of the angry tide. The spiritual application of this blessing must be self-evident to everyone who has received the assurance of God's love toward himself in Jesus Christ. The Christian has joined himself to the Lord's anointed King, even as Benjamin chose to unite his lot with Judah, and to acknowledge the right of David's house to rule over him. He has accepted Christ to be his head, and has prepared Him a dwelling place in a nobler house than that of Moriah, even in his own renewed and adoring heart. Therefore does the Spirit of Christ bear witness to him of his adoption as God's well-beloved child. He has found a dwelling place under the shadow of the Almighty; Jehovah's truth has become his shield and buckler.

(T. G. Rooke, B. A.)

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KJV: And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.

WEB: Of Benjamin he said, "The beloved of Yahweh shall dwell in safety by him. He covers him all the day long. He dwells between his shoulders."