Deuteronomy 33:8

BLESSING OF LEVI (Deuteronomy 33:8-11)

"And of Levi, he said,

Thy Thummin and thy Urim are with thy godly one,

Whom thou didst prove at Massah,

With whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;

Who said of his father, and his mother, I have not seen him;

Neither did he acknowledge his brethren,

Nor knew he his own children;

For they have observed thy word,

And keep thy covenant.

They shall teach Jacob thine ordinances,

And Israel thy law;

They shall put incense before thee,

And whole burnt-offerings upon thine altar.

Bless, Jehovah, his substance,

And accept the work of his hands:

Smite through the loins of them that rise up against him,

And of them that hate him, that they rise not again."

Here is a marked difference from the blessings pronounced by Jacob. Simeon and Levi in Jacob's blessing were doomed to be "divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel." In the case of Simeon, that tribe indeed diminished significantly during the wanderings, and by the time of the division of the land of Canaan, they were content with a few cities in the territory of Judah, and although the Levites were indeed "scattered" throughout Israel, there was a great and continuing honor that came to them in the holy service assigned as their portion and in the offices of the high priest and the Aaronic priests who played such an important role in the whole history of Israel. Here is also a good place to note that Simeon did not here receive a separate blessing, although, as a member of the Chosen People this whole blessing fell also upon him.

"This recovery of God's favor by the Levites may be traced to the faithfulness of Moses and Aaron who came of this tribe and served God faithfully, also to the zeal and constancy of the tribe who defended the truth (even against their own kin) in the episodes of Exodus 32:26 and Numbers 25:11)."[13]