Let’s linger in the Sinai desert with the Israelites and consider one of the oldest blessings in the Bible, one which we still use today.
May the LORD bless you, and keep you; May the LORD make his face shine to upon you, and be gracious to you; May the LORD turn his countenance to you and grant you peace.
Perhaps you’ve heard the priest pray this blessing at the conclusion of Mass, or maybe you’ve heard it read at Mass during the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on New Year’s Day.
It’s a wonderfully powerful blessing, conveying God’s protection, grace and peace. Exactly what we need to hear on New Year’s Day.
It also is a great example of how we can discover even more riches in an already powerful piece of Scripture by delving a little deeper into its context and words.
Let’s read this blessing straight from the Book of Numbers. Moses and the Israelites have just finished constructing the sacred Tent of Meeting and Holy of Holies that we discussed in my post the Tent of Meeting:
22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 “Say to Aaron and his sons, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 24 The Lord bless you and keep you: 25 The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: 26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. 27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6:22-27
The blessing, called the birkat kohanim, was prayed by the Jewish High Priest with outstretched hands on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) after he emerged from the Holy of Holies. It still is prayed by Jews on Yom Kippur and at many other times as well.
Specifically there are five things I’d like to tell you about by parsing these verses carefully.
- It’s a Priestly Blessing
As I mentioned above, this blessing was a priestly blessing invoked by the High Priest immediately after leaving the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. We see an example of Aaron doing this after leaving the Holy of Holies in Leviticus, chapter 9:
Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting; and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Leviticus 9:22-23
Simon the High Priest, in the Book of Sirach, blessed the people in this way as he came out of the Holy of Holies. Simon was the Jewish high priest a few centuries before Christ.
Then Simon came down, and lifted up his hands over the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, to pronounce the blessing of the Lord with his lips, and to glory in his name; and they bowed down in worship a second time, to receive the blessing from the Most High. Sirach 50:20-21
So first, the blessing is linked to the Day of Atonement and other priestly visits to the Holy of Holies, and it was God’s way of conveying the fruits of atonement sacrifices on all of Israel.
- God Shining His Face
Verse 25: The Lord make his face to shine upon you,
We see echoes of this blessing in the Psalms, for example, Psalm 67
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving power among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2
The word “shine” used here is derived from the verb that means to be or become light, to enkindle. This phrase is nearly identical to the English, “may his face light up at you” or “May his face beam at you” As when a mother sees her infant, with intimacy and affection.
- Lifting of God’s Face
Verse 26: The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
The word “countenance” used here is the same Hebrew word for “face” (פָּנָ֛יו, pronounced here as “paw-naw”) used in the previous verse. A form of this word for face is also used for the word “presence” in referring to Moses and Aaron encountering God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, which we discussed here.
Lifting up his face is the opposite of God hiding his face. In the Psalms, David laments:
By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed. Psalm 30:7
Lifting up of the face, means showing favor or affection.
- Peace
Verse 26: and give you peace
The Hebrew word here, “shalom” (שָׁלוֹם), pronounced “shah-LOHM”, is often translated as “peace”, but means more than just harmony or the absence of conflict, it means wholeness and wellbeing.
- Invoking the name of of the Lord
Verse 27: “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
The English translation of the blessing uses the word LORD three times, but the original Hebrew uses the Divine Name, also called the Tetragrammaton, three times. Tetragrammaton means “4 letters” and refers to the four Hebrew consonants (יְהוָ֖ה) in the Divine name God revealed to Moses in the Burning bush of Exodus 3. Most scholars transliterate these letters to YHWH, and at some point during or after the Babylonian Exile, the Jews adopted the pious practice of considering the Divine name to be ineffable, that is, not to be pronounced out loud. In fact, the High Priest only pronounced this name once per year, on the Day of Atonement. We Catholics are enjoined by the Church to consider the Divine Name as ineffable.
God revealed his Divine Name to Israel alone, and at this point, only they were sealed with his Divine Name. This is another act of intimacy.
Conclusion
So we find that our understanding of this wonderful priestly blessing can be enriched by retaining its biblical and traditional links to Atonement and to encountering God face to face in the Holy of Holies. In the light of Christ, It means that in addition to being about the bestowal of the blessings of protection, grace, and peace, this blessing is about the bestowal of the fruits of the Atonement, namely, restoring the intimacy we have with Him, and ultimately seeing him face to face in the beatific vision, with his face turned toward us, beaming at us, restoring us body and soul to wholeness and well-being.