John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 33:1

"And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death." — Deuteronomy 33:1 (ASV)

And this is the blessing. The bitterness of the Song was seasoned,³⁰⁴ as it were, by this mitigation, in which Moses left a testimony regarding God’s future and perpetual grace, as if depositing an inestimable treasure in the hands of the people. For, as God, after the deliverance of His people, and the giving of the Law, renewed the covenant which Jacob had testified to and proclaimed, so Moses was, as it were, their second father, to reaffirm its blessings, so that their memory would never be lost.

To inspire confidence in his benedictions, he begins by magnifying his vocation before he addresses them. For, although the word benediction is equivalent to a prayer for success, yet it must be remembered that Moses does not here pray in the usual way, like a private individual, as fathers are accustomed to offer supplications for their children; rather, in the spirit of prophecy, he sets forth the blessings which were to be expected from God.

This, then, is the reason he extols the dignity and glory of his office as ruler in such lofty terms: namely, so that the twelve tribes of Israel may be thoroughly assured that God is the author of these blessings. For the same reason he calls himself “the man of God”: so that the people may receive what he is about to say as if it proceeded from God, whose undoubted minister he is. Nor is the timing without its weight—“before his death,” or “in his death,”—which adds to the prophecy the force of a testament.

³⁰⁴ “Ceste benediction a este comme du suere,” etc.; this blessing was like sugar, etc. — Fr..