White Robed Monks of St. Benedict

Blessings by God in the Old Testament

God blesses the first living things.

Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

God blesses Adam and Eve.

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Genesis 5:2
Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Adam when they were created.

God blesses Noah.

Genesis 9:1-3
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

God blesses Abraham.

Genesis 17:16 I
will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves."

Blessings of God in the Old Testament

Melchisedek blesses Abraham and his God.

Genesis 14:19-20
And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything Abraham's servant Blesses God.

Genesis 24:27
and said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsmen." David is blessed by his General, Ahimaaz.

2 Samuel 18:28
Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, "All is well." And he bowed before the king with his face to the earth, and said, "Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king."

Blessings from the Psalms.

Psalm 18:46-47
The Lord lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation,
the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me;

Psalm 66:8-9
Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.

When People bless God it is generally with reference to some great act which he has accomplished on someone's behalf. As such, to bless God is to acknowledge God's blessing of some living thing, including human beings.

Blessings by People of one another in the Old Testament

Isaac blesses Jacob his son.

Genesis 27:26-29
Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come near and kiss me, my son." So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, "See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed! May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be every one who curses you, and blessed be every one who blesses you!"

Jacob blesses his sons, the ancestors of the Twelve tribes of Israel.

Genesis 49:28-33
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel; and this is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. Then he charged them, and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah -- the field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites." When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people. Moses blesses the people when he comes to die

Deuteronomy 32:46-52
He said to them: "Take to heart all the words that I am giving in witness against you today; give them as a command to your children, so that they may diligently observe all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but it is your life, and thereby you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to possess.48 And the Lord said to Moses that very day, "Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession; and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribath-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not revere me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there, into the land which I give to the people of Israel."

Deuteronomy33:1
This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. In the Old Testament there is really only one blessing. It is the blessing transmitted through the people of God which comes from Abraham.

Isaiah 61:9
Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.There is an interesting slant on this in the story of Balaam and Balak, where Balaam tries unsuccessfully to curse the people of Israel at the behest of Balak, King of Moab. He fails because in the words of Balaam himself,

Numbers 23:19-21
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it? Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob; nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.