Reference: Bless
Easton
(1.) God blesses his people when he bestows on them some gift temporal or spiritual (Ge 1:22; 24:35; Job 42:12; Ps 45:2; 104:24,35).
(2.) We bless God when we thank him for his mercies (Ps 103:1-2; 145:1-2).
(3.) A man blesses himself when he invokes God's blessing (Isa 65:16), or rejoices in God's goodness to him (De 29:19; Ps 49:18).
(4.) One blesses another when he expresses good wishes or offers prayer to God for his welfare (Ge 24:60; 31:55; 1Sa 2:20). Sometimes blessings were uttered under divine inspiration, as in the case of Noah, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses (Ge 9:26-27; 27:28-29,40; 48:15-20; 49:1-28; De 33). The priests were divinely authorized to bless the people (De 10:8; Nu 6:22-27). We have many examples of apostolic benediction (2Co 13:14; Eph 6:23-24; 2Th 3:16,18; Heb 13:20-21; 1Pe 5:10-11).
(5.) Among the Jews in their thank-offerings the master of the feast took a cup of wine in his hand, and after having blessed God for it and for other mercies then enjoyed, handed it to his guests, who all partook of it. Ps 116:13 refers to this custom. It is also alluded to in 1Co 10:16, where the apostle speaks of the "cup of blessing."
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And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his slave. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his slave.
And the LORD has blessed my master greatly, and he is become great; and he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and menslaves and maidslaves and camels and asses.
And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her, Thou art our sister; be thou the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let thy seed possess the gate of those who hate them.
Therefore let God give thee of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of wheat and new wine. Let the peoples serve thee and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee; cursed be every one that curses thee, and blessed be he that blesses thee.
and by thy sword shalt thou live and shalt serve thy brother; yet there shall be a time when thou shalt have dominion, and thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
And early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them; and Laban departed and returned unto his place.
And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel who frees me from all evil, bless these young men, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. read more. Then Joseph seeing that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused and said, I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of Gentiles. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
And Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father. read more. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, principal in dignity, and the principal in power. Unstable as water, thou shalt not be principal because thou didst go up to thy father's bed; then thou became defiled, going up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of injustice are their weapons. Let my soul not enter into their secret; nor let my honour join their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their own will they dug down a wall. Cursed be their anger, which is strong, and their wrath, which is hard; I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; thy father's sons shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not be taken from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine and his ass's colt unto the choice roots; he washed his garments in wine and his covering in the blood of grapes; His eyes red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the port of the sea; and he shall be for a port of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens; and he saw that rest was good and the land that it was pleasant and bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant unto tribute. Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for thy saving health, O LORD. Gad, an army shall invade him, but he shall invade at the last. Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield delight unto the king. Naphtali is a hind let loose, who shall give forth a good word. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a fountain, whose daughters run over the wall. The arches have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him; but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty one of Jacob; from there did the stone of Israel shepherd, by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the deep that lies under, with blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of thy father were greater than the blessings of my progenitors; unto the borders of the eternal hills they shall be upon the head of Joseph and on the crown of the Nazarite of his brethren. Benjamin, ravening wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil. All these were the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke unto them and blessed them; each one according to his blessing he blessed them.
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, Thus shall ye bless the sons of Israel, saying unto them, read more. The LORD bless thee and keep thee; the LORD make his face shine upon thee and have mercy on thee; the LORD lift up his face upon thee, and place peace in thee. And they shall place my name upon the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.
At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.
and it shall be, when that one hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.
So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she asses.
Thou art fairer than the sons of men, grace is poured into thy lips; therefore God has blessed thee for ever.
Though while he lives, his life shall be blessed: and men will praise thee when thou art prosperous.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless the name of his holiness. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom thou hast made them all; the earth is full of thy riches.
Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Halelu- JAH (Praise ye the LORD).
I will take the cup of saving health and invoke the name of the LORD.
Aleph I will extol thee, my God, my king, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Beth Each day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
He who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth because the former troubles shall be forgotten and shall be covered from my eyes.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of the Christ?
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the charity of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Peace be to the brethren and charity with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. Amen.
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal testament, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for the ages of the ages. Amen.
Watsons
BLESS, BLESSING. There are three points of view in which the acts of blessing may be considered. The first is, when men are said to bless God, as in Ps 103:1-2. We are then not to suppose that the divine Being, who is over all, and, in himself, blessed for evermore, is capable of receiving any augmentation of his happiness, from all the creatures which he has made: such a supposition, as it would imply something of imperfection in the divine nature, must ever be rejected with abhorrence; and, therefore, when the creatures bless the adorable Creator, they only ascribe to him that praise, and dominion, and honour, and glory, and blessing, which it is equally the duty and joy of his creatures to reader. But when God is said to bless his people, Ge 1:22; Eph 1:3;
the meaning is, that he confers benefits upon them, either temporal or spiritual, and so communicates to them some portion of that blessedness which, in infinite fulness, dwells in himself, Jas 1:17; Ps 104:24,28; Lu 11:9-13. In the third place men are said to bless their fellow creatures. From the time that God entered into covenant with Abraham, and promised extraordinary blessings to his posterity, it appears to have been customary for the father of each family, in the direct line, or line of promise, previous to his death, to call his children around him, and to inform them, according to the knowledge which it pleased God then to give him, how, and in what manner, the divine blessing conferred upon Abraham was to descend among them. Upon these occasions, the patriarchs enjoyed a divine illumination; and under its influence, their benediction was deemed a prophetic oracle, foretelling events with the utmost certainty, and extending to the remotest period of time. Thus Jacob blessed his sons, Genesis xlix; and Moses, the children of Israel, Deuteronomy 33. When Melchizedeck blessed Abraham, the act of benediction included in it not merely the pronouncing solemn good wishes, but also a petitionary address to God that he would be pleased to ratify the benediction by his concurrence with what was prayed for. Thus Moses instructed Aaron, and his descendants, to bless the congregation, "In this wise shall ye bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make his face to shine upon thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace," Nu 4:23. David says, "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord," Ps 116:13. This phrase appears to be taken from the practice of the Jews in their thank-offerings, in which a feast was made of the remainder of their sacrifices, and the offerers, together with the priests, did eat and drink before the Lord; when, among other rites, the master of the feast took a cup of wine in his hand and solemnly blessed God for it, and for the mercies which were then acknowledged, and gave it to all the guests, every one of whom drank in his turn. To this custom it is supposed our blessed Lord alludes in the institution of the cup, which also is called, 1Co 10:16, "the cup of blessing." At the family feasts also, and especially that of the passover, both wine and bread were in this solemn and religious manner distributed, and God was blessed, and his mercies acknowledged. They blessed God for their present refreshment, for their deliverance out of Egypt, for the covenant of circumcision, and for the law given by Moses; and prayed that God would be merciful to his people Israel, that he would send the Prophet Elijah, and that he would render them worthy of the kingdom of the Messiah. See also 1Ch 16:2-3. In the Mosaic law, the manner of blessing is appointed by the lifting up of hands. Our Lord lifted up his hands, and blessed his disciples. It is probable that this action was constantly used on such occasions. The palm of the hand held up was precatory; and the palm turned outward or downward was benedictory. See BENEDICTION and See LORD'S SUPPER.
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And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shalt thou number them, all that enter in to the host to do work in the tabernacle of the testimony.
And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD. And he dealt to all Israel, both men and women, to each one a loaf of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless the name of his holiness. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom thou hast made them all; the earth is full of thy riches.
Thou givest unto them, they gather; thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
I will take the cup of saving health and invoke the name of the LORD.
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. read more. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him?
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of the Christ?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ;
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.