Numbers 6:25

25. Make his face shine The Targum adds, “when occupied in the law, and reveal to thee its secrets.” Anthropomorphic descriptions of God and boldness of metaphor are characteristic of Hebrew poetry. “If the light of the sun is sweet and pleasant to behold, the light of the divine countenance, the everlasting light, is the sum of all delight.” Baumgarten. Stripped of figure, the prayer is that Jehovah may deal kindly with Israel, as is indicated in the following part of the parallelism.

And be gracious unto thee It is a mere play of the fancy to make sharp distinctions between the blessings invoked in these verses. Thus Luther refers the first blessing to bodily good, the second to the spiritual nature and soul, and the third to the same with a desire for final victory over the cross, death, the devil, the world, and the flesh.