This short prayer for blessing is known as the Aaronic Blessing. The pronoun “you” is singular in the Hebrew. It is not the community of Israel that is blessed first, but the individual is blessed which will make the whole community blessed. In the opening and closing the pronouns are plural: “This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them(plural)….So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them(plural).” But, all the blessings are pronounced to the singular or the individual Israelite:

1. The Lord bless you – The Lord blessed people in the Old Testament by giving them children, property, land, crops, health and his presence.
2. The Lord keep you – To be “kept” by God means to be guarded, guided and provided for as someone might “keep” fish in an aquarium or “keep” a pet in their home. The Lord will “keep” us and not abandon us to the hopelessness of an un-kept “aquarium” or suffer as a neglected pet. Peter tells us today that we are those “who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:5)
3. The Lord make his face shine on you – The Lord is compared to a light that, like the sun or a lamp, shines around a person to help them see clearly which way to go and allows them to move about freely and work without hindrance. The Lord is that light around us.
4. The Lord be gracious to you – Yahweh came to Israel to graciously give to them, not to demand from them.
5. The Lord turn his face toward you – this illustrates the Lord paying attention to us. If we are in a crowd of people and someone asks us a question, out of respect and for good communication purposes, we naturally turn to face the person talking to us. To show your face to someone indicates you are giving them your attention and that your intention is to respond to what they say with word or deed. Thus, the Lord turns his face toward us.
6. The Lord give you peace – “peace” is salom in Hebrew and means “well-being, health, prosperity, salvation.” It does not only mean absence of strife, conflict and war.
7. My name on the Israelites – to place the name of a deity on a people or on a place meant that deity was present and that he claimed the people and the place as his own.

With this high priestly blessing God was putting his name and his presence on Israel to bless them, keep them, shine light on them, give to them, pay attention to them and give them well being. The Lord came to Israel to give and be gracious to them so that through them he might give and be gracious to the whole world.

" 'Aslan' said Lucy 'you're bigger.'

'That is because you are older, little one' answered he.

'Not because you are?'

'I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.' "

- C.S. Lewis,
Prince Caspian:
The Return to Narnia