reuben Summary and Overview

behold a son!, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:32). His sinful conduct, referred to in Gen. 35:22, brought down upon him his dying father's malediction (48:4). He showed kindness to Joseph, and was the means of saving his life when his other brothers would have put him to death (37:21,22). It was he also who pledged his life and the life of his sons when Jacob was unwilling to let Benjamin go down into Egypt. After Jacob and his family went down into Egypt (46:8) no further mention is made of Reuben beyond what is recorded in ch. 49:3,4.

(behold a son), Jacob's firstborn Child, #Ge 29:32| the son of Leah. (B.C. 1753.) The notices of the patriarch Reuben give, on the whole a favorable view of his disposition. To him and him alone the preservation of Joseph's life appears to have been due and afterward he becomes responsible for his safety. #Ge 37:18-30; 42:37| Of the repulsive crime which mars his history, and which turned the blessing of his dying father into a curse --his adulterous connection with Bilhah-- we know from the Scriptures only the fact. #Ge 35:22| He was of an ardent, impetuous, unbalanced but not ungenerous nature; not crafty and cruel, as were Simeon and Levi, but rather, to use the metaphor of the dying patriarch, boiling up like a vessel of water over a rapid wood fire, and as quickly subsiding when the fuel was withdrawn. At the time of the migration into Egypt, Reuben's sons were four. #Ge 46:9; 1Ch 5:3| The census at Mount Sinai, #Nu 1:20,21; 2:11| shows that at the exodus the men of the tribe above twenty years of age and fit for active warlike service numbered 46,600. The Reubenites maintained the ancient calling of their forefathers. Their cattle accompanied them in their flight from Egypt. #Ex 12:38| Territory of the tribe. --The portion of the promised land selected by Reuben had the special name of "the Mishor," with reference possibly to its evenness. Under its modern name of the Belka it is still esteemed beyond all others by the Arab sheep-masters. It was a fine pasture-land east of the Jordan, lying between the river Arnon on the south and Gilead on the north. Though the Israelites all aided the Reubenites in conquering the land, and they in return helped their brothers to secure their own possessions, still there was always afterward a bar, a difference in feeling and habits, between the eastern and western tribes. The pile of stones which they erected on the west bank of the Jordan to mark their boundary was erected in accordance with the unalterable habits of Bedouin tribes both before and since. This act was completely misunderstood and was construed into an attempt to set up a rival altar to that of the sacred tent. No Judge, no prophet, no hero of the tribe of Reuben is handed down to us. The Reubenites disliked war clinging to their fields and pastures even when their brethren were in great distress. Being remote from the seat of the national government and of the national religion, it is not to be wondered at that the Reubenites relinquished the faith of Jehovah. The last historical notice which we possess of them, while it records this fact, records also as its natural consequence that they and the Gadites and the half-tribe Manasseh were carried off by Pul and Tiglath-pileser. #1Ch 5:26|

REU'BEN (behold a son!) was the eldest son of Jacob and Leah. Gen 29:32. He lost the privileges of birthright in consequence of a grievous sin. Gen 35:22; Gen 49:3-4. In spite of his impulsiveness, however, he was kind of heart, as shows his relation to the conspiracy against Joseph. Gen 37:18-30; Gen 42:37. It was said of Reuben by his father Jacob, "Unstable as water," Gen 49:4, and Deborah and Sisera sang in reproach of Reuben, Jud 5:15-16; the tribe, at times, showed military prowess and extended its boundaries. 1 Chr 5:1-10, 1 Chr 5:18-22. At the first census in the wilderness his descendants, the Reubenites. or the tribe of Reuben, numbered 46,500, Num 1:20-21, but at the second census they had decreased to 43,730. The Reubenites soon became wealthy herdsmen, but they were averse to war, Jud 5:15-16, and were the first who were carried away into captivity.

Jacob's firstborn, Leah's son, born long after the marriage. The name expresses the parents' joy at the accomplishment of long deferred hope: "Behold ye a son" (Genesis 29:32). He gathered mandrakes for his mother, in boyhood (Genesis 30:14). (See MANDRAKES.) In a sudden gust of temptation he was guilty of foul incest with Bilhah, his father's secondary wife. Jacob on his deathbed (Genesis 49:3-4) said: "boiling over (so pachaz means) like water (on a rapid fire), thou shalt not excel" (Genesis 49:4). The effervescence of water symbolizes excited lust and insolent pride. By birthright Reuben was "the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power" (Genesis 49:3), i.e. entitled to the chieftianship of the tribes and to a double portion; but because of incest (Genesis 35:22; Leviticus 18:8) "thou shalt not excel" or "have this excellency" (compare the margin of Leviticus 4:7). (No great act, no great prophet, judge, or hero leader, springing from Reuben, appears on record (1 Chronicles 5:1-2.) The chieftainship was transferred to Judah, the double portion to Joseph; the firstborn of the beloved Rachel superseding the firstborn of slighted Leah, not however to gratify the father's preference (Deuteronomy 21:15-17), but to fulfill God's holy purpose. Impulses to good, as well as evil, were strong in Reuben. Impetuous, without due balance of mind, he was at the same time generous in disposition. He saved Joseph's life from the crafty and cruel brothers, Levi, Simeon, Judah, and the rest, by insisting that his blood should not be shed, but he be cast into a pit, Reuben secretly intending to deliver him out of their hands. These took advantage of his temporary absence to sell Joseph (Genesis 37:20 ff). He probably had gone to seek means to rescue Joseph. The writer's omitting to explain Reuben's absence is just what a forger would not have omitted, and proves the simplicity and truthfulness of the narrative. Reuben was deeply moved to find Joseph gone; he rent his clothes, crying, "the child is not, and I, where shall I go?" Years after he reminded them of his remonstrance (Genesis 42:22): "spoke I not unto you saying, Do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear? Therefore behold also his blood is required." Again, his offer to Jacob (Genesis 42:37) to stake his own two sons' lives for the safety of Benjamin, Joseph's surviving brother, is another trait of kindliness. But consistent resoluteness was wanting; putting Joseph in the pit was a compromise with the brothers' wickedness; decided, firm, unyielding resistance would have awed them and saved Joseph. Reuben had four sons at the migration into Egypt (Genesis 46:9; 1 Chronicles 5:3; Numbers 26:5-11). The conspirators Dathan, Abiram, and On sprang through Eliab and Pallu from Reuben (Numbers 16:1). At the Sinai census (Numbers 1:20-21; Numbers 2:11) Reuben numbered 46,500 men above 20 years of age, fit for service, and was sixth on the list: at the borders of Canaan (Numbers 26:7) -43,730. On march Reuben was S. of the tabernacle; Gad and Simeon were next Reuben on the same side (Numbers 2:10-16). Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh still retained their forefathers' calling as tending flocks and herds (Numbers 32:1). So, at their request, they were allowed to occupy Og's and Sihor's territories E. of Jordan, "the mishor" or even downs, the modern Belka; well watered, with smooth short turf, stretching away into the vast nomadic tracts eastward. Reuben, faithfully keeping their promise to Moses (Numbers 32:16-33), left the wives, little ones, and flocks behind in this region, and marched W. of Jordan to help in the conquest of Canaan; subsequently they erected an altar shaped like the tabernacle altar, W. of Jordan, not for sacrifice but to attest their share in the national worship with their brethren on that side (Joshua 22). By a solemn protestation of their not intending political or religious schism in the name of 'Eel," the Strong One", Elohim "the Supreme Being" to be feared, and Jehovah "the covenant God", they disabused Israel's mind of suspicion. Typical of there being only one sacrificial altar, Christ, above; our earthly communion with His sacrifice being commemorative, spiritual, and real, not carnal and literal (Hebrews 13:10; Revelation 8:3). Moses' blessing on Reuben (Deuteronomy 33:6-7), "let Reuben live and not die, and let (not) his men be few," implies a warning and a deprecation of evils deserved. Reuben held the S. of the land E. of Jordan. Occupation with their flocks made them dilatory and unwilling to join in the struggle for national independence against Jabin (Judges 5:15-16). Keil translated, "at the watercourses of Reuben were great resolutions (projects) of heart." Reuben held meetings by their rural watercourses (pelagot), passed spirited resolutions, but after all preferred remaining quietly among the sheepfolds (hurdles) and hearing the bleating of the flocks (or else the piping of shepherds) rather than the blast of war trumpets. The same impulsive instability appears in them as in their forefather Reuben. (See RIVER.) Seeking pastures for their flocks they dissipated their strength in guerrilla marauding expeditions toward Euphrates against the Bedouin tribes Hagar, Jetur, Nephish (1 Chronicles 5:9-10; 1 Chronicles 5:18, etc.). The Dibon stone shows that Moab wrested from Reuben many cities assigned by Joshua to them. (See DIBON.) Finally going a whoring after the gods of the people of the land whom God destroyed before them, Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh were first cut short by Hazael (2 Kings 10:32-33), then carried off by Pul and Tiglath Pileser, and placed about the river Khabour "in Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan" (1 Chronicles 5:26).