Difference between revisions of "Reuben"

<p> '''Reu'ben.''' ''(behold a son).'' Jacob's firstborn child, &nbsp;Genesis 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. &nbsp;Genesis 37:18-30; &nbsp;Genesis 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. &nbsp;Genesis 35:22. </p> <p> 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dying patriarch, boiling up like a vessel of water over a rapid wood fire, and as quickly subsiding when the fuel was withdrawn.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. &nbsp;Genesis 46:9; &nbsp;1 Chronicles 5:3. The census at Mount Sinai, &nbsp;Numbers 1:20-21; &nbsp;Numbers 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. &nbsp;Exodus 12:38. </p> <p> '''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. </p> <p> 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. </p> <p> 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. &nbsp;1 Chronicles 5:26. </p>

<p> '''Reuben''' (''reu'ben'' ), ''behold a son:'' The eldest son of Jacob and Leah. &nbsp;Genesis 29:32; &nbsp;Deuteronomy 33:6. He was deprived of the privileges of his birthright, in consequence of his improper intercourse with Bilhah, his father's concubine. &nbsp;Genesis 35:22; &nbsp;Genesis 49:3-4. The portion of the Promised Land assigned to the tribe of Reuben lay on the east of the Jordan, in the district now called the Belka, and is still famous for its fine pasture lands, as in ancient times. &nbsp;Numbers 32:1-38; &nbsp;Numbers 34:14; &nbsp;Joshua 1:12-18; &nbsp;Deuteronomy 3:12-16. </p>