as carried captive by Tiglath-pUeser. On the other hand, they are kept quite separate in the Blessing of Jacob (Gn 49) and the Blessing of Moses (Dt 33) ; and tlie latter document shows us that Gad was flourisliing when Reuben had been reduced to insignilii-.ance. Probably Gad and Reuben were associated at tlie Conquest, an I through the proximity of their territories ; but, after the Conquest, the prevailing tendency to lapse from national unity to tribal isolation loosened the ties between the two eastern tribes, till Reuben was overwhelmed by some catastrophe, and its remnants became absorbed in Gad.
Apparently, at and immediately after the Con- quest, Reuben was still an important tribe. In the Song of Deborah it is referred to before Gad, and at greater length —
*By the watercourses of Reuben There were great resolves of heart. Why aatest thou among the sheepfolds. To hear the piping's for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben There were great searehings of heart. OUeod abode beyond Jordan ' (Jg y^-").*
Table of Cities assigned to Reuben.
Assigned to
Remark*.
Reuben.
Gad.
Moab.
Nu 3237.38.
Jos
1315.23.
Job 208.
Jos
2136. 37.
lCh68.
la 15. 16, etc.
Jer 4S.
Stone.
Aroer
A8bdoth'pis<;ah b .
BauioLh-b:uil .
Relb-baal-inc-on
Beth-jeshimoth
Heth-peor
Bezer
Dibon .
Elealeh . Heshbon
Jah(a)z(ali) . Kedeni'>th Kiriathaim Medelia . Mephaath Nel.o Sibnmh . Zereth-shahar
• • •
• « • • «
•
•
• • • • •
•
•
•
=lCh
67&79
•
• •
•
• •
Nu3234
Nu323J
3346.48
Jos 208 2138
Ezk25i'd Ezk259
•
• •
•
«
« •
•
••
• f
ft
•
• •
•
•
•o
•
• «
•g
• 'from,'
bRV -slopes of Pisgah.'
« Beth Buiil. d Baal-iueon. « Beth-meoo.
fBozrah.
E Taken from Israel.
from the close association of the two tribes : clans and territories were reckoned sometimes to the one, sometimes to the other.
The district assigned to Reuben is described under Moab.
iv. History after the Conquest.— It is diffi- cult to determine how far Reuben had a history separate from that of Gad. In Nu 32 and in the narratives in Joshua, Reuben and Gad are con- stantly associated, and, as we have seen, were somewhat intermingled in their territorial settle- ments. This relationship probably arose out of the arrangements made during the period of the Conquest, and were not due to any previous special connexion between the two tribes ; Reuben is a ' son ' of Leah, Gad of Zilpah, Rachel's slave. P's usual grouping (Nu 2'° etc.) — Reuben, Simeon, Gad— in the history of the Exodus is a reflexion of later conditions. Reuben and Gad [Gilead] are mentioned consecutively in the Song of Delwrah as having both held aloof from the war against Sisera. The two tribes are also associated in 2 K lO** as ' smitten ' by Hazael, and in 1 Ch S^
Thus, at this time, Reuben was still much occu- pied with flocks and herds, perhaps altogether a pastoral, semi-nomadic people ; and was too little interested in its western kinsfolk to join the muster against Sisera.
In Jg 20. 21 (RP' on JE) the eastern tribes take part in the war against Benjamin. The Blessing of Jacob, a document of the early monarchy (B.C. 1000-850), opens by referring to Reuben ; thus, according to MT —
' Reuben, thou art my Srstbom, my might, and the beguminf
of my strength ; The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power. Uncontained as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence ; Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed : Then defiledst thou it ; ne went up to my couch.'
The sense is obscure, and the text doubtful ; but the lines seem to suggest that at this time Reuben was still powerful ; out in bad odour with the • Moore (PB) emends the text and translates—
' Great were the dissensions in the divisions of Bdlbeo. Why didst thou remain amid ash-heaps, Listening to pipings at sheepfolds? Gilead sat still beyond Jordan-'
REUBEN, REUBENITES
REVELATIOX, BOOK OF
239
otlicr tril)es, possibly on account of lax sexual morality (Dillinann), or for political reasons, or because the tribe bad in some way violated some Israelite tradition as to religious observances. Jos VfJ may be based on some such reminiscences.
Another view is that these lines are an explana- tion, after the event, of the ruin of the tribe ; but, if this were the case, we should expect some more definite and circumstantial reference to the calamity.
In 1 Ch 5"- "■^, according to Kittel {SHOT),
f)art of the material added oy the Chronicler to lis sources, we read that, in the time of Saul, the Renbenites had much cattle, and in conjunction with Gad and Eastern Manasseh possessed them- selves of the cattle and conquered the territory of the Hagrites, and 'dwelt in their stea*l till the Captivity ' (see Hagrites). The same stratum of Chronicles (so Kittel) makes the following state- ments as to the Keubenites in the reign of David. In 1 Ch 12^- " amongst the Israelites who came to Da\'id at Hebron to make him king were 120,000 from the Eastern tribes ; and, according to 1 Ch 26*', David appointed 2700 Levites of Hebron as eeclesia-stical and civil officials over these tribes ; and 1 Ch 27" states that the chief of the Keuben- ites in his reign w.is Eliezer ben-Ziihri. No doubt the Keubenites often engaged, with varj'ing suc- cess, in border warfare with the neighbouring tribes ; and tradition may have preserved re- miniscences of a victory over the Hagrites. The statistics are probably ootained by tlie Chronicler's familiar conjectural reconstruction of history.