Retz, Pierre de Gondi de, a French cardinal, was born at Lyons in 1533. After entering the ecclesiasti- cal life, he received many favors from Catherine de' Me- dici, and advanced rapidly. He was made bishop of Langres in 1505, and was transferred to the see of Paris in 1570, and became grand - almoner, chancellor, and chief of the council of Charles IX. He was several times ambassador to the Holy See, and in 1587 was cre- ated cardinal. He refused to take the oath of allegiance, and explained his reasons in a letter, to which the writ- ers of the League replied with passion. In 1592 he was sent by Henry IV on an embassy to the pope. He died Feb. 17, 1616. Retz was an honest but parsimonious man, and possessed little genuine talent. — Biog. Uni- verselle, s. v.
Re'ii (Heb. Rev.', I"*!, friend; Sept. 'Payav v. r. 'Payav, 1 Chron. i, 25), the son of Peleg and father of Serug in the Abrahamic ancestry (Gen. xi, 18, 21 ; 1 Chron. i, 25). B.C. cir. 1950. He is called Ragau in Luke iii, 35. He lived 239 years. "Bunsen (Bibehcerk) says Reu is Rolia, the Arabic name for Edessa, an asser- tion which, borrowed from Knobel, is utterly destitute of foundation, as will be seen at once on comparing the Hebrew and Arabic words. A closer resemblance might
ItEUBEX
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KEUBEX
be found between Reu and Rhagm, a large town offic- ially if the Greek equivalents of the two names be taken" I Smith).
Reu'ben (Heb. Reuben', "~"N~. set a son [see be- kra !: Sept and New Test. 'Pow/3qy), the name of one of the .l.w i>h patriarchs and ofthe tribe descended from him. ("In the following account we make use in part of the article in Smith's Diet, ofthe Bible, s.v.) See Jacob.
1. Reuben was Jacob's first-born child (Gen. xxix. on of Leah, apparently an unexpected fruil of the marriage (vcr. 31: Joseph us, Ant. i, 19,8). B.C. 1919. This is perhaps denoted by the nam.- itself, whether we adopt the obvious signification oi its pres- ent form — reu'ben, i.e. "behold ye, a son!
. p. L247 b)— or the explanation given in the text, which seems to imply that the original form was •":"2 ""X", rati bSonyi, "Jehovah hath seen my afflic- tion,1' or that ol Josephus, who uniformly presents it as Roubel ('Poi'/3?j\or, so also in Ant. ii, 3, 1), and explains it (An/, i. 19, 8) as the "pity ol God"— t\eov tov Qeov, as if from bx2 '"IX'H (Furst, Heb. Lex. p. 1269). The Peshito (Rubil) and the Arabic version oi Joshua agree with this last form. Redslob (Di* alttestamentl. Namen, p. 86) maintains that Reubel is the original form of the name, which was corrupted into Reuben, as Bethel into the modern Beitin, and Jezreel into Zerin. lie treats it as signifying the "flock of Bel," a deity whose wor- ship greatly flourished in the neighboring country oi Moab, and who under the name of Nebo had a famous sanctuary in the very territory ol Reuben. In this case it would be a parallel to the title, " people of Chemosh," which is bestowed on .Moab. The alteration of the ob- noxious syllable in KcuW would, on this theory, find a parallel in the Merib&aai and Eshbaal of Saul's family, who became Mepbibosheth and Ishbosketh. IJut all this is evidently fanciful and arbitrary.
The notices of the patriarch Reuben in the book of Genesis and the early Jewish traditional literature are unusually frequent, and on the whole give a favorable view of his disposition. To him, and him alone, the preservation ol Joseph's life appears to have been due. B.C. 1895. His anguish at the disappearance of his brother, and the frustration ol his kindly artifice for de- livering him (Gen. xxxvii, 22); his recollection of the minute details of t lie painful scene many years after- wards (xlii, 22); his offer to take the side responsibility ol the safety ol the brother who had succeeded to Jo- seph's place in the family (vcr. 37), all testily to a warm and (for those rough times) a kindly nature. We are, however, to remember that he, as the eldest son, was more responsible lor the safety of Joseph than were the others, and it would seem that he eventually acqui- esced in the deception practiced upon his lather. Sub- sequently Reuben offered to make the lives of bis own sons responsible for thai of Benjamin, when it was neces- sary to prevail on Jacob to let him go down to Egypt (vers. 37, 38). The fine conduct of Judah in afterwards undertaking the same responsibility is in advantageous
contrast with ibis coarse, although well-meant, pro- posal. For his adulterous and incestuous conduct in i he matter oi Bilhah, Jacob in his last blessing deprived him oi the pre-eminence and double portion which be- longed to his birthright, assigning the former to Judah and the latter to Joseph (xlix,3, 4; com p. vers. 8-10; xlviii. 5). < H this repulsive crime we know Irom the
Scriptures ., uiy the fact (xxxv,22). In the post-Bibli- cal traditions n is treated either as not having actually occurred (as in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan), or else as the result oi a sudden temptation acting on a hot and vigorous nature (as in the Testament ol the I'welve Patriarchs) a parallel, in some oi its circumstances, to the intrigue of David with Bathsheba, Some severe temptation there musl surely have been to impel Reu- ben to an act which, regarded in it8 social rather than