in its moral aspect, would be peculiarly abhorrent to a
patriarchal society, and which is specially and repeat- edly reprobated in the law of Moses. The Rabbinical version of the occurrence (as given in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan) is very characteristic, and well illus- trates ii,,. difference between the spirit of early and of late Jewish history. "Reuben went and disordered
the couch of Bilhah, his lather's concubine, which w.as placed right opposite the couch of Leah, and it was counted unto him as if he had lain with Iter. And when Israel heard it. it displl ased l)i'. i. and he said, Lo!
an unworthy person shall proceed Ii- me. as fshmael
did from Abraham, and Esau from my father. And the Holy Spirit answered him and said. All are righteous, and there is not one unworthy among them." lo uben's anxiety to save Joseph is represented as arising from a
desire to conciliate Jacob, and his absence while Joseph was sold, from his Bitting alone on the mountains in penitent fasting. These traits, slight as they are. are those of an ardent, impetuous, unbalanced, but not un- generous, nature; not crafty and cruel, as were Simeon and Levi, but rather, to use the metaphor of the dying patriarch, boiling up (TBS, A. V. ••unstable." Gen. xlix, 4) like a vessel of water over the rapid wood-lire ofthe nomad tent, ami as quickly subsiding into apathy when the fuel was withdrawn.
2. The Tribe of Reuben. -At the time ofthe migra- tion into Egypt (or rather at the time of Jacob's de- cease), Reuben's sons were four (Gen. xlvi, 0; 1 Chron. v,3). From them sprang the chief families ofthe tribe (Numb, xxvi, 5-11). One of these families— that of Pallu — became notorious as producing Eliab, whose sons or descendants, Dathan and Abiram, perished with their kinsman On in the divine retribution lor their conspira- cy against Moses I svi, 1 : xxvi, 8 1 1 |. The census at Mount Sinai ( i. 20, 21 ; ii. 1 1 ) shows that at the Exodua the numbers ofthe tribe were 16,500 men above twenty years of .age. and lit for active warlike service. In point of numerical strength, Reuben was then sixth on the list. Gad, with l">.f>.>0 men. being next below. ( »n the borders of Canaan, after the plague which punished the idolatry of Baal-peor, the numbers had fallen slightly, and were -13,73(1; (iad was -ltl.,jl>(>; and the position ,,f the two in the list is lower than before, Ephraim and Simeon being the only two smaller tribes (xxvi, 7. etc. ). During the journey through the wilderness the position of Reuben was on the south side ofthe Tabernacle. The "camp" which went under his name was formed of his own tribe, that of Simeon (Leah's second son), and thai ol Gad (sou oi Zilpah, Leah's slave). The standard of the camp was a deer w lib the inscription. " Hear. ( I Is- rael ! the Lord thy God is one Lord!" and its place in the march was second (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan [ Numb, ii, 10-16]).
The Reubenites, like their relatives and neighbors on the journey, the Gadites, hail maintained through the march to Canaan the ancient calling of their forefathers. The patriarchs were ••feeding their flocks" at Shechem when Joseph was sold into Egypt It was as men whose "trade bait been about cattle from their youth" that they wen- presented to Pharaoh (Gen. \1\ i. 32, 3 I . and in the land of Goshen they settled "with their flocks and herds and all that they had" (ver. 32; xlvii. 1). Their cattle accompanied them ill their flight from Egypt I Exod. \ii. 38 I : not a hoof was left I. (hind ; and there arc frequent allusions to them on the journey (xxxiv,3; Numb, xi, 22; Deut. viii, 13, etc.). lint it would appear that the tribes who were destined to settle in the confined territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan had, during the journey through the wilder- ness, fortunately relinquished that taste for the posses- sion of cattle which they could not have maintained al- ter I heir set t lenient til a distance from the wide pastures ol the wilderness. Thus the cattle had come into the
hands oi Reuben, Gad, and the halfofManasseh I Numb. \\\ii. I !. ami it followed naturally that when the na-
REUBEN
1059
REUBEN
tion arrived on the open downs east of the Jordan, the three tribes just named should prefer a request to their leader to be allowed to remain in a place so perfectly suited to their requirements. The country east of Jor- dan does not appear to have been included in the origi- nal land promised to Abraham. That which the spies examined was comprised, on the east and west, between the " coast of Jordan" and " the sea." But for the pu- sillanimity of the greater number of the tribes it would have been entered from the south (xiii, 30), and in that case the east of Jordan might never have been peopled by Israel at all. Accordingly, when the Reubenites and their fellows approach Moses with their request, his main objection is that by what they propose they will discourage the hearts of the children of Israel from going over Jordan into the land which Jehovah had given them (xxxii, 7). It is only on their undertaking to fulfil their part in the conquest of the western coun- try, the land of Canaan proper, and thus satisfying him that their proposal was grounded in no selfish desire to escape a full share of the difficulties of the conquest, that Moses will consent to their proposal.