Reuben

Scripture: Genesis 29:32; 30:14–15; 35:22; 37:21–30; 42:22, 37; 43:9; 49:3–4; Numbers 32; Deuteronomy 33:6

Birth (Genesis 29:32), Reuben (רְאוּבֵן, "behold, a son," or possibly "YHWH has looked upon my affliction") was the firstborn of Jacob and Leah. His name was Leah's declaration: "Because YHWH has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me" (29:32). He was the first child born to the man who would be Israel, which in ancient inheritance systems meant he was entitled to a double portion and the household leadership.

The mandrakes (Genesis 30:14–15), As a small boy during the wheat harvest, Reuben found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel, who was barren, asked for some. Leah answered with the bitterness of the unloved wife: "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?" The mandrakes are traded for a night with Jacob. This minor detail from Reuben's childhood is the only scene the text gives him as a child. He brought his mother something and watched her bargain it away for a night that produced Issachar.

The defilement of Bilhah (Genesis 35:22), "While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine. And Israel heard of it." The sentence ends there. One of the most consequential acts in the Jacob narrative receives half a verse. What Reuben did was: assert a claim on his father's household through the sexual possession of a secondary wife, a known dynastic move in the ancient Near East (cf. Absalom on the palace roof, 2 Samuel 16:22). The act was understood as a bid for inheritance authority. Jacob heard. He did not act immediately, but he remembered.

The pit and the attempt to save Joseph (Genesis 37:21–30), When Joseph's brothers conspired to kill him, Reuben interrupted: "Let us not take his life... shed no blood, throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him" (37:21–22). The text records Reuben's intention: "that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father" (37:22). Joseph was thrown in. The brothers sat to eat. Ishmaelite traders came. Judah proposed selling Joseph. They sold him. Reuben was not there for that exchange, "when Reuben returned to the pit and Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, 'The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?'" (37:29–30). Reuben had intended to pull Joseph out and return him. He arrived late. Joseph was already in Egypt. His plan to save his brother and restore him to his father was already undone.

Reuben in the famine (Genesis 42:22, 37), When the brothers were confronted in Egypt, Reuben said to them: "Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood" (42:22). He had said it then and he was right. When Simeon was held as hostage and Jacob was asked to send Benjamin, Reuben offered his two sons as surety: "Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you" (42:37). Jacob refused the offer. Later it was Judah who offered himself as surety, and his offer was the one that moved Jacob (43:9). Reuben's offer, the firstborn's offer, was not taken.

Jacob's blessing, the reckoning (Genesis 49:3–4), Jacob's deathbed blessing on Reuben is one of the sharpest assessments in the patriarchal record: "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it, he went up to my couch!" (49:3–4). He was the firstborn; he had what the firstborn was owed in dignity and power. He lost the preeminence through the defilement of the bed. The thing done in Genesis 35:22 in half a verse is the object of the full deathbed verdict in 49:3–4. Jacob had heard it and held it and it became the word over the tribe.

The tribe of Reuben east of the Jordan (Numbers 32), The tribe of Reuben, along with Gad and half of Manasseh, asked Moses to receive their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan rather than in Canaan itself: the land of Jazer and Gilead was good land for livestock. Moses initially heard this as a repetition of the ten spies' refusal (Numbers 13–14), abandoning the people before the conquest. The Reubenites and Gadites clarified: they would build sheepfolds for their livestock and cities for their families, and then every fighting man among them would cross over armed before the people of Israel until the land was conquered. Moses accepted. They built their cities, settled their families, and crossed with the fighting men into Canaan. The tribe's territory east of the Jordan is confirmed in Joshua's distribution. Moses's blessing in Deuteronomy 33:6 says only: "Let Reuben live, and not die, but let his men be few", the blessing of bare existence, not abundance.

Reuben is the firstborn who arrived too late, too late to stop the sale of Joseph, too late to be the one who offered himself for Benjamin, too late to prevent the defilement from becoming the verdict. Jacob's word at his deathbed was honest: you had the preeminence; you lost it. The tribe that bore his name settled east of Jordan, crossed to fight with their brothers, and returned. In Deborah's song (Judges 5:15–16), the tribe of Reuben is the one that "sat among the sheepfolds" and "did not come to the help of YHWH against the mighty." The assessment follows the name.