REUBEN plr, behold a son ; Sept. 'Poup4v), eldest son of Jacob by Leah (Gen. xxix. 32 ; xxxv. 23 ; xlvi. 8). His improper intercourse with Bilhah, his father's concubine wife, was an enor mity too great for Jacob ever to forget, and he spoke of it with abhorrence even on his bed (Gen, xxxv. 22 ; xlix. 4). Yet the part taken by him in the case of Joseph, whom he intended to rescue from the hands of his brothers and restore to his father, and whose supposed death he so sincerely lamented, exhibits his character in an amiable point of view (Gen. xxxvii. 21, 22, 29, 3o). We are, however, to remember that he, as the eldest son, was more responsible for the safety of Joseph than were the others ; and it would seem that he eventually acquiesced in the deception practised upon his father. Subsequently, Reuben offered to make the lives of his own sons respon sible for that of Benjamin, when it was necessary to prevail on Jacob to let him go down to Egypt (Gen. xlii. 37, 38). The fine conduct of Judah in
afterwards undertaking the same responsibility, is in advantageous contrast with this coarse, although well-meant, proposal. For his conduct in the matter of Bilhah, Jacob, in his last blessing, de prived him of the pre-eminence and double portion, which belonged to his birth-right, assigning the former to Judah, and the latter to Joseph (Gen. xlix. 3, 4 ; comp. ver. 8-t0 ; xlviii. 5). The doom, `Thou shalt not excel,' was exactly fulfilled in the destinies of the tribe descended from Reuben, which makes no figure in the Hebrew history, and never produced any eminent person. At the time of the Exodus, this tribe numbered 46,50o adult males, which ranked it as the seventh in popula tion; but at the later census before entering Canaan, its numbers had decreased to 43,730, which rendered it the ninth in population (Num. i. 21; xxvi. 5).-J. K.