REUBEN, or Ruben, the eldest Son of Gen. xxix. 32.Jacob and Leah; he was born in the Year of the World 2246, before Christ 1754, before the vulgar Era 1758. One Day Reuben went into the Field, being yet very young, and there found a Fruit call’d in Hebrew, Dudaim, which is generally interpreted by Mandrakes, which he Gen. xxx. 14.brought home to his Mother Leah. Rachel was curious to taste them, and asked them of Leah, who gave them her upon Condition that Jacob should be her Bedfellow the Night following. Rachel gave her Consent, and Leah became with Child of Issachar. A long Time after this, Jacob being now return’d into the Land of Canaan, Reuben defiled his Father’s Concubine Gen. xxxv. 22. Deuter. xxxiii. 6. Vulg.Bilhah; for which Reason he lost his Birth-right, and all the Privileges of Primogeniture.
When Joseph’s other Brethren had taken a Resolution to make away with him, Reuben endeavour’d by all means to deliver him out of their Hands.1 He proposed to ‘em, to let him down into an old Water-pit, in which there was no Water, that afterwards he might take him up again, and restore him to his Father Jacob. His Brethren therefore having stript him, let him down into the Pit. But while Reuben was gone at some Distance from them, they drew him out again, and sold him to some Ishmaelites that pass’d that Way. Reuben at his Return, going to the Pit, and not finding him there, tore his Cloaths, and said to his Brethren; ” The Child is ” not to be found, and whither shall I ” go?” They deliver’d him out of his Perplexity, and acquainted him, that they had sold him to some People that were going into Egypt.
Jacob on his Death-bed2 very warmly reproached Reuben with the Crime he had committed with Bilhah; saying to him, Reuben, thou art my First-born; my Might, and the Beginning of my Strength, the Excellency of Dignity, and the Excellency of Power, unstable as Water: thou shalt not excell, because thou wentest up to thy Father’s Bed; then defiledst thou it. He went up to my Couch. Moses before his Death said also to the Tribe of Reuben; Vivat Ruben, & non moriatur, & sit parvus in numero. Let Reuben live, and not die, but let his The English reads, let not his Men be few.Number be but small. And indeed the Tribe of Reuben was never very numerous, nor very considerable in Israel. They had their Inheritance beyond Jordan, in the most southern Part of this Canton, between the Brooks Arnon to the South, and Jazer to the North, having the Mountains of Gilead to the East, and Jordan to the West. The Time of Reuben’s Death is unknown.
We read in the Apocryphal Book, call’d, The Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, that when Reuben was at the Age of thirty Years, he happen’d to see Bilhah, Rachel’s Maid, and his Father Jacob’s Concubine, as she was bathing her self naked in an open Place, and conceived such a violent Passion for her, that he could have no Rest till it was gratify’d. He found an Opportunity for it one Day, when Jacob was gone to visit his Father Isaac, and when his Brethren were at Gader, near Ephrata, or Beth-lehem. Then Reuben finding Bilhah to be drunk, and sleeping in her Tent in an indecent Posture, he indulged his Passion, and committed Incest with her. God revealed this presently to Jacob, by the Ministry of an Angel, and punish’d Reuben for it, by afflicting him with a Distemper, which held him for seven Months; and was so violent, that he had surely died of it, if his Father Jacob had not interceded for him by his Prayers. But Reuben at last was so fully sensible of his Fault, and conceived so great a Sorrow for it, that he impos’d on himself, by way of Penance, to eat neither Bread nor Meat, nor to drink any Wine, for the space of seven Years. But it is well known that this Book is of no Authority, being the Work of an Impostor, who would assert, as genuine, the spurious Book of Enoch, and other Jewish Traditions.
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