RUBEN. — Firstborn of Giacobbe and Lia, his first wife (Gen. 29:32). At his birth, his mother exclaimed: « God has seen my affliction », and the name R. is connected by assonance with rā'ah bē'onjī « he saw affliction », but properly means: « see (or « behold ») a son ».
Of R. as a child, the episode of the mandrakes is recalled, which sharpened the jealousy between Lia and Rachele (ibid. 30:14 ff.). Because he violated his father’s marriage bed, he was deprived of every right of primogeniture. Significant in this regard are the words of the dying Giacobbe: « R., you are my firstborn, my strength and the firstfruits of my vigor (not sorrow, as the Vulgate reads), outstanding in rank and outstanding in passion: boiling like water, you shall have no preeminence... » (ibid. 49:3-4).
Although, like his other brothers, he was envious of Giuseppe, he resolutely opposed his killing and suggested throwing him into a dry cistern, intending thereby to save him and return him to his father. He had no part in the sale that the brothers made of him; and when he did not find the boy, he tore his garments in grief (ibid. 37:21-30). For this act, later Giuseppe did not retain R. as a hostage, but Simeone, the eldest after him (ibid. 42:24), and assigned R. the place of honor among the brothers (ibid. 43:33). He went down to Egypt with the entire family of Giacobbe (ibid. 46:9), and there died (cf. I Par. 2:1 and 5:1. 3-10).
The tribe of R. received from Mosè, even before the occupation of the land of Canaan, Lower Transjordan, sharing with the tribe of Gad the territory wrested from Sehon, king of the Amorites (Num. 21:21-35; 32:1-38). Its boundaries extended from the Arnon in the south to the Wādlī Hesbān (Hesebon) in the north, and from the Dead Sea to the desert of Moab (Ios. 13:15-23; cf. Num. 32:34-38). It was always among the less numerous tribes (cf. Deut. 33:6; Iudc. 5:16), predominantly devoted to pastoralism, and never played an important part in the history of Israel, also because it was situated on the margins of the nation’s life. Its proximity to and contact with the Moabites constituted a continual threat, and that people’s infiltrations were very deep, since in Is. 15-16 the entire country of R. appears practically as Moabite; EMESA (v.) there recur the names Moab (v.).
Dathan and Abiron belonged to this tribe; in the desert, together with the Levite Core, they incited the people against Mosè and were punished by God (Num. 16). In the time of the Judges, the tribe for the most part remained inactive among its pastures, while the others were engaged against the oppressor, thus meriting ironic censure in the song of Debora (Iudc. 5:15-16). In the time of King Saul, the Rubenites had to defend themselves against the incursions of the Agareni (I Par. 5:10. 19-22). A closer bond with the tribes west of the Jordan was established under David, to whom R. and the other two Transjordanian tribes (Gad and half of Manasse) supplied approximately 120,000 warriors (ibid. 13:3. 7); among David’s heroes there also appears Adina, chief of the Rubenites (ibid. 11:42). The tribe of R. also took part in the schism of the northern tribes; nevertheless, it seems that for some time, Ioatham (v.), together with the two Transjordanian tribes, it obeyed the king of Judah (cf. ibid. 5:17). Finally, at the time of the Assyrian deportation (v. THEGLATHPHALASAR III), R. shared the fate of the northern tribes (I Par. 5:6-26) and left no trace of itself.