Ruben

RUBEN. - Firstborn of Jacob and of Leah his first wife (Gen. 29:32). In giving birth to him, the mother exclaimed: "God saw my affliction," and the name R. is connected by assonance with rā'ah bē'onjī "he saw affliction," but properly it means: "see (or 'behold') a son."

Of R. as a boy, the episode of the mandrakes is recalled, which sharpened the jealousy between Leah and Rachel (ibid. 30:14 ff.). For having violated his father's bed, he was deprived of every right of primogeniture. Significant in this regard are the words of the dying Jacob: "R., you are my firstborn, my strength and the firstfruits of my vigor (not sorrow, as the Vulgate reads), eminent in rank and eminent in passion: boiling like water, you shall not enjoy preeminence..." (ibid. 49:3-4).

Although, like his other brothers, he was envious of Joseph, he resolutely opposed his killing and suggested throwing him into a dry cistern, intending thereby to save him and restore him to his father. He had no part in the sale that his 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, Joseph later did not keep R. as a hostage, but Simeon, 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 all of Jacob's family (ibid. 46:9), and there he died (cf. 1 Chron. 2:1 and 5:1, 3-10).

The tribe of R. obtained from Moses, even before the occupation of the land of Canaan, lower Transjordan, dividing with the tribe of Gad the territory wrested from Sihon king of the Amorites (Num. 21:21-35; 32:1-38). Its borders ran from the Arnon in the south up to the Wādī Hesbān (Heshbon) in the north, and from the Dead Sea to the desert of Moab (Josh. 13:15-23; cf. Num. 32:34-38). It was always among the least numerous tribes (cf. Deut. 33:6; Judg. 5:16), predominantly devoted to pastoralism, and never had an important part in the history of Israel, also because it was placed on the margins of the nation's life. The proximity and contact with the Moabites were for it a continual threat, and the infiltrations of that people were very deep, if in Is. 15-16 the whole country of R. figures practically as Moabite; in the inscription of King Mesha (v.) there occur names of Reubenite cities conquered by Moab (v.).

Of this tribe were Dathan and Abiram, who in the desert, together with the Levite Korah, stirred up the people against Moses and were punished by God (Num. 16). In the age of the Judges the tribe remained, for the most part, inert among its pastures, while the others were engaged against the oppressor: so as to merit ironic reproach in the song of Deborah (Judg. 5:15-16). At the time of King Saul the Reubenites had to defend themselves from the incursions of the Hagrites (1 Chron. 5:10, 19-22). A greater bond with the cisjordanian tribes came about under David, to whom R. and the other two transjordanian tribes (Gad and half of Manasseh) furnished ca. 120,000 warriors (ibid. 13:3, 7); among the heroes of David there also figures Adina, chief of the Reubenites (ibid. 11:42). The tribe of R. also took part in the schism of the northern tribes; it seems, however, that for some time, at least under King Jotham (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), R. followed the fate of the northern tribes (1 Chron. 5:6-26) and left no trace of itself.

Gaetano Stano