Commentaria in Genesim
Prophecy and Blessing of Ruben
3. RUBEN MY FIRSTBORN—as to generation and birth;
Mathathias, 1 Machabees 2; and Christ the Lord, John chapters 14 and 15.
There exists in volume 3 of the Library of the Holy Fathers the testament of the twelve Patriarchs, namely of these twelve sons of Jacob, in which many things belonging to this chapter are explained. There are narrated in it very many prophetic oracles as well as exhortations to virtue and the worship of God; many predictions are also inserted from the book of Enoch. It is ancient; for Origen mentions it, homily 15 on Josue, and Procopius of Gaza on Genesis chapter 32. Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, translated it from Greek into Latin. But this testament is of uncertain and suspect authorship; for it contains many strange and novel things, like Jewish fables.
1. IN THE LAST DAYS.—In future times. For the Hebrew acharit, which our version renders last, signifies following, later, to come afterwards: for Jacob here predicts some things that soon followed, some that came under Josue, some under the Judges, some that happened under Christ, and some that will happen under Antichrist (4).
THOU, MY STRENGTH—whom namely I first begot in the vigour of my age.
AND THE BEGINNING OF MY SORROW.—Because children, when born, bring new cares, sorrows and anxieties to their parents; or rather, as if to say: Thou wast to me the chief cause of grief and sadness, on account of thy incest. The Hebrew reshit oni, however, can secondly, with the Chaldee, Vatablus and others, be rendered, the beginning of my strength (1), that is, I showed in thee the first fruit of my manly vigour and generative power. Whence the Septuagint translate, the beginning of my children. So our Interpreter also translates in Deuteronomy 21:17. Whence it is plain that Jacob, before his marriage with Lia, lived chastely, and had known no woman.
THE FIRST IN GIFTS, GREATER IN COMMAND (2)—namely thou oughtest to have been, as firstborn; which the Chaldee clearly explains, translating thus: Thou wast to receive three portions, namely the primogeniture, the priesthood and the kingdom; but thou shalt not receive them, because thou didst sin with Bala. For the priesthood was transferred from Ruben to Levi; the kingdom of two tribes was given to Juda, but of ten tribes was given to Ephraim; of the primogeniture, namely the double portion of inheritance, and in golden letters inscribed in the temple of Mecca, which, though poured forth impromptu by elders, could almost be matched with Jacob’s prophecy both in loftiness of thought and in splendour of images. Ewald denies that Jacob, though endowed with outstanding talent and singular judgment, could openly have foretold both the situation of those tracts which some centuries after him fell by lot to the descendants of his sons in the land of Canaan, and what was done by each of them in the conquest of the land of Canaan under Josue as leader, and many other future things. And he has us denying it:
what follows? He indeed concludes quite gratuitously that this prediction was freshly composed in the times of Samson; we conclude far more safely that Jacob foreknew it, inspired by the divine Spirit. Moreover, it is hardly likely that a writer later than Moses set down both what is read of Ruben in verse 4, since the tribe sprung from him, if those words had been fabricated by anyone else, would certainly never have borne it with equanimity; and what is said of the dispersion of Levi in verse 7: for this dispersion Jacob threatens and as it were decrees as a punishment, which after the times of Moses, the sons of Levi being devoted to divine worship, would not have come into anyone’s mind. This whole song, therefore, smells of the remotest antiquity, which is also shown by the comparisons of some of the sons with animals, such as we find also in the most ancient of the Greek poets, Homer. Nor is it hard to understand how Moses could have received Jacob’s utterances. For that the last wishes of the dying forefather were preserved by his sons with the greatest faith and reverence, handed down by each to posterity, and held as oracles, we can scarcely doubt. Cf. Meignan, of inheritance in Chanaan, and consequently a double tribe, was assigned to Joseph, namely to his sons Ephraim and Manasses. Whence in 1 Paralipomenon 5 it is said that the primogeniture was transferred from Ruben to Joseph. Our version understood this right of primogeniture, and also the right of priesthood, when it translated, first in gifts; as it understood the right of kingship when it translated, greater in command. The Hebrew has words which Pagninus clearly renders, excelling in dignity (or in gifts and offerings), excelling in strength; supply: thou oughtest to have been. It can secondly be so rendered: my dignity and my power ought to have remained as a surviving and hereditary remainder; thou oughtest to have surpassed thy brethren in dignity and strength and command.
Note: Ruben having been stripped of the primogeniture, Simeon, the second-born, should have succeeded to it; but because he was impious toward Joseph, and because his tribe with its leader adored Beelphegor, Numbers 25:14, therefore the nobler dignity of the primogeniture, namely the priesthood, was transferred to the third-born, namely Levi, and the other right of the primogeniture, namely the kingdom, to the fourth-born, namely Juda.
Eight, says Pererius, prerogatives of the firstborn are recorded among the people of God, even before the law of Moses. First, they were priests. Second, the firstborn sat first at table, and a greater portion was given him, Genesis 43:33. Third, he blessed the other brothers; they submitted to him and adored him, Genesis 27:29. Fourth, he had command and dominion over his brothers, in the same place. Fifth, he received a double portion of the paternal inheritance, Deuteronomy 21:17. Sixth, the firstborn were redeemed with five shekels, but not the other sons, as if they were specially consecrated and devoted to God. Seventh, he says, they used a certain singular kind of garments, that is, delicate and precious above those of the other brothers; wherefore Jacob, aspiring to the primogeniture of Esau, “put on his garments,” although this does not quite prove it. Eighth, the firstborn was singularly blessed by his father when dying. And Ruben lost nearly all these prerogatives.
4. THOU ART POURED OUT AS WATER.—Thou hast flowed away in lust and incest; thy lust was poured out. Lyranus and Abulensis render less expressively: Thou art pressed down, cast down like water. But far more expressively our version has, “poured out as water,” because as, when water is poured out, nothing of it remains in the cup or bucket, no colour, no smell, no taste, so the luxury of man often pours out and squanders his strength, judgment, reason, wisdom, fame, wealth, conscience and all goods together with seed and blood (3).