Genesis 49:4

Unstable as water,.... Which is not to be understood of the levity of his mind, and his disposition to hurt, and the impetuous force of that breaking forth like water, and carrying him into the

Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

Unstable as water: this may concern either, 1. Something past, or Reuben’ s fault; and so he is said to have been unstable, or light, and vain, as the word is used, ; like water, moved with every little wind of temptation, and unbounded in thy lust; as water of itself hath no bounds, but will scatter itself every way, if it be not kept within banks, or in a vessel: or, hasty, violent, impetuous in thy lust, like water, which either overflows or breaks its banks. Or, 2. Something to come, or Reuben’ s punishment; and so the meaning is, Thou, i.e. thy posterity, shall be unstable, or unsettled, flitting and vanishing, coming to nothing, or poured forth like water, useless, contemptible, and weak. Such indeed was the state of that tribe, of which we read nothing eminent in Scripture. See ,16. This I prefer before the former, 1. Because it is not probable that his fault should be described here in such general and ambiguous and dark terms, which is described so plainly and particularly in the following words. 2. Because this makes the coherence most plain. Here is a description, (1.) Of Reuben’ s excellent state to which he was born, . (2.) Of his fall from that state, in these words, and the immediately following, thou shalt not excel. (3.) Of the reason of this fall, his great sin. 3. Because the similitude of water applied to men in this manner, notes rather their impotency and calamity than their sin, as . Thou shalt not excel, or, be the most eminent amongst thy brethren; thou hast lost thy pre-eminency due to thee by birthright, both for thyself and for thy posterity, and it shall be given to others; the priesthood to Levi, the dominion to Judah, and the double portion to Joseph. Then defiledst thou it, by committing incest with Bilhah. He repeats the same thing, and that in an emphatical manner, turning his speech and face from Reuben to his brethren, in a posture of indignation and detestation; which you must not impute to Jacob’ s passion, he being now a dying man, and this being forty years after the crime committed, but to the Spirit of God guiding his tongue to utter this, not only nor chiefly for the punishment of Reuben, who, as many think, had repented of his sin; but for terror, instruction, and caution to all others, and to assure them that sin, though it may be long dissembled and borne with, yet it will one time or other be sorely punished. But these and the next foregoing words may be thus rendered, Then defiledst thou my bed: he went up to it, or rather, he is gone up, i.e. he is vanished, or perished, or lost; for so this word is oft used, as . And so here is an elegant figure, called antanaclasis, whereby the same word is repeated in the same verse in a different sense, as .

Genesis 49:4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’ s bed; then defiledst thou [it]: he went up to my couch.Ver. 4. Unstable as water.] Easily drawn to sin, and suddenly down from his dignity. Reuben, for a short sinful pleasure, lost great privileges and blessings. So do all epicures that lose heaven for a base lust, their souls for their sin. As Ambrose reports of one Theotinus, that having a diseased body, and told by the physician that unless he lived temperately he would lose his eyes; Vale lumen amicum, said he; if my eyes will not away with my lusts, they are no eyes for me. So here; men will have their swing in sin, whatever come of it. They may so, and for a time, hear no more of it; as Reuben did not for almost forty years after his incest was committed. But, quod defertur non statim aufertur. The heathen historian could see, and say, That, sooner or later, great sins will have great punishments from God. Deus horrenda peccata horrendis poenis immutabiliter vindicat, saith Pareus on this text. He went up to my couch.] The fact was so odious to Jacob, that, "abhorring" the very thought of it, he turneth his speech from Reuben to the rest. Hate as hell that which is evil, saith Paul. And, as for "fornication, and all uncleanness, let it not be once named amongst you." Spit it out of your mouths, as the devil’ s drivel. τωνμεγαλωναδικηματωνμεγαλαιεισικαιαιτιμωριαιπαρατους Yεους.

(4) Unstable.—This translation is shown to be right by the use of the word in Judges 9:4; Zephaniah 3:4, in both which places it is translated light. Out of this sense of lightness and frivolity naturally arose the meaning which the word has in Syriac of wantonness. In Arabic it means boastful, another side of feebleness. With this sense the comparison with water well agrees; for it is its nature to seek a dull level, and while yielding to every impression to retain none. The other meaning given to it by many able critics is “boiling over like water,” a description of the unrestrained violence of Reuben’s passions. Thou shalt not excel.—That is, thou shalt not have that excellency which was thine by right of birth.

Verse 4. Pouring out like the waters] This is an obscure sentence because unfinished. It evidently relates to the defilement of his father's couch; and the word פחז pachaz, here translated pouring out, and in our Version unstable, has a bad meaning in other places of the Scripture, being applied to dissolute, debauched, and licentious conduct. See Judges 9:4; Zephaniah 3:4; Jeremiah 23:14, Jeremiah 23:32; Jeremiah 29:23. Thou shalt not excel] This tribe never rose to any eminence in Israel; was not so numerous by one third as either Judah, Joseph, or Dan, when Moses took the sum of them in the wilderness, Numbers 1:21; and was among the first that were carried into captivity, 1 Chronicles 5:26. Then thou didst defile] Another unfinished sentence, similar to the former, and upon the same subject, passing over a transaction covertly, which delicacy forbade Jacob to enlarge on. For the crime of Reuben, See Clarke on Genesis 35:22.

4. Unstable] The metaphor from water, bubbling over, is intended to express wanton or reckless vehemence. Reuben is as water without restraint pouring down in a foaming torrent. This is the thought of the renderings of LXX ἐξύβρισας; Lat. effusus es. thou shalt not have] Read as R.V. marg. the imperative of denunciation, have not thou. Observe the recurrence of the note of “excelling.” LXX μὴἐκζέσῃς. he went up] Notice the change from the second to the third person, as if the speaker had turned away in loathing (LXX, however, ἀνέβης) from Reuben. In the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 33:6) the denunciation of Reuben is brief and stern, but unexplained; “let Reuben live, and not die; yet let his men be few.” It is a possible conjecture that the legend (cf. Genesis 35:22) concerning Reuben embodied a cause of ancient Israelite prejudice against the Reubenites. Conceivably some marriage custom, like that of the heir receiving the concubines of his deceased father, may have been abandoned by the rest of Israel and been maintained by Reuben. (See Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage, p. 109, n. 2). Another conjecture is that Reuben, in some treacherous way, encroached upon the rights of the Bilhah clans, and in an isolated position wasted his strength in fierce and futile conflict with the neighbouring nomads.

4. Boiling over like the waters — The figure may be the overflowing of a large body of water beyond its proper banks, and sweeping away all before it; but, more likely, as Gesenius thinks, it is that