Tribe of Reuben
twelve tribes of Israel; Reuben's supposed territory is shaded pale green. However, archeological scholars generally agree that Joshua is not a reliable source for reconstructing the history of the period it describes.[1] | |
Alternative names | Hebrew: רְאוּבֵן |
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Preceded by | New Kingdom of Egypt |
Followed by | Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy) |
Tribes of Israel |
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According to the
Tribal territory
The Book of Joshua records that the tribes of Reuben,
The exact border between Reuben and the
The territories described in Joshua 13 depict Gad as being to the north of Reuben, while the description in Numbers 32 and 34 has Reubenites living near Heshbon, surrounded by Gadites.[6] Yohanan Aharoni interpreted the description in Numbers as referring to the actual distribution of Reubenites and Gadites around the time of David, and the description in Joshua 13 as reflecting administrative districts set up in the time of Solomon, but not reflecting actual tribal settlement patterns.[6] By 900 BC, some of the territory of Reuben and Gad had been captured by the Moabite kingdom.[6]
Biblical narrative
Origins
According to the
The Bible divides the tribe of Reuben into four clans or families, the Hanochites, Palluites, Hezronites, and Carmites, which according to the Bible were descended from Reuben's sons Hanoch, Pallu, Hazron, and Carmi.[10]
Genesis 49 contains the Blessing of Jacob, a series of predictions which the Bible presents as delivered by the patriarch Jacob about the future fate of the tribes descended from his twelve sons. Some textual scholars date it substantially later than these events.[11][page needed] Reuben is characterised as fickle, "unstable as water", and condemned to no longer "have . . . the excellency" due to Reuben's crime of having sexual relations with his father's concubine Bilhah.[12]
The Bible relates that Jacob and his twelve sons, along with their sons, went down into Egypt as a group of about seventy persons, including Reuben and his four sons.[13] According to the account in Exodus, the Israelites stayed in Egypt for 430 years, and their numbers grew to include about 600,000 men, not counting women or children.[14] At this point they left Egypt (see The Exodus) and wandered for forty years in the wilderness between Egypt and the promised land of Canaan.[15]
As the tribes prepared to enter Canaan by crossing over to the west side of the Jordan, the Book of Numbers records that the Israelites defeated Sihon and Og, kings east of the Jordan.[16] The tribes of Reuben and Gad requested that they be given land in the territory east of Jordan, because it was suitable for their needs as livestock grazers. In exchange for their promise to help with the conquest of the land west of the Jordan, Moses accepted their request and granted to them and half of Manasseh land east of the Jordan.[17] Following the death of Moses, Joshua became the leader of the Israelites,[18] and with the help of these eastern tribes including Reuben,[19] conquered some of Canaan and assigned the land of Israel to the various twelve tribes.[20]
According to Kenneth Kitchen, this conquest occurred around 1200 BC,[21] but "almost all" scholars have abandoned the idea that Joshua carried out a conquest of Canaan similar to that described in the Book of Joshua.[22] Israel Finkelstein et al., have claimed that lack of evidence for a systematic conquest or the abrupt appearance of a new culture indicates that the Israelites simply arose as a subculture within Canaanite society.[23] The territory of Reuben encapsulated the territory of the earlier kingdom of Sihon.
Family tree
Reuben | Eliuram | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hanok | Pallu | Hezron | Karmi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tribal history
In this period, according to the ancient
Nahash appears abruptly as the attacker of Jabesh-Gilead, which lay outside the territory he laid claim to. Having subjected the occupants to a siege, the population sought terms for surrender, and were told by Nahash that they had a choice of death (by the sword) or having their right eyes gouged out. The population obtained seven days' grace from Nahash, during which they would be allowed to seek help from the Israelites, after which they would have to submit to the terms of surrender. The occupants sought help from the people of Israel, sending messengers throughout the whole territory, and Saul, a herdsman at this time, responded by raising an army which decisively defeated Nahash and his cohorts at Bezek.
The strangely cruel terms given by Nahash for surrender were explained by
[N]ahash, king of Ammonites would put hard pressure on the descendants of Gad and the descendants of Ruben and would gouge everyone's right eye out, but no res(cuer) would be provided for Israel and there was not left anyone among the children of Israel in the Tr(ans Jordan) whose right eye Nahash the king of Ammonites did not gouge out but be(hold) seven thousand men (escaped the power of) Ammonites and they arrived at (Ya)besh Gilead. About a month later Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-Gilead.
According to the
According to 1 Chronicles 5:26, Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria (ruled 745–727 BC) deported the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to "Halah, Habor, Hara, and the Gozan River."
According to the Moabite Mesha Stele (ca. 840 BCE) the Moabites reclaimed many territories in the second part of the 9th century BCE (only recently conquered by Omri and Ahab according to the Stele). The stele does mention fighting against the tribe of Gad but not the tribe of Reuben, even though taking Nebo and Jahaz which were in the centre in their designated homeland. This would suggest that the tribe of Reuben at this time was no longer recognizable as a separate force in this area. Even if still present at the outbreak of this war, the outcome of this war would have left them without a territory of their own, just like the tribes of Simeon and Levi. This is, according to Richard Elliott Friedman in Who Wrote the Bible?, the reason why these three tribes are passed over in favour of Judah in the J-version of the Jacob's deathbed blessing (composed in Judah before the fall of Israel).[citation needed]
Banner
The
See also
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Reuben, Tribe of". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.
- ISBN 978-1-58983-097-4.
- ^ Joshua 13:15–23
- ^ Numbers 32:34
- ^ Joshua 13:15–16
- ^ "Reuben, Tribe of." Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
- ^ ISBN 978-0-664-24266-4.
- ISBN 978-90-04-22653-1.
- ISBN 978-0-567-67044-1.
- ISBN 978-1-317-54393-0.
- ^ Numbers 26:5. See also Genesis 46:9, Exodus 6:14, and 1 Chronicles 5:1-3.
- ISBN 0-06-063035-3
- ^ Genesis 49:4
- ^ Genesis 46:1-27
- ^ Exodus 12:37-40 in the Masoretic Text. The Septuagint counts the 430 years as including not only the time in Egypt but also some previous time in the land of Canaan.
- ^ Numbers 32:13
- ^ Numbers 21
- ^ Numbers 32
- ^ Joshua 1
- ^ Joshua 4:12-13
- ^ This conquest and allotment of land is the subject of the whole book of Joshua, but see especially chapters 6, 8-12 for some conquest narratives, 13-21 on the allocation of land.
- ISBN 0-8028-4960-1)
- ISBN 90-04-11598-6. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
- ^ Israel Finkelstein, The Bible Unearthed
- ^ Judges 5:15–16
- ^ Frank Moore Cross, Donald W. Parry, Richard J. Saley and Eugene Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4 – XII, 1-2 Samuel (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series, XVII), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005
- ^ 1 Chronicles 11:42
- ^ 1 Chronicles 5:10
- ^ 1 Chronicles 5:18+
- ^ Numbers 2:2
- ^ "Tribal identity: the meaning of the Jewish flag". The Times of Israel.
- ^ Thomas Fuller (1869). A Pisgah sight of Palestine. p. 75.
External links
- Map of the tribal territory of the Tribe of Reuben, Adrichem, 1590, Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, the National Library of Israel
- Map of the tribal territory of the Tribe of Reuben, Fuller, 1650 Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, the National Library of Israel