Deuteronomy 33:6

Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) Let Reuben live, and not die.—“‘Live’ in this world.” says Rashi, “and ‘not die’ in the world to come.” That his misdeed should not be remembered (Genesis 35:22). Rashi also notices the juxtaposition of this record with the sentence, “the sons of Jacob were twelve.” Reuben was not cut off, but he was disinherited (1Chronicles 5:1), and his father’s blessing had so much in it of disapproval, that Moses’ prayer for him was not unnecessary.

And let not his men be few.—The sentence is difficult. The LXX. insert Simeon, “let Simeon be many in number.” But there is no need for this. The most terrible destruction ever wrought in Israel by the word of Moses came on Dathan and Abiram (who were Reubenites), when “they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit.” We cannot say how far the tribe was diminished by this terrible visitation and the plague that followed (Numbers 16), but the fighting men of the tribe had slightly decreased in the second census (Numbers 1:21; Numbers 26:7), and only two of all the twelve tribes had a smaller force than Reuben

at this time. It seems best, therefore, to take the whole verse as applying to Reuben, and the negative in the first clause as covering the second clause also. “Let not his men be a (small) number.” The omission of Simeon may be accounted for by his coming within the inheritance of Judah, in Canaan, and enjoying the blessing and protection of that most distinguished tribe. Rashi also takes this view.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 33:6. Let Reuben live, and not die — Though Reuben deserve to be cut off, or greatly diminished and obscured, according to Jacob’s prediction, (Genesis 49:4,) yet God will spare them, and give them a name and portion among the tribes of Israel. All the ancient paraphrasts refer this to the other world, so far were they from expecting temporal blessings only. “Let Reuben live in life eternal,” says Onkelos, “and not die the second death.” “Let Reuben live in this world,” so Jonathan and the Jerusalem Targum, “and not die that death which the wicked die in the world to come.” Let not his men be few — As the word not is wanting in the Hebrew, we may render the clause more properly, Though his men be few. This best agrees with Jacob’s prophecy, (Genesis 49:4,) that he should not excel, and yet live, that is, should still subsist, and be in some measure a flourishing tribe, though less numerous than some others. Le Clerc renders it, Let his dead men (מתיו, methaiv, mortales ejus) be few. Which prayer, he thinks, Moses put up for them, because this tribe appear to have been greatly diminished in the wilderness, see on Numbers 26:7. Here is no mention of Simeon; but this tribe is thought by some to be included in the blessing of Reuben, to whom Simeon was next in birth, and who stood most in need of the same blessing, for no tribe was more impaired in the wilderness than Simeon’s. See on Numbers 26:14. Others think that tribe is included in the blessing of Judah, with whose possessions theirs were mixed, Joshua 19:1. And what makes this the more probable, is, that he was joined with Judah in those wars against the Canaanites, in which the divine aid is implored for Judah. But the Alexandrian MS. of the Septuagint reads this verse thus, Let Reuben live, and not die, and let the men of Simeon be many, or not few.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

33:6-23 The order in which the tribes are here blessed, is not the same as is observed elsewhere. The blessing of Judah may refer to the whole tribe in general, or to David as a type of Christ. Moses largely blesses the tribe of Levi. Acceptance with God is what we should all aim at, and desire, in all our devotions, whether men accept us or not, 2Co 5:9. This prayer is a prophecy, that God will keep up a ministry in his church to the end of time. The tribe of Benjamin had their inheritance close to mount Zion. To be situated near the ordinances, is a precious gift from the Lord, a privilege not to be exchanged for any worldly advantage, or indulgence. We should thankfully receive the earthly blessings sent to us, through the successive seasons. But those good gifts which come down from the Father of lights, through the rising of the Sun of righteousness, and the pouring out of his Spirit like the rain which makes fruitful, are infinitely more precious, as the tokens of his special love. The precious things here prayed for, are figures of spiritual blessing in heavenly things by Christ, the gifts, graces, and comforts of the Spirit. When Moses prays for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush, he refers to the covenant, on which all our hopes of God's favour must be founded. The providence of God appoints men's habitations, and wisely disposes men to different employments for the public good. Whatever our place and business are, it is our wisdom and duty to apply thereto; and it is happiness to be well pleased therewith. We should not only invite others to the service of God, but abound in it. The blessing of Naphtali. The favour of God is the only favour satisfying to the soul. Those are happy indeed, who have the favour of God; and those shall have it, who reckon that in having it they have enough, and desire no more.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let not his men be few - literally, "a number," i. e., "a small number," such as could be easily counted (compare Genesis 34:30 note). While the verse promises that the tribe shall endure and prosper, yet it is so worded as to carry with it a warning. The Reubenites, occupied with their herds and flocks, appear, soon after the days of Joshua, to have lost their early energy, until in later times its numbers, even when counted with the Gadites and the half of Manasseh, were fewer than that of the Reubenites alone at the census of Numbers 1 (Compare 1 Chronicles 5:18 with Numbers 1:20.) No judge, prophet, or national hero arose out of this tribe.

The tribe of Simeon, which would according to the order of birth come next, is not here named. This omission is explained by reference to the words of Jacob concerning Simeon Genesis 49:7. This tribe with Levi was to he "scattered in Israel." The fulfillment of this prediction was in the case of Levi so ordered as to carry with it honor and blessing; but no such reversal of punishment was granted to Simeon. Rather had this latter tribe added new sins to those which Jacob denounced (compare Numbers 26:5 note). Accordingly, though very numerous at the Exodus, it had surprisingly diminished before the death of Moses (compare Numbers 1:22-23 with Numbers 26:12-14); and eventually it found territory adequate for its wants within the limits of another tribe, Judah. Compare Joshua 19:2-9.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. Let Reuben live, and not die—Although deprived of the honor and privileges of primogeniture, he was still to hold rank as one of the tribes of Israel. He was more numerous than several other tribes (Nu 1:21; 2:11). Yet gradually he sank into a mere nomadic tribe, which had enough to do merely "to live and not die." Many eminent biblical scholars, resting on the most ancient and approved manuscripts of the Septuagint, consider the latter clause as referring to Simeon; "and Simeon, let his men be few," a reading of the text which is in harmony with other statements of Scripture respecting this tribe (Nu 25:6-14; 1:23; 26:14; Jos 19:1).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Though Reuben deserve to be cut off, or greatly diminished and obscured, according to Jacob’s prediction, Genesis 49:4; yet God will spare them, and give them a name and portion among the tribes of Israel, and bless them with increase of their numbers.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let Reuben live, and not die,.... As a tribe, continue and not be extinct, though they should not excel, because of the sin of their progenitor; and it may have a special regard to the preservation of them, of their families on the other side Jordan, while they passed over it with their brethren into Canaan, and of them in that expedition to help the other tribes in the conquest of the country and the settlement of them in it; which Jacob by a spirit of prophecy foresaw, and in a prayer of faith petitioned for their safety: all the three Targums refer the words to a future state, as a wish for them, that they might live and enjoy an eternal life, and not die the death of the wicked in the world to come; and which they call the second death, and from whom the Apostle John seems to have borrowed the phrase, Revelation 2:11 Revelation 20:6; Reuben signifies, "see the Son"; and all that see the Son of God in a spiritual manner, and believe in him with a true faith, as they live spiritually now, shall live eternally hereafter, and never die the second or eternal death; on them that shall have no power, see John 6:40,

and let not his men be few; or, "though his men be few?" as Bishop Patrick chooses to render the words, and as they will bear, "vau", being sometimes so used, of which Noldius (h) gives instances; and the number of men in this tribe were but few in comparison of some others; and so those that see the Son of God and believe in him are but a small number; for all men have not faith. 2 Thessalonians 3:2

(h) Concord. part. Ebr. p. 292.

Geneva Study Bible

Let {f} Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.

(f) Reuben will be one of the tribes of God's people, though for his sin his honour is diminished, and his family but small.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. Thou shalt not seek, etc.] So Ezra 9:12 of the peoples of the land. But Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:7) counselled the exiled Jews to seek the peace of Babylonia. The spirit of his counsel is as much in advance of the spirit of this law, as Isaiah 56:3 ff. is in advance of Deuteronomy 33:1.

7, 8 (8, 9). Edomites and Egyptians are not to be abominated; the one people is Israel’s blood-brother (unlike Moab and Ammon), the other was his host; their third generation may enter the congregation.—Here too there is no reason against an early date.

The political hostility of Israel to Edom, fierce before the Exile, was then and after still fiercer. But their kinship was an old tradition and this law like the others of the group reflects not a political situation but a religious principle. The attitude to Egypt appears to conflict with the feeling usual in D that the Egyptians had only been the enslavers of Israel—house of bondmen, fiery furnace, etc. Yet D also elsewhere remembers that the poor and weak nomad, who was the father of Israel, became in Egypt a great nation (Deuteronomy 26:5); and further the admission into Israel of the third generation of an Egyptian was apparently already allowed in the 7th cent. b.c. (see on Deuteronomy 33:8). Thus the Maccabean date, proposed for this law by Berth., is unnecessary.

6. On the whole this seems the most probable rendering of a—perhaps intentionally—ambiguous oracle. Others take the second line differently:—but let his men be few as reflecting the actual condition of the tribe (Driver); nor let his men be few (Graf) continuing the influence of the previous negative, but see Driver’s note against this; so that his men be few (Dillm., Steuern., etc.), which is much the same as the paraphrase above. Heb. let his men be a number, an idiom elsewhere used only of a small number (see on Deuteronomy 4:27) so that the suggested let his men be numerous (cp. LXX) is improbable.—In Genesis 49:4 Reuben though the firstborn shall not have the excellency; see the notes there. In Jdg 5:16 the tribe is scorned for its failure to join the others against the Canaanites, and except for 1 Chronicles 5:3-10 does not again appear in Israel’s history. Nor does Mesha of Moab, 9th cent. b.c., name it. The oracle is therefore probably earlier than that date.

LXX A, etc., read Let Simeon be many in number, and Heilprin (Hist. Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews. i. 113 ff.) supported by Bacon (Triple Tradition of the Exodus, 271 f.) conjectures that the first couplet of the next blessing in Judah was originally of Simeon with a play upon his name: Hear—shema‘—the voice of Shime‘on and bring him in unto his people, and takes the rest of 7 along with Deuteronomy 33:11 as the original oracle on Judah, in a place more suitable to that tribe, after Levi and immediately before Benjamin. The hypothesis is clever. Yet the introduction of Simeon in a few codd. of the LXX may be a later attempt to fill up the number of the 12 tribes; while on the other hand the absence of Simeon from the poem is explicable by the fortunes of the tribe; cursed in Genesis 49:7; absorbed in Judah, Joshua 19:1-9, 1 Chronicles 4:24 ff., and otherwise absent from the history of Israel. Had Simeon been mentioned originally, he could hardly have dropped out.

7 And this of Judah, and he said:—

Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah!

And bring him in to his people.

His own hands have striven for him,

But Thou shalt be help from his foes.

6–25. The Blessing Proper

6 Re’ubén, may he live and not die,

Though few be his men.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 6-25. - Blessings on the tribes individually. With these may be compared the blessing which Jacob pronounced on his sons as representing the tribes of which they were the heads. The two resemble each other in many points; the differences are such as naturally arose from the different relations of the speakers to the objects of their address, and the changes in the condition and prospects of the tribes which during the lapse of centuries had come to pass. Verse 6. - And let not his men be few. The negative, though not expressed in the Hebrew, is to be carried into this clause from the preceding. Though the rights of primogeniture had been withdrawn from Reuben, and Jacob had declared that he should not excel, Moses here assures the tribe of continuance, and even prosperity. Their number was not to be small; which was, perhaps, said to comfort them, in view of the fact that their numbers had greatly diminished in the course of their wanderings in the desert (comp. Numbers 1:21 with Numbers 26:7). At no time, however, was this tribe numerous as compared with the others; nor was it ever distinguished either by the enterprise of its members or by the eminence of any of them in the councils of the nation or the management of affairs. Deuteronomy 33:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The blessings upon the tribes commence with this verse. "Let Reuben live and not die, and there be a (small) number of his men." The rights of the first-born had been withheld from Reuben in the blessing of Jacob (Genesis 49:3); Moses, however, promises this tribe continuance and prosperity. The words, "and let his men become a number," have been explained in very different ways. מספּר in this connection cannot mean a large number (πολὺς ἐν ἀριθμῷ, lxx), but, like מספּר מתי (Deuteronomy 4:27; Genesis 34:30; Jeremiah 44:28), simply a small number, that could easily be counted (cf. Deuteronomy 28:62). The negation must be carried on to the last clause. This the language will allow, as the rule that a negation can only be carried forward when it stands with emphatic force at the very beginning (Ewald, 351) is not without exceptions; see for example Proverbs 30:2-3, where three negative clauses follow a positive one, and in the last the לא is omitted, without the particle of negation having been placed in any significant manner at the beginning. - Simeon was the next in age to Reuben; but he is passed over entirely, because according to Jacob's blessing (Genesis 49:7) he was to be scattered abroad in Israel, and lost his individuality as a tribe in consequence of this dispersion, in accordance with which the Simeonites simply received a number of towns within the territory of Judah (Joshua 19:2-9), and, "having no peculiar object of its own, took part, as far as possible, in the fate and objects of the other tribes, more especially of Judah" (Schultz). Although, therefore, it is by no means to be regarded as left without a blessing, but rather as included in the general blessings in Deuteronomy 33:1 and Deuteronomy 33:29, and still more in the blessing upon Judah, yet it could not receive a special blessing like the tribe of Reuben, because, as Ephraim Syrus observes, the Simeonites had not endeavoured to wipe out the stain of the crime which Jacob cursed, but had added to it by fresh crimes (more especially the audacious prostitution of Zimri, Numbers 25). Even the Simeonites did not become extinct, but continued to live in the midst of the tribe of Judah, so that as late as the eighth century, in the reign of Hezekiah, thirteen princes are enumerated with their families, whose fathers' houses had increased greatly (1 Chronicles 4:34.); and these families effected conquests in the south, even penetrating into the mountains of Seir, for the purpose of seeking fresh pasture (1 Chronicles 4:39-43). Hence the assertion that the omission of Simeon is only conceivable from the circumstances of a later age, is as mistaken as the attempt made in some of the MSS of the Septuagint to interpolate the name of Simeon in the second clause of Deuteronomy 33:6.