Tribe of Reuben

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Image:1695 Eretz Israel map in Amsterdam Haggada by Abraham Bar-Jacob.jpg Tribes of Israel
The Tribes Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Manasseh Ephraim Benjamin
Topics Children of Israel Ten Lost Tribes
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The Tribe of Reuben (Hebrew: שֵׁבֶט רְאוּבֵן, Standard Shevet Re'uven Tiberian Šēḇeṭ Rəʼûḇēn) is one of the Hebrew tribes, founded by Reuben son of Jacob.

1 In the Bible
2 Later history
3 Modern communities claiming descendancy
4 Notable Members
5 See also
6 References

[edit] In the Bible

According to the Bible, it numbered 46,500 male adults at the time of the Exodus, from twenty years old and upwards (Num. 1:20-21), and at the close of the wilderness wanderings they numbered only 43,730 (26:7). This tribe united with that of Gad in asking permission to settle in the "land of Gilead," "on the other side of Jordan" (32:1-5). The lot assigned to Reuben was the smallest of the lots given to the trans-Jordanic tribes. It extended from the Arnon, in the south along the coast of the Dead Sea to its northern end, where the Jordan flows into it (Josh. 13:15-23). It thus embraced the original kingdom of Sihon. Reuben is:

to the eastern tribes what the Tribe of Simeon is to the western. 'Unstable as water,' he vanishes away into a mere Arab tribe. 'His men are few;' it is all he can do 'to live and not die.' We hear of nothing beyond the multiplication of their cattle in the land of Gilead, their spoils of 'camels fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand' (1 Chr. 5:9-10, 5:20-21). In the great struggles of the nation he never took part. The complaint against him in the song of Deborah is the summary of his whole history. 'By the streams of Reuben,' i.e., by the fresh streams which descend from the eastern hills into the Jordan and the Dead Sea, on whose banks the Bedouin chiefs met then as now to debate, in the 'streams' of Reuben great were the 'desires'", i.e., resolutions which were never carried out, the people idly resting among their flocks as if it were a time of peace (Judg. 5:15-16). <ref>Stanley's Sinai and Palestine.</ref>

[edit] Later history

All the three tribes on the east of Jordan at length fell into complete apostasy, and the time of retribution came. Along with the other tribes of the Kingdom of Israel, the Tribe of Reuben was taken into captivity by Assyria, when Tiglath-pileser III annexed this region about 733-732 B.C. (cf. 2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chronicles 5:26). (1 Chr. 5:25-26). They became one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.