Knowing The Word in Genesis 49:1-4, Jacob Blesses His Sons

[This is the Testament of Jacob that contains both blessings and curses. Within the Testament 10 of the 25 verses refer to Judah and Joseph, a ratio that corresponds to their importance. Apart from Joseph, Judah is the leading figure among Jacob’s sons. Jacob will curse three sons for their past conduct before going on to predict a more glorious future for his other sons. His longest sayings are with Reuben, Levi, Simeon, Judah, and Joseph, while the other sons get quite short sayings.]

1 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. [He is looking beyond Egyptian slavery and the exodus to the era of settlement in Canaan, he is speaking as a wise teacher and as a prophet.]

2 “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father.

3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. 4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!

[Ruben loses his position because of his sin. Jacob has been quiet all these years about Ruben sleeping with Bilhah after Rachel’s death. Now he delivers one of the fiercest denunciations in Genesis. In Israel the firstborn had a special status and legal privileges. Deuteronomy 21:15-17 forbids a father from transferring the rights of the firstborn by his first wife to the eldest son of a second wife, as Jacob clearly does here. The law insists that the firstborn be dedicated to God, a status later assumed by the tribe of Levi. Ruben’s God-given position has been ruined by his ungodly behavior of defiling Jacob’s marriage bed. From the time of the settlement onward, there is no trace of Ruben’s original primacy. Settling in Transjordan, the Reubinites seem to fade out of national history: no prophet, judge, or king come from this tribe.]