Verse 4
"Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; Then defilest thou it: he went up to my couch."
"Boiling over as water ..." This rendition is based upon the Symmachus and the LXX;[9] and is probably better rendered in the New English Bible which has "turbulent as a flood." Recklessness, and wantonness,[10] lust, frivolity and insolent pride[11] are all said to be included in the meaning. The reference, of course, is to the incest which Reuben committed with Bilhah, one of his father's wives.
"He went up to my couch ..." The use of the second person here might mean that Jacob, turning from his son, made a gesture toward him and addressed the remark to the others.
It should be noted that Jacob's pronouncement here was fulfilled exactly in all the subsequent life of Reuben. He never furnished a leader of any kind to the nation. His was the first tribe to ask for a place to settle, and that before they ever entered Canaan (Numbers 32). They erected an unauthorized place of worship (Joshua 22:10-34). In the days of Deborah and Barak, his tribe violated their pledge and refused to answer the call to arms (Judges 5:15,16).
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