Deuteronomy 33:6

BLESSINGS UPON THE TRIBES, Deuteronomy 33:6-25.

6. The blessing of Reuben.

Let not his men be few The negative is not in the Hebrew. We prefer to read the whole verse as follows:

“Let Reuben live and not die,

And let his men be few.”

The dying Jacob (Genesis 49:4) had said of this, his firstborn, “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.” Moses’s prayer is, that the tribe may live on, though few.

The tribe of Simeon, which would come next in order, is not named. According to Genesis 49:7, this tribe was to be scattered. In the division of the land it received a number of towns in the territory of Judah. See Joshua 19:2-9. “The omission of the mention of Simeon in the blessings which Moses pronounced upon the tribes has given rise to no little speculation. If we turn back to the twenty-fifth chapter of Numbers a reason will be found for this omission which is entirely satisfactory. We read in the chapter referred to that a terrible plague smote the camp of Israel. Twenty thousand died of the plague before it was stayed. This terrible calamity was caused by the act of Zimri, son of Salu, a prince of the chief house of the Simeonites. It appears, also, that the plague was confined to the tribe of Simeon; for we find in the census taken but a short time after that this tribe had diminished thirty-seven thousand. It is not at all wonderful, therefore, that Moses should omit to bless such a tribe when their diminished numbers were a standing witness of God’s displeasure.” STEBBINS, Study of the Pentateuch, p. 202.