But you are as unruly as a flood, and you will be first no longer. For you went to bed with my wife; you defiled my marriage couch.
Parallel translations
- WEB Boiling over like water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed, then defiled it. He went up to my couch.
- KJV Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
- BSB Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.
- NKJV Unstable as water, you shall not excel, Because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it— He went up to my couch.
- NASB “Uncontrollable 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.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Reuben loses his preeminence because of his sin in defiling his father's bed.
Overview
Reuben's instability ('boiling over like water') and his earlier sin with Bilhah (Genesis 35:22) cost him the firstborn's preeminence, which passed in part to Judah and Joseph. The judgment shows that sin has real consequences and that leadership among God's people demands holiness. Yet even fallen Reuben remains within the covenant family, a reminder that God's mercy preserves a people despite their failures.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Gen 35:22While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
- 1 Chr 5:1The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn; but, because he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be listed according to the birthright.
- Deut 27:20‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he dishonors his father’s bed.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
- Deut 33:6“Let Reuben live, and not die; Nor let his men be few.”
- Jas 1:6–8But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
- 1 Cor 5:1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
- Gen 46:8These are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.
- Deut 5:21“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
- 2 Pet 3:16as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
- 2 Pet 2:14having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;
- Num 32:1–42Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. When they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for livestock;
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 49:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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