Teks -- Genesis 49:4 (NET)

49:4 You are destructive like water and will not excel, for you got on your father’s bed, then you defiled it– he got on my couch!

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Gen 49:4 - Thou shalt not excel

A being thou shalt have as a tribe, but not an excellency. No judge, prophet, or prince, are found of that tribe, nor any person of renown only Dathan and Abiram, who were noted for their impious rebellion. That tribe, as not aiming to excel, chose a settlement on the other side Jordan. The character fastened upon Reuben, for which he is laid under this mark of infamy, is, that he was unstable as water. His virtue was unstable, he had not the government of himself, and his own appetites. His honour consequently was unstable, it vanished into smoke, and became as water spilt upon the ground. Jacob charges him particularly with the sin for which he was disgraced, thou wentest up to thy father's bed - It was forty years ago that he had been guilty of this sin, yet now it is remembered against him. Reuben's sin left an indelible mark of infamy upon his family; a wound not to be healed without a scar.

Clarke: Gen 49:4 - Pouring out like the waters

Pouring out like the waters - This is an obscure sentence because unfinished. It evidently relates to the defilement of his father’ s couch; and the word פחז pachaz , here translated pouring out, and in our Version unstable, has a bad meaning in other places of the Scripture, being applied to dissolute, debauched, and licentious conduct. See Jdg 9:4; Zep 3:4; Jer 23:14, Jer 23:32; Jer 29:23

Clarke: Gen 49:4 - Thou shalt not excel

Thou shalt not excel - This tribe never rose to any eminence in Israel; was not so numerous by one third as either Judah, Joseph, or Dan, when Moses took the sum of them in the wilderness, Num 1:21; and was among the first that were carried into captivity, 1Ch 5:26

Clarke: Gen 49:4 - Then thou didst defile

Then thou didst defile - Another unfinished sentence, similar to the former, and upon the same subject, passing over a transaction covertly, which delicacy forbade Jacob to enlarge on. For the crime of Reuben, see Clarke on Gen 35:22 (note)

5.    Simeon and Levi, brethren:
They have accomplished their fraudulent purposes

6.    Into their secret council my soul did not come;
In their confederacy my honor was not united:
For in their anger they slew a man, ( איש ish , a noble),
And in their pleasure they murdered a prince

7.    Cursed was their anger, for it was fierce!
And their excessive wrath, for it was inflexible!
I will divide them out in Jacob,
And I will disperse them in Israel.

Calvin: Gen 49:4 - Unstable as water

4.Unstable as water. He shows that the honor which had not a good conscience for its keeper, was not firm but evanescent; and thus he rejects Reuben from the primogeniture. He declares the cause, lest Reuben should complain that he was punished when innocent: for it was also of great consequence, in this affair, that he should be convinced of his fault, lest his punishment should not be attended with profit. We now see Jacob, having laid carnal affection aside, executing the office of a prophet with vigor and magnanimity. For this judgment is not to be ascribed to anger, as if the father desired to take private vengeance of his son: but it proceeded from the Spirit of God; because Jacob kept fully in mind the burden imposed upon him. The word עלח ( alach) the close of the sentence signifies to depart, or to be blown away like the ascending smoke, which is dispersed. ¹⁹⁶ Therefore the sense is, that the excellency of Reuben, from the time that he had defiled his father’s bed, had flowed away and become extinct. For to expound the expression concerning the bed, to mean that it ceased to be Jacob’s conjugal bed, because Bilhah had been divorced, is too frigid.

TSK: Gen 49:4 - Unstable // thou shalt not excel // because // he went up to my couch

Unstable : Jam 1:6-8; 2Pe 2:14, 2Pe 3:16

thou shalt not excel : Heb. do not thou excel, Gen 46:8; Num. 32:1-42; Deu 33:6

because : Gen 35:22; Deu 5:21, Deu 27:20; 1Ch 5:1; 1Co 5:1

he went up to my couch : or, my couch is gone

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Gen 49:4 - Unstable as water // unstable // Thou shalt not excel // Then defiledst thou it // He went up

Unstable as water: this may concern either,

1. Something past, or Reuben’ s fault; and so he is said to have been

unstable or light, and vain, as the word is used, Jud 9:4 Zep 3:4 ; like water, moved with every little wind of temptation, and unbounded in thy lust; as water of itself hath no bounds, but will scatter itself every way, if it be not kept within banks, or in a vessel: or, hasty, violent, impetuous in thy lust, like water, which either overflows or breaks its banks. Or,

2. Something to come, or Reuben’ s punishment; and so the meaning is, Thou, i.e. thy posterity, shall be

unstable or unsettled, flitting and vanishing, coming to nothing, or poured forth like water, useless, contemptible, and weak. Such indeed was the state of that tribe, of which we read nothing eminent in Scripture. See Jud 5:15,16 . This I prefer before the former,

1. Because it is not probable that his fault should be described here in such general and ambiguous and dark terms, which is described so plainly and particularly in the following words.

2. Because this makes the coherence most plain. Here is a description,

(1.) Of Reuben’ s excellent state to which he was born, Gen 49:3 .

(2.) Of his fall from that state, in these words, and the immediately following, thou shalt not excel .

(3.) Of the reason of this fall, his great sin.

3. Because the similitude of water applied to men in this manner, notes rather their impotency and calamity than their sin, as Jos 7:5 Psa 22:14 .

Thou shalt not excel or, be the most eminent amongst thy brethren; thou hast lost thy pre-eminency due to thee by birthright, both for thyself and for thy posterity, and it shall be given to others; the priesthood to Levi, the dominion to Judah, and the double portion to Joseph.

Then defiledst thou it by committing incest with Bilhah. He repeats the same thing, and that in an emphatical manner, turning his speech and face from Reuben to his brethren, in a posture of indignation and detestation; which you must not impute to Jacob’ s passion, he being now a dying man, and this being forty years after the crime committed, but to the Spirit of God guiding his tongue to utter this, not only nor chiefly for the punishment of Reuben, who, as many think, had repented of his sin; but for terror, instruction, and caution to all others, and to assure them that sin, though it may be long dissembled and borne with, yet it will one time or other be sorely punished. But these and the next foregoing words may be thus rendered, Then defiledst thou my bed: he went up to it, or rather, he is gone up, i.e. he is vanished, or perished, or lost; for so this word is oft used, as Job 5:26 Isa 5:24 Jer 48:15 . And so here is an elegant figure, called antanaclasis, whereby the same word is repeated in the same verse in a different sense, as Psa 18:26 Mat 8:22 . So here,

He went up wickedly to his father’ s bed to commit a great sin; therefore now he is gone up penally, to receive condign punishment; his excellency is gone up like smoke, which ascendeth and is dispersed in the air. And this may seem to be the truest translation and interpretation, because it keeps close to the Hebrew words and their order; whereas, in our translation, there is both a transplacing of the Hebrew words, and a supplement added unnecessarily.

Haydock: Gen 49:4 - Grow thou not // Couch

Grow thou not. This was not meant by way of a curse or imprecation; but by way of a prophecy, foretelling that the tribe of Ruben should not inherit the pre-eminences usually annexed to the first birth-right, viz., the double portion, the being prince or lord over the other brethren, and the priesthood: of which the double portion was given to Joseph, the princely office to Juda, and the priesthood to Levi. (Challoner) ---

Thou hast abandoned thyself to thy brutal passion; do so no more, ne adjicias. (St. Jerome, q. Heb.) Let Ruben live, and die not; let him be small in number, Deuteronomy xxxiii. 6. His tribe never became very considerable. (Calmet) ---

Couch. See chap xxxv. 22. Eternal infamy attends the name of Ruben. (Haydock)

Gill: Gen 49:4 - Unstable as water // thou shall not excel // he went up to my couch

Unstable as water,.... Which is not to be understood of the levity of his mind, and his disposition to hurt, and the impetuous force of that breaking forth like water, and carrying him into the commission of it; but rather of his fall from his excellency and dignity, like the fall of water from an high place; and of his being vile, mean, and contemptible, useless and unprofitable, like water spilled on the ground; and of his weak and strengthless condition and circumstances, being deprived of the prerogatives and privileges of his birthright, and having lost all his honour and grandeur, power and authority. The word in the Arabic language signifies ^b to be proud and haughty, to lift up one's self, to swell and rise like the turgent and swelling waters: but though he did thus lift himself, yet it follows:

thou shall not excel; not have the excellency of dignity and power which belonged to him as the firstborn; the birthright and the double portion were given to Joseph, who had two tribes descending from him, when Reuben had but one; the kingdom was given to Judah, and the priesthood to Levi, as both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem observe: as he did not excel his brethren in honour and dignity, so neither in wealth and riches, nor in numbers; see Deu 33:6 where the word "not" is wrongly supplied; nor in his share in the land of Canaan, his posterity being seated on the other side of Jordan, at their request; nor did any persons of note and eminence spring from his tribe: because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defiledst thou it; referring to his incest with Bilhah, his father's concubine wife, Gen 35:22 which, though done forty years ago, was now remembered, and left an indelible spot on Reuben's character, and his posterity:

he went up to my couch: turning himself to his other sons, to take notice of the crime, as very abominable and detestable; affirming the truth of it, and speaking of it with some vehemency, his affections being moved; and it may be could not bear to look at Reuben, but turned himself to his brethren; though he had forgiven the sin, and very probably Reuben had repented of it, and had forgiveness of God, which he might have, though in some sense vengeance was taken on this sinful invention of his, Psa 99:8. There are various senses given of this phrase; some, as Aben Ezra, "my bed departed from me"; that is, he departed from his bed; or, as Kimchi ^c, "it ceased to be my bed"; he left it, he abstained from the bed of Bilhah upon its being defiled by Reuben: and others separate these words, and read עלה, singly, "it went up" ^d; either the excellency of Reuben went up, vanished and disappeared like smoke; or, as Ben Melech connects it with the beginning of the verse, "unstable as water", giving the sense, "it", the inundation of water, "ascended" and prevailed over thee; as waters ascend, meaning his lust ascended, and got the prevalence over him; but the accents will not admit of such a separation of the words; it is best to understand them in the first sense. As to the manner of the expression, of going up to a bed, it may be observed, that not only their beds in those times might be raised higher than ours, but that they were placed in an higher part of the room, and so there was an ascent to them: and Dr. Shaw ^e says this is the custom of the eastern people to this day,"at one end of each chamber there is a little gallery, raised three, four, or five feet above the floor, with a balustrade in the front of it, with a few steps likewise leading up to it, here they place their beds.''