“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in dignity, and excelling in power.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 3. My strength, and so forth He calls him his strength, as being born whilst his father was in his full strength and vigour; he calls him the beginning of his sorrow, because cares and sorrows usually come on with the birth of children.—Excelling in gifts, and so forth because the first-born had a title to a double portion, and to have the command over his brethren, which Ruben forfeited by his sin; being poured out as water; that is, spilt and lost. Challoner.—In command. He ought to have succeeded to his father in authority. But Joseph entered in upon his rejection, 1 Chronicles 5:1. The priesthood was given to Levi’s descendants; and the regal power, partly to those of Joseph, who reigned over the ten tribes, for a long time; and partly to the posterity of Juda, who exercised dominion over all the people of Israel. Chaldee. Worthington.