Deuteronomy Chapter 33 verse 6 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 6-25. - Blessings on the tribes individually. With these may be compared the blessing which Jacob pronounced on his sons as representing the tribes of which they were the heads. The two resemble each other in many points; the differences are such as naturally arose from the different relations of the speakers to the objects of their address, and the changes in the condition and prospects of the tribes which during the lapse of centuries had come to pass. Verse 6. - And let not his men be few. The negative, though not expressed in the Hebrew, is to be carried into this clause from the preceding. Though the rights of primogeniture had been withdrawn from Reuben, and Jacob had declared that he should not excel, Moses here assures the tribe of continuance, and even prosperity. Their number was not to be small; which was, perhaps, said to comfort them, in view of the fact that their numbers had greatly diminished in the course of their wanderings in the desert (comp. Numbers 1:21 with Numbers 26:7). At no time, however, was this tribe numerous as compared with the others; nor was it ever distinguished either by the enterprise of its members or by the eminence of any of them in the councils of the nation or the management of affairs.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(6) Let Reuben live, and not die.--"'Live' in this world." says Rashi, "and 'not die' in the world to come." That his misdeed should not be remembered (Genesis 35:22). Rashi also notices the juxtaposition of this record with the sentence, "the sons of Jacob were twelve." Reuben was not cut off, but he was disinherited (1Chronicles 5:1), and his father's blessing had so much in it of disapproval, that Moses' prayer for him was not unnecessary.And let not his men be few.--The sentence is difficult. The LXX. insert Simeon, "let Simeon be many in number." But there is no need for this. The most terrible destruction ever wrought in Israel by the word of Moses came on Dathan and Abiram (who were Reubenites), when "they and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit." We cannot say how far the tribe was diminished by this terrible visitation and the plague that followed (Numbers 16), but the fighting men of the tribe had slightly decreased in the second census (Numbers 1:21; Numbers 26:7), and only two of all the twelve tribes had a smaller force than Reubenat this time. It seems best, therefore, to take the whole verse as applying to Reuben, and the negative in the first clause as covering the second clause also. "Let not his men be a (small) number." The omission of Simeon may be accounted for by his coming within the inheritance of Judah, in Canaan, and enjoying the blessing and protection of that most distinguished tribe. Rashi also takes this view.