Deuteronomy 33:6 Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few. The Alexandrian manuscript of the Greek Old Testament contains a remarkable interpolation in the clause of Reuben's blessing. It introduces the name of Simeon, and refers to that tribe the prayer of Moses that "his men may not be few." The suggestion cannot possibly be entertained; although, if it be rejected, the very singular fact stares us in the face that the tribe of Simeon is passed over in absolute silence. This omission has been used to support the theory of a later origin of the Book of Deuteronomy. It has been said that the Simeonites had disappeared from the soil of Canaan in the reign of Josiah, and that therefore the writer thought it needless to make allusion to them. But the same reason would have caused him to pass over all the tribes comprised in the northern kingdom of Israel; for they had been recently rooted out of their possessions in the land of promise, and carried away captive into Assyria. Moreover, as a matter of historical fact, there were flourishing settlements of the Simeonites within the territory of Judah so near to Josiah's time as the reign of Hezekiah (1 Chronicles 4:34-43), and the heroine of the apocryphal book of Judith was a daughter of Simeon: a fact which, even with all allowance for the license of historic fiction, obliges us to recognise the continuance of Simeon as a tribe in the very latest period of Jewish national existence. The true reason why Simeon's name is passed over in this blessing was the deep and righteous indignation which the inspired prophet felt in regard to the recent sin of Israel at Shittim. Simeon had headed the foul apostasy which cast the glory of Jehovah's chosen people at the feet of Moabs vilest idol; and the bulk of the twenty-four thousand victims of God's avenging plague were men of this guilty tribe. With such recollections fresh in his mind, it was impossible for Moses to utter words of blessing upon Simeon, or to mitigate in any sense the curse which Jacob had already pronounced upon his posterity (Genesis 49:5, 7). (T. G. Rooke, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few.WEB: "Let Reuben live, and not die; Nor let his men be few." |
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