the conquest of the country (We. Sta. Guthe, al.): Steuern, goes further, and infers that the rise of Benjamin brought about the dissolution of the Rachel tribe. But all such speculations are precarious. The name Benjamin, however, does furnish evidence that this particular tribe was formed in Palestine (v.i. on 18).
21, 22a. Reuben's incest (J).—21. Tower of the Flock]
Such towers would be numerous in any pastoral country;
and the place here referred to is unknown. Mic. 48 proves
nothing; and the tradition which locates it near Bethlehem
rests on this passage. The order of J's narrative (see p.
414) would lead us to seek it E of the Jordan, where the
tribe of Reuben was settled.—22a. and when Israel heard]
Probably a temporal clause, of which the apodosis has been
intentionally omitted.
The story, no doubt, went on to tell of a curse pronounced on Reuben,
which explained his loss of the birthright (so Gu.; otherwise Di.). The
crime is referred to in 494. The original motive is perhaps suggested
by the striking parallel in Il. ix. 449 ff. (Gu.):
(
Greek characters):
(Greek characters),
(Greek characters),
(Greek characters).
Note that in 3014ff. also, Reuben plays a part in the restoration of his mother's conjugal rights.—An ethnographic reading of the legend finds its historic basis in some humiliation inflicted by Reuben on the Bilhah-tribe, or one of its branches (Dan or Naphtali). See on 494.
22b-26. A list of Jacob's sons (P).—In two points
the list deviates from the tradition of JE (chs. 29. 30): The
children are arranged according to their mothers; and
the birth of Benjamin is placed in Mesopotamia. Otherwise
the order of JE is preserved: Leah precedes Rachel;
but Rachel's maid precedes Leah's.—On the position of the
section in the original Code, see pp. 423, 443.
22a. The double accentuation means that 22a was treated by the
Mass. sometimes as a whole v., sometimes as a half; the former for
private, the latter for liturgical reading (Str. 129; Wickes, Prose Accents, 130). Note the 'gap in the middle of the verse,' which G fills
up with (Greek characters).—(Hebrew characters)] The name, instead of
Jacob, is from this point onwards a fairly reliable criterion of the
document J in Gen.—26. (Hebrew characters)] [E] and Heb. MSS (Hebrew characters).
