The twelve tribes, into which the nation of the Hebrews was divided, were carried back to the sons of Jacob, who were thought to be their ancestors. This fact has obviously influenced the number and position of these sons in the tradition. The tribes which claimed to be the oldest must have sprung from the oldest sons of Jacob; those who boasted of the purest descent must have for their progenitors sons born in lawful marriage; those whose blood was less pure were derived from sons born to Jacob by the handmaids of his wives. We found above ([p. 409]) that Leah, sprung from the true blood of the fathers, while yet in Haran, had borne Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon. The oldest families of the Hebrews were named after Reuben. These, "the sons of Reuben," were "brave men who carried the sword and the shield, and drew the bow, and were skilful in war;"[624] but even in later times they still pursued the old pastoral mode of life in the mountain glades on the east of Jordan, and hence had no important influence on the development of the nation. This remarkable insignificance of the oldest tribe is accounted for in the revision by a sin of the ancestor, who lay with Bilhah, his father's handmaid.[625] According to the same prophetic authority, Simeon and Levi also had done an unclean deed, and Judah had once been equally guilty.[626] It is for his account of Judah only that we must make this narrator entirely responsible. For the deeds of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, he has merely developed hints contained in the "Blessings of Jacob," a poem of the time of the Judges, which he found existing in the Ephraimitic text.[627] That poem says expressly that Reuben, though the firstborn, was not to have the pre-eminence; and Simeon and Levi, "because in their anger they slew a man, and in their passion lamed a bull," were to be scattered in Israel, i. e. were to have no district specially their own. In contrast to the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, this poem celebrated the tribe of Joseph—under which name the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were included—whose praise has been already given, and it brings into prominence the tribe of Judah. The strength of the nation rested on the tribes of Ephraim and Judah; they had done the best service at the conquest of Canaan, and were the foremost in defending the land. The tribe of Ephraim was first in battle, and it retained this superiority for centuries. The tribe was not sprung from the oldest, but from the most beloved son of Jacob, the late-born son of Rachel. Ephraim was the younger of the two sons born to Joseph by the Egyptian woman, but Jacob had placed his right hand on the head of the younger son, and said, "By thee shall Israel bless."[628] Such is the account of the Ephraimitic text. In the Judæan Jacob is made to say, "Ephraim and Manasseh shall be as my two firstborn."[629] The fathers of the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher were considered to have been born to Jacob by his handmaids.
FOOTNOTES:
[604] Nöldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 32.
[605] De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," s. 273 ff.
[606] Ebers, "Durch Gosen," s. 430; "Ægypt. und die Bücher Moses," s. 330, 323 ff.
[607] Ebers, "Ægypt. und die Bücher Moses," s. 321, 322.
[608] Above p. 196; Ebers, loc. cit. s. 347.
[609] Lepsius, "Chronol." s. 382; Ebers, "Ægypten und die Bücher Moses," s. 296; Lauth, "Moses," s. 77.
[610] Exod. xii. 40.
[611] Ebers, "Durch Gosen," s. 505 ff.