Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Yigal Levin:
 
You wrote:  “It certainly "sounds" like "reu - ben!", but see Gen. 29:32. 
That was just
 Ralbag's point - that the reason given for naming a child does not always
 fit the literal meaning of the name. Looked as critically, that is without
 assuming that the stories actually describe the real acts of real people, I
 would say that Reuben was a tribal name, perhaps also the personal name of
 the tribe's "founder". When the story of his birth was incorporated into
 Genesis, the writer had a different point to make - that Leah thought that
 her misery would be alleviated by the birth of her son.”
 
1.  The substantive content of the text of the Patriarchal narratives 
(ignoring the updating of spelling and grammar over the centuries) definitely 
appears to long pre-date the formation of any Hebrew tribes.  To use the 
example of geography (knowing that Biblical geography is one of your longest 
suits), the Patriarchs are never portrayed as sojourning in the part of 
Canaan 
that, centuries later, became part of the later state of Judah.  The 
Patriarchs
’ Hebron is not the mountainous city 20 miles south of Jerusalem, as 
conventionally thought, because that site fails all 10 of the key attributes 
of 
the Patriarchs’ Hebron as set forth in the text.  Moreover, not a single 
author in the entirety of the Hebrew Bible ever asserts that King David’s 
mountainous city of Hebron is one and the same place where Abraham maintained 
a 
huge flock of sheep and goats for decades.  Rather, the Patriarchs’ Hebron is 
the lush, low-lying Aijalon Valley, just northwest of the portion of Canaan 
that was routinely under the total control of the later state of Judah.  
Likewise, no place named “Gerar” or “Kadesh-barnea” is attested in the Negev. 
 
Rather those are sites in Galilee, far north of the subsequent state of 
Judah, per items #80 and #57 on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmose III list.
 
The point is that the composition of the Patriarchal narratives long 
pre-dates, rather than post-dates, the formation of any Hebrew tribes.  
 
2.  As to the name “Reuben”/R)WBN in particular, the author is 
deliberately making a series of puns with that name, and is not content with 
a single 
pun.  All three puns are based exclusively on the three true consonants in 
the name Reuben:  R-B-N.
 
(a)  The first pun (Pun #1) is the most obvious pun, yet it is not 
explicitly stated, but rather is merely implied:
 
“Look, a son!”  “Look” is RESH-aleph-heh.  “Son” is BET-NUN.
 
(b)  Pun #2 is not obvious on its face, but it is explicitly stated.
 
“(YHWH) looks upon my affliction”.  RESH-aleph-heh BET ayin-NUN-yod-yod
 
“Look” is RESH-aleph-heh.  “Upon” is BET.  “My affliction” is 
ayin-NUN-yod-yod.
 
(c)  But there’s still a third pun.  Once again, it’s not obvious, but it 
is explicitly stated, per the end of this same sentence at Genesis 29: 32:
 
“Look, …he [husband Jacob] loves me.”
 
RESH-aleph-heh…yod-aleph-heh-BET-NUN-yod.
 
“Look” is RESH-aleph-heh.  “He loves me” is yod-aleph-heh-BET-NUN-yod.
 
3.  As is the case throughout the Patriarchal narratives, this is clever 
Hebrew wordplay at its finest.  If I may be permitted to quote a prior post 
of 
mine here, note how the two explicit puns on the name “Reuben” beautifully 
foreshadow Reuben’s life story, unlike the obvious, implied pun.  Focusing 
on the word “affliction” in the first explicit pun foreshadows that Reuben 
will have one of Jacob’s minor wives in Reuben’s tent for one night, and 
for that Reuben will receive a final curse from his father Jacob.  Yet Reuben 
is retained within the Covenant by Jacob, showing that Jacob “loves” his 
somewhat wayward firstborn son, as focused upon by the second explicit pun.  
Finally, the second explicit pun in Reuben’s name is that Jacob loves Leah.  
That neatly foreshadows the ending of the Patriarchal narratives, when Jacob 
shows his long-delayed love for Leah by naming one of Leah’s sons, namely 
Judah, as the leader of the next generation of the new Hebrews, rather than 
naming Jacob’s favorite son Joseph, whose mother was statuesque Rachel, as 
such leader.  Thus in a real sense, the second half of the Patriarchal 
narratives is largely foretold by the two explicit puns on the name “Reuben”.
 
4.  The scholarly community misses this brilliant Hebrew wordplay, and 
ingenious foreshadowing of the second half of the storyline of the 
Patriarchal 
narratives, by erroneously seeking a “tribal name” explanation for the name “
Reuben”.  In fact, the name “Reuben” in the Patriarchal narratives long 
pre-dates the existence of any Hebrew tribes.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois