Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
All Commentaries on Genesis 49:3 Go To Genesis 49
Hippolytus of Rome
AD 235
AQUILA: Reuben, my first-born, you are my strength, and the sum of my sorrow: excelling in dignity and excelling in might: you have been insensate as water; excel not.
SYMMACHUS: Reuben, my first-born, and beginning of my pain: above measure grasping, and above measure hot as water, you shall not more excel.
HIPPOLYTUS: For there was a great display of strength made by God in behalf of His first-born people from Egypt. For in very many ways was the land of the Egyptians chastised. That first people of the circumcision is meant by my strength, and the first of my children: even as God gave the promise to Abraham and to his seed. But hard to bear with, because the people hardened itself against the obedience of God. And hard, self-willed, because it was not only hard against the obedience of God, but also self-willed so as to set upon the Lord. You have grown wanton, because in the instance of our Lord Jesus Christ the people grew wanton against the Father. But boil not over, says the Spirit, by way of comfort, that it might not, by boiling utterly over, be spilt abroad—giving it hope of salvation. For what has boiled over and been spilt is lost.
