Reuben (Bible)

According to the Book of Genesis, Reuben or Re'uven (Hebrew: רְאוּבֵן‎‎, Standard Rəʾuven Tiberian Rəʾûḇēn) was the eldest son of Jacob with Leah. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Reuben.

The text of the Torah gives two different etymologies for the name of Reuben, which textual scholars attribute to different sources: one to the Yahwist and the other to the Elohist; the first explanation given by the Torah is that the name refers to God having witnessed Leah's misery, in regard to her status as the less-favourite of Jacob's wives, implying that the etymology of Reuben is that it derives from raa beonyi, meaning he has seen my misery; the second explanation is that the name refers to Leah's hope that Reuben's birth will make Jacob love her, implying a derivation from yeehabani, meaning he will love me. Another Hebrew phrase to which Reuben is particularly close is ra'a ben, meaning behold, a son, which is how classical rabbinical literature interpreted it, although some of these sources argue that Leah was using the term to make an implied distinction between Reuben and Esau, his uncle. Some scholars suspect that the final consonant may originally have been an l (similar to an n in the early Hebrew alphabet), and Josephus rendered the name as Reubel; it is thus possible that Reuben's name is cognate with the Arabic term Ra'abil, meaning wolves.

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