Joshua 13:23

was Jordan i.e. "the boundary of the children of Reuben was the Jordan and adjoining land." Comp. Numbers 34:6; Deuteronomy 3:16-17.

the villages thereof = "farm premises," not enclosed, like a city, with walls. Thus the boundaries of the tribe of Reuben were, (a) On the West, the Dead Sea; (b) on the South, the country of Moab; (c) on the East, the kingdom of Ammon;(d) on the North, the Arnon, or the Wady Mojeb. Here the tribe settled, "preferring pasturage to agriculture." His subsequent history fulfils the prophecy of Jacob. "Unstable (or swelling) as water" (Genesis 49:4), he vanishes away into a mere Arabian tribe; "his men are few" (Deuteronomy 33:6); it is all he can do "to live and not die." The only events of the subsequent history of the tribe are (a) the multiplication of "their cattle in the land of Gilead;" (b) their wars with the Bedouin "sons of Hagar" (1 Chronicles 5:10); (c) their spoils "of camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred and fifty thousand, and of asses two thousand" (1 Chronicles 5:21). In the chief struggle of the nation Reuben never took part. No judge, no prophet, no hero of the tribe is handed down to us. See Stanley's Lectures, 1. 218.