Gen 49:3-4, 8, Num 32:31-32, Jos 22:1-9 | ESV | STEP | Reuben , you are my firstborn , my might , and the firstfruits of my strength , preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power .

Genesis 49:3-4

3 “Reuben, you are ^amy firstborn,
my might, and the ^bfirstfruits of my strength,
preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
because you ^cwent up to your father’s bed;
then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!

Genesis 49:8

8 “Judah, ^dyour brothers shall praise you;
^eyour hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
^fyour father’s sons shall bow down before you.

Numbers 32:31-32

31 And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben answered, “What the Lord has said to your servants, we will do. 32 We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”

Joshua 22:1-9

The Eastern Tribes Return Home

1 At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 2 and said to them, “You have kept ^gall that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you ^hand have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you. 3 You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God. 4 ⁱAnd now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, ^jwhich Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. 5 ^kOnly be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, ^lto love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” 6 So Joshua ^mblessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, ⁿbut to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, 8 he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. ^oDivide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.” 9 So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go ^pto the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the Lord through Moses.