Reuben
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(behold, a son) (Gen. 29:32 and elsewhere)—the eldest son of Jacob and Leah and one of the twelve patriarchs. He forfeited the birthright through his sin with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and received Jacob’s severe rebuke: “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed” (Gen. 49:3–4). His descendants afterward were distinguished neither by numbers nor by power.