e accounts combined in Gen.
xxxiv. In conjunction with Simeon, he appears to have
revenged the violation of his sister Dinah by a massacre of
the Shechemites, and the dispersion alluded to in Jacob's
blessing (Gen. xlix. 5-7) is mentioned as consequent on this
act of barbarism.

*** In the IXth century Mesha of Moab does not mention the
Reubenites, and speaks of the Gadites only as inhabiting the
territory formerly occupied by them. Tradition attributed
the misfortunes of the tribe to the crime of its chief in
his seduction of Bilhah, his father's concubine (Gen. xlix.
3, 4; cf. xxxv. 22)

The Jewish chroniclers attempted by various combinations to prove that
the sacred number of tribes was the correct one. At times they included
Levi in the list, in which case Joseph was reckoned as one;* while on
other occasions Levi or Simeon was omitted, when for Joseph would be
substituted his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.** In addition to this,
the tribes were very unequal in size: Ephraim, Gad, and Manasseh
comprised many powerful and wealthy families; Dan, on the contrary,
contained so few, that it was sometimes reckoned as a mere clan.

* As, for instance, in Jacob's blessing (Gen. xlix. 5-7) and
in the enumeration of the patriarch's sons at the time of
his journey to Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 9-26).

** Numb. i. 20, et seq., where the descendants of Levi are
not included among the twelve, and Deut. xxxiii. 6-25, where
Simeon is omitted from among the tribes blessed by Moses
before his death.

The tribal organisation had not reached its full development at the
time of the sojourn in the desert. The tribes of Joseph and Judah, who
subsequently played such important parts, were at that period not held
in any particular estimation; Reuben, on the other hand, exercised a
sort of right of priority over the rest.*

* This conclusion is drawn from the position of eldest son
given to him in all the genealogies enumerating the children
of Jacob. Stade, on the contrary, is inclined to believe
that this place of honour was granted to him on account of
the smallness of his family, to prevent any jealousy arising
between the more powerful tribes, such as Ephraim and Judah
(_Ges. des Vollces Isr._, vol. i. pp. 151, 152).

The territory which they occupied soon became insufficient to support
their numbers, and they s