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Genesis 49:4

You are being poured out like water, may you not increase. For you climbed onto your father’s bed, and you defiled his resting place.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

In Context

3Reuben, my firstborn, you are my strength and the beginning of my sorrow: first in gifts, greater in authority.

5The brothers Simeon and Levi: vessels of iniquity waging war.

Read all of Genesis 49

Cross References

Genesis 46:8Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who entered into Egypt, he with his children. The firstborn is Reuben.

Deuteronomy 5:21You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his house, nor his field, nor his man servant, nor his woman servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything out of all that is his.’

Deuteronomy 33:6Let Ruben live, and not die, and may he be small in number.”

1 Corinthians 5:1Above all else, it is being said that there is fornication among you, even fornication of a such kind that is not among the Gentiles, so that someone would have the wife of his father.

2 Peter 2:14having eyes full of adultery and of incessant offenses, luring unstable souls, having a heart well-trained in avarice, sons of curses!

Matthew Henry on Genesis 49:2-5

Jacob's Prophecy Concerning His Sons. ( b. c. 1689.) 1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befal you in the last days. 2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. 3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: 4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

King James VersionBíblia Portuguesa MundialLuther Bibel (Deutsch)Bible Louis Segond (Français)Библия (Русский)新标点和合本성경 (한국어)الكتاب المقدس باللغة العربية، فان دايكBibbia Diodati (Italiano)Kinh Thánh (Tiếng Việt)Biblia Cornilescu (Română)Polish Biblia Gdanska (1881)Statenvertaling (Nederlands)

Study Genesis 49:4

Matthew HenryJamieson-Fausset-BrownAdam ClarkeJohn WesleyJohn CalvinKeil and DelitzschScofieldFamily Bible NotesGeneva Bible Notes (1599)
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