Deuteronomy 33:6

Let not his men be few -literally, “a number,” i. e., “a small number,” such as could be easily counted (compareGenesis 34:30note). While the verse promises that the tribe shall endure and prosper, yet it is so worded as to carry with it a warning. The Reubenites, occupied with their herds and flocks, appear, soon after the days of Joshua, to have lost their early energy, until in later times its numbers, even when counted with the Gadites and the half of Manasseh, were fewer than that of the Reubenites alone at the census ofNumbers 1:0(Compare1 Chronicles 5:18withNumbers 1:20.) No judge, prophet, or national hero arose out of this tribe.