² Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob;
And hearken unto Israel your father.
³     Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the ^[a]beginning of my strength;
The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
⁴ Boiling over as water, ^[b]thou shalt not have the pre-eminence;
Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed;
Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.