Jacob and Leah's firstborn — his name (Re'uven) is Leah's cry, 'God has SEEN (ra'ah) my affliction… now my husband will love me' (29:32). The eldest, forever almost saving the day and falling short: he brings his mother the mandrakes that reopen the wife-war (30:14), and later he alone tries to spare Joseph, talking the brothers out of murder so he can rescue him — and returns to an empty pit (37:21-29). But here he commits the sin that undoes him, lying with Bilhah his father's concubine, a grab at his father's authority (35:22). For it he loses the birthright: Jacob's deathbed verdict is 'unstable as water, you shall not have the excellency, because you went up to your father's bed' (49:3-4) — and the double portion passes to Joseph, the leadership to Judah.