Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

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.

Thou shalt not excel

Bible References

Unstable

James 1:6
But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
2 Peter 2:14
They have eyes full of adultery and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!
2 Peter 3:16
He speaks about these things in all his letters in which there are some matters that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.

Thou shalt not excel

Genesis 46:8
These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt:

Jacob’s firstborn: Reuben.
Deuteronomy 33:6
Let Reuben live and not die
though his people become few.

Because

Genesis 35:22
While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.

Jacob had 12 sons:
Deuteronomy 5:21
Do not covet your neighbor’s wife or desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Deuteronomy 27:20
‘The one who sleeps with his father’s wife is cursed, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’
And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’
1 Chronicles 5:1
These were the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel. He was the firstborn, but his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, because Reuben defiled his father’s bed. He is not listed in the genealogy according to birthright.
1 Corinthians 5:1
It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is living with his father’s wife.

General references

Leviticus 18:8
You are not to have sex with your father’s wife; it will shame your father.
Numbers 1:20
The descendants of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting one by one the names of every male 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,
Deuteronomy 27:20
‘The one who sleeps with his father’s wife is cursed, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’
And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’
Deuteronomy 33:6
Let Reuben live and not die
though his people become few.

Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers.