Genesis 49:4 - Revised Standard Version (RSV-CI)

⁴ Unstable as water, you shall not have pre-eminence because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it—you went up to my couch!

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

⁴ 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.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

⁴ But unstable and boiling over like water, you shall not excel and have the preeminence [of the firstborn], because you went to your father's bed; you defiled it–he went to my couch! [Gen. 35:22.]

American Standard Version (1901)

⁴ Boiling over as water, 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.

Common English Bible

⁴ As wild as the waters, you won’t endure, for you went up to your father’s bed, you went up and violated my couch.

Catholic Public Domain Version

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.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

⁴ Thou art poured out as water, grow thou not: because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, and didst defile his couch.

Genesis 49:4 Cross References

Genesis 35:22

While Israel dwelt in that land Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine; and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

Genesis 46:8

Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. Reuben, Jacob's first-born,

1 Chronicles 5:1

The sons of Reuben the first-born of Israel (for he was the first-born; but because he polluted his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright;

1 Corinthians 5:1

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife.

Deuteronomy 27:20

“ ‘Cursed be he who lies with his father's wife, because he has uncovered her who is his father's.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Deuteronomy 33:6

“Let Reuben live, and not die, nor let his men be few.”

Deuteronomy 5:21

“ ‘Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.’

2 Peter 2:14

They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

2 Peter 3:16

speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.