John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 33:4

"Moses commanded us a law, An inheritance for the assembly of Jacob." — Deuteronomy 33:4 (ASV)

Moses commanded us a law. What he had declared concerning the glory of God and the excellence of the Law, he now applies to himself, since it was his purpose, as I have said, to establish the authority of his own ministry. Therefore, to prove the certainty of his mission, he boasts that he was appointed by God to be the teacher of the people, not for a brief period, but throughout all ages; for by the word “inheritance,” the perpetuity of the Law is signified. He then claims for himself the royal supremacy, not because he had ruled in the manner of kings, but so that the dignity of this high office might add weight to his words. He says that the heads of the people and the tribes were gathered together, with reference to their unhappy disorganization, which was tending to their destruction, as if to say that, under his guidance and by his exertions, the state of the people was re-established.

He begins with Reuben, the first-born, and so far removes or mitigates the ignominy of that condemnation with which he had been branded by his father Jacob, as to stop just short of restoring him to his place of honor. For the holy Patriarch had pronounced a severe sentence, namely, that Reuben should be as unstable as water, and should not excel (Genesis 49:4). Therefore, lest his entire posterity should be discouraged or be rejected by the other tribes, he abates the severity of his disinheritance, as if to pardon the condemned. In short, he assigns to the family of Reuben a place among the sons of Jacob, lest despair should drive them to headlong ruin.

The second clause admits of two contrary meanings. Literally it is, Let him be small in number; and, in fact, this tribe was not one of the more numerous ones. Since, however, it occupied a middle place and surpassed several of the others, some repeat the negative: Let him not die, nor let him be few in number.³¹¹ But it appears more probable that an abatement is made from the rank to which his primogeniture entitled the family of Reuben, and thus that some remainder of dishonor was introduced into the promise of grace. Indeed, not only the tribe of Judah, but also those of Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, surpassed it in size. Thus, the qualification will be by no means inappropriate: that although Reuben was to be reckoned among the people of God, he still should not altogether recover his dignity.

³¹¹ A. V., “and let ., “and let not his men be few.his men be few.