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Birth-Right

Morrish Bible Dictionary

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Jacob when dying said of Reuben "Thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power." This is what he was as the firstborn, for in himself he was 'unstable as water ' and he should not excel. Genesis 49:3,4 . He forfeited his birth-right for defiling his father's bed, and it was given to Joseph, who in Ephraim and Manasseh had a double portion among the tribes. 1 Chronicles 5:1 . The law declared that if a man's first-born son was by a wife he hated, he must not put the son of another wife in his place: the first-born must have a double portion of all that the man possessed "for he is the beginning of his strength: the right of the first-born is his." Deuteronomy 21:16,17 . Esau is called a profane person for selling his birth-right: it was a privilege God had given him, and which he should have valued as such. Genesis 25:31-34; Hebrews 12:16 .