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Gen_35:21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
Ver. 22. Reuben went and lay with Bilhah.] A foul fault, in so good a family: but so it sometimes falls out, by the malice of Satan, for the discrediting of religion. Such ugly incest was committed at Corinth, as was hardly {a} "heard of among heathen, that a man should have his father’s wife." {1Co_5:1} Some such there were among the kings of Egypt; but not many. Ethelbald, king of West Saxons, with great infamy marrying his father’s widow Judith, enjoyed his kingdom but two years and a half. {b} But how hateful is that Spanish incest, by Papal dispensation! King Philip of Spain might call the Archduke Albert, both brother, cousin, nephew, and son: for all this was he unto him, either by blood or affinity; being uncle to himself, first cousin to his father, husband to his sister, and father to his wife. {c} Abhorred filth!
And Israel heard it.] And held his peace, because he saw God in it, chastising him for his polygamy. The punishment is sometimes so like the sin, that a man may boldly say, Such a sin was the mother of such a misery. And here is a pause in the Hebrew, to show Jacob’s great amazement at this sad tidings. Dolores ingentes stupent. He was even "dumb, and opened not his mouth, because God was in it." {Psa_39:9}
{a} Seleucus, Syriae rex, tradidit filio Antiocho novercam Stratonicen, cuius amore ille decumbebat. - Appian, in Syriacis.
{b} Dan., Chron., p. 12.
{c} Sandys’s Relation of West. Religion.