* The most common of these animal forms was that of a calf or bull (Exod. xxxii.; Deut. ix. 21; and in the kingly period, 1 Kings xii. 28-30; 2 Kings x. 29); we are not told the form of the image of Micah the Ephraimite (Judges xviii. 14, 17, 18, 20, 30, 31). ** Levi appears to have suffered dispersion after the events of which there are two separate accounts combined in Gen. xxxiv. In conjunction with Simeon, he appears to have revenged the violation of his sister Dinah by a massacre of the Shechemites, and the dispersion alluded to in Jacob’s blessing (Gen. xlix. 5-7) is mentioned as consequent on this act of barbarism. *** In the IXth century Mesha of Moab does not mention the Reubenites, and speaks of the Gadites only as inhabiting the territory formerly occupied by them. Tradition attributed the misfortunes of the tribe to the crime of its chief in his seduction of Bilhah, his father’s concubine (Gen. xlix. 3, 4; cf. xxxv. 22) The Jewish chroniclers attempted by various combinations to prove that the sacred number of tribes was the correct one. At times they included Levi in the list, in which case Joseph was reckoned as one;* while on other occasions Levi or Simeon was omitted, when for Joseph would be substituted his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.** In addition to this, the tribes were very unequal in size: Ephraim, Gad, and Manasseh comprised many powerful and wealthy families; Dan, on the contrary, contained so few, that it was sometimes reckoned as a mere clan. * As, for instance, in Jacob’s blessing (Gen. xlix. 5-7) and in the enumeration of the patriarch’s sons at the time of his journey to Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 9-26). ** Numb. i. 20, et seq., where the descendants of Levi are not included among the twelve, and Deut. xxxiii. 6-25, where Simeon is omitted from among the tribes blessed by Moses before his death. The tribal organisation had not reached its full development at the time of the sojourn in the desert. The tribes of Joseph and Judah, who subsequently played such important parts, were at that period not held in any particular estimation; Reuben, on the other hand, exercised a sort of right of priority over the rest.* * This conclusion is drawn from the position of eldest son given to him in all the genealogies enumerating the children of Jacob. Stade, on the contrary, is inclined to believe that this place of honour was granted to him on account of the smallness of his family, to prevent any jealousy arising between the more powerful tribes, such as Ephraim and Judah (_Ges. des Vollces Isr._, vol. i. pp. 151, 152).