During Rachel's lifetime, her couch had always stood in the tent of
Jacob. After her death, he ordered the couch of her handmaid Bilhah to
be carried thither. Reuben was sorely vexed thereat, and he said, "Not
enough that Rachel alive curtailed the rights of my mother, she must
needs give her annoyance also after death!" He went and took the couch
of his mother Leah and placed it in Jacob's tent instead of Bilhah's
couch.[312] Reuben's brothers learned of his disrespectful act from
Asher. He had found it out in one way or another, and had told it to
his brethren, who ruptured their relations with him, for they would
have nothing to do with an informer, and they did not become reconciled
with Asher until Reuben himself confessed his transgression.[313] For
it was not long before Reuben recognized that he had acted
reprehensibly toward his father, and he fasted and put on sackcloth,
and repented of his misdeed. He was the first among men to do penance,
and therefore God said to him: "Since the beginning of the world it
hath not happened that a man hath sinned and then repented thereof.
Thou art the first to do penance, and as thou livest, a prophet of thy
seed, Hosea, shall be the first to proclaim, 'O Israel, return.' "[314]