Genesis 35:22 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

When Israel dwelt in that land And probably was absent from his family, which might be the unhappy occasion of these disorders. Though, perhaps, Bilhah was the greater criminal, yet Reuben's crime was so provoking, that for it he lost his birthright and blessing, chap. Genesis 49:4. Israel heard it No more is said: that is enough: he heard it with the utmost grief and shame, horror and displeasure. No doubt he forsook Bilhah's bed upon it, as David afterward acted in a like case. The sons of Jacob were twelve Moses makes this observation here, because Benjamin being now born, Jacob had no more sons. When he says, (Genesis 35:26,) which were born to him in Padan-aram, he speaks by a synecdoche, a figure of speech often used in Scripture, whereby that which belonged to the greater part is ascribed to all. They were all born there except Benjamin, the place of whose birth had been just mentioned.