Jacob - Jacob in the Hebrew Bible, Other references to Jacob, Jacob's sons

Biblical character, the son of Isaac, and patriarch of the nation Israel. He supplanted his elder brother Esau, obtaining his father Isaac's special blessing and thus being seen as the inheritor of God's promises. He was re-named Israel (perhaps meaning ‘God strives’ or ‘he who strives with God’) after his struggle with a divine being. By his wives Leah and Rachel and their maids he fathered 12 sons, to whom Jewish tradition traced the 12 tribes of Israel.

Jacob in the Hebrew Bible

Jacob, together with Esau, was born to Isaac and Rebeccah after 200 years of marriage, at which time his father was 60 (Genesis 25:26), and Abraham was 160 years old. Esau was a ruddy hunter, while Jacob was a gentle man who "dwelled in tents," interpreted by many biblical commentators as a mark of his studiousness and reserved personality. His brother Jacob was born immediately afterwards(they were thought to be Siamese twins, and was grasping Esau's heel. Commentators explain that Jacob was trying to hold Esau back from being the firstborn, and in that way claim the Abrahamic legacy for himself.

According to the text, Jacob was favored by his mother, while Esau was favored by his father. Seizing an opportunity, Jacob informed Esau that he would sell him some lentil soup which he had cooked, in exchange for the birthright which belonged to Esau as the older brother. Setting the scene at the time of Abraham's death would mean that Jacob and Esau were both 15 years old at that time. As Esau went out to the hunt, she instructed Jacob to fetch her two goats so that she could prepare a tasty meal for his father, and commanded him to bring the meal to Isaac to receive the blessing in his brother's stead. Jacob protested that his father might notice the substitution through touch, since Esau was hairy and he was smooth.

Thus disguised, Jacob went into his father's tent. "I am Esau your firstborn," Jacob replied (the Hebrew words, however, can be divided into two statements: "I" and "Esau is your firstborn"). The goatskins seemed to fool him, though he maintained, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

As soon as Jacob left the tent, Esau arrived and exposed the deception. Esau exclaimed, "Is that why he is called Jacob (יעקב), because he has deceived me (ויעקבני) these two times?" Then Esau swore to himself that he would kill Jacob in revenge as soon as his father was dead.

In the house of Laban

Rebekah prophetically intuited Esau's murderous intentions, and commanded Jacob to flee to the house of her brother, Laban, until Esau's rage subsided.

On route to Haran, Jacob experienced a vision in which he saw a ladder reaching into heaven with angels going up and down it, a vision that is commonly referred to as Jacob's Ladder. Jacob feared that his children would never be free of Esau's domination, but God assured him that at the End of Days, Edom too would come falling down.

Jacob awoke in the morning and continued on his way to Haran.

These seven years seemed to Jacob "but a few days, for the love he had for her," but when they were complete, Laban deceived Jacob by switching his older daughter, Leah, as the veiled bride. According to the traditional Midrashic interpretation of the story, both Jacob and Rachel suspected that Laban would pull such a trick, for he was known as the "Aramean" (deceiver), and changed Jacob's wages hundreds of times during his employ. However, he agreed to give Rachel in marriage as well if Jacob worked another seven years for him. After the week of wedding celebrations with Leah, Jacob married Rachel, and continued to work for Laban another seven years.

Jacob loved Rachel more than anything in the world, and Leah felt hated. Rachel, however, was barren, and gave Jacob her handmaid Bilhah in marriage so she could raise children through her. Seeing that she had left off childbearing temporarily, Leah then gave her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob in marriage so she could raise more children through her. Various interpretations of biblical passages suggest that Jacob's favoritism of Rachel over Leah passed over to their children;

Around the time that Joseph was born, Jacob desired to return home to his parents, but Laban was reluctant to release him, as God had blessed his flock on account of Jacob. Now Laban offered to pay Jacob, and Jacob proposed an unusual deal. Left alone, Jacob planted rods of poplar, hazel, and chestnut in front of the flocks' watering holes, and when the animals saw them, they gave birth to spotted, speckled and brown foals. (See an illustration of the genetics behind this deal)

As time passed, Laban's sons noticed that Jacob was taking the better part of their flocks, and Laban's friendly attitude towards Jacob began to change. God told Jacob he should now leave, and he and his wives and children did so without informing Laban.

Laban, in a rage, pursued Jacob for seven days. The night before he caught up to him, God spoke to him in a dream and warned him not to say anything good or bad to Jacob. Knowing nothing about Rachel's theft of the idols, Jacob told Laban that whoever stole them should die, and offered to let him search. Jacob and Laban parted from each other in peace, Laban returning home and Jacob continuing on his way.

Return to Canaan

As Jacob neared the land of Canaan, he sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau. They returned with the news that Esau was coming to meet Jacob with an army of 400 men. He felt that he must now depend only on God, and he betook himself to Him in earnest prayer, then sent on before him a munificent present to Esau, "a present to my lord Esau from thy servant Jacob."

Jacob then transported his family and flocks back across the ford Jabbok, then crossed over towards the direction from which Esau would come, spending the night alone, in communion with God. There, a mysterious being ("a man", according to Genesis 32:24, or "the angel", according to Hosea 12:4) appeared and wrestled with Jacob until daybreak.

Jacob then demanded a blessing, and the mysterious being said that from now on, Jacob would be called Israel (Hebrew ישׂראל Yisra'el or Yiśrā’ēl, meaning "one who has struggled with God"). Afterwords Jacob named the place Pnei-el (Penuel, meaning "face of God"), saying "I have seen God face to face and lived." According to Rashi, he was the guardian angel of Esau himself, sent to destroy Jacob before he could return to the land of Canaan. Some commentators, however, argue that the stranger was God Himself, citing Jacob's own words and the name he assumed thereafter ("One who has struggled with God").

In the morning Jacob assembled his wives and 11 sons, placing Rachel and her children in the rear and Leah and her children in the front. Some commentators cite this placement as proof that Jacob continued to favor Rachel's children over Leah's, as presumably the rear position would be safer from a frontal assault by Esau, which Jacob feared. Esau's spirit of revenge, however, had by this time been appeased by Jacob's bounteous gift of camels, goats and flocks. Esau offered to accompany them on their way back to Israel, but Jacob protested that his children were still young and tender; According to the Sages, this was a prophetic reference to the End of Days, when Jacob's descendants would come to Mount Seir, the home of Edom, to deliver judgment against Esau's descendants for persecuting them throughout the millennia (Obadiah 1:21).

Jacob arrived in Shechem, where he bought a parcel of land that would eventually house Joseph's Tomb. Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi, offered to go ahead with the match as long as all the men of Shechem first performed the mitzvah of circumcision upon themselves, ostensibly to unite the children of Jacob in familial harmony. Jacob remained silent about the episode, but later rebuked his two sons for their anger in his deathbed blessing (Genesis 49:5-7).

As Jacob and his entourage neared the border of Canaan, Rachel went into labor and died as she gave birth to her second—and Jacob's twelfth—son, Benjamin.

Jacob was finally reunited with his father Isaac in Mamre (outside Hebron). When Isaac died at the age of 180, Jacob and Esau buried him together in the Cave of Machpelah which Abraham had purchased as a family burial plot.

Jacob and Joseph

The Bible next relates the story of Joseph, who was separated from his father Jacob at the age of 17 and sent down to Egypt as a slave by his brothers, who were jealous of his dreams of kingship over them. Christian commentators have speculated that this was a punishment from God due to Jacob's earlier sins, which included impersonation of Esau (a form of lying or deception).

When the famine struck, the sons of Jacob went down to Egypt to procure grain for their starving families in Canaan. Jacob was distraught when he heard this news, for Benjamin was all that was left to him of his beloved wife Rachel's children, and he refused to release him lest something happen to Benjamin, too. He invited them to bring their families and their father, Jacob, down to Egypt to live near him, and gave them a place to live in the Egyptian province of Goshen.

Jacob's last seventeen years were spent in tranquility in Egypt, knowing that all his 12 sons were righteous people, and he died at the age of 147. Before he died, he made Joseph promise that he would bury him in the Cave of Machpelah, even though Jacob had buried Joseph's mother, Rachel, by the side of the road and not in the Cave (Leah was buried there, instead).

Before he died, Jacob also elevated Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to the status of full tribes. He feared lest one of his sons was not righteous, but they responded, "Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad" - "Hear O Israel [Israel being another name of Jacob], the Lord Our God, the Lord is One!" Satisfied that his sons were united in the service of God, Jacob proclaimed, "Baruch Shem Kavod Malchuso Le'Olam Va'Ed" - "Blessed is the Name of His glorious Kingdom for ever and ever".

Other references to Jacob

Jacob is the only person in Old Testament (Jewish) Scripture whom God said He "loved".

Jacob's sons

Sons of Jacob by wife in order of birth (D = Daughter)

Leah

Reuben (1)

Simeon (2)

Levi (3)

Judah (4)

Issachar (9)

Zebulun (10)

Dinah (D)

Rachel

Joseph (11)

Benjamin (12)

Bilhah (Rachel's servant)

Dan (5)

Naphtali (6)

Zilpah (Leah's servant)

Gad (7)

Asher (8)

Tribes of Israel
The Tribes Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Manasseh Ephraim Benjamin
Topics Children of Israel Ten Lost Tribes
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Jacob had twelve sons by his four wives, as follows:

By Leah: Reuben, Simeon (Biblical figure), Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun. Therefore, when the tribes are listed in reference to their receipt of land, as well as to their encampments during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, the Tribe of Joseph is replaced by the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph by his Egyptian wife Asenath, whom Jacob elevated to the status of full tribes).

Thus, the two divisions of the tribes are:

Traditional division:

Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Joseph Benjamin

Division according to apportionment of land in Israel:

Reuben Simeon Judah Issachar Zebulun Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Benjamin Ephraim Manasseh

Rabbinical teachings about Jacob

According to the classic Jewish texts, Jacob, as the third and last patriarch, lived a life that paralleled the descent of his offspring, the Jewish people, into the darkness of exile.

Jacob in Islam

In Arabic, Jacob is known as Yaqub. God perfected his favor on Jacob and his posterity as he perfected his favor on Abraham and Isaac (12:6).

According to the Qu'ran, Jacob was of the company of the Elect and the Good (38:47, 21:75).

External Links

Behind Jacob’s deal with Laban - its genetics illustrated

Reference

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jacob Trachtenberg, Joshua (1939), Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion, New York: Behrman's Jewish Book house

Torah/Old Testament's Genealogy from Adam to David

Adam to Shem

Adam

Seth

Enos

Kenan

Mahalalel

Jared

Enoch

Methuselah

Lamech

Noah

Shem

Arpachshad to Jacob

Arpachshad

Shelah

Eber

Peleg

Reu

Serug

Nahor

Terah

Abraham

Isaac

Jacob

Judah to David

Judah

Perez

Hezron

Aram

Amminadab

Nahshon

Salmon

Boaz

Obed

Jesse

David