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This article is about the patriarch Jacob in the Book of Genesis. For Jacob from the Book of Mormon, see Jacob (Book of Mormon).

The Hebrew Bible portrays Jacob (יעקב "Holder of the heel", Standard Hebrew Yaʿaqov, Tiberian Hebrew Yaʿăqōḇ), also known as Israel (ישראל "Prince with God", Standard Hebrew Yisraʾel, Tiberian Hebrew Yiśrāʾēl), as the patriarch of the Israelites and thus one of the patriarchs of the Jewish people.

Jacob was continually praised by God, and never criticized. In fact, he is the only person in Scripture whom God said he "loved." (Malachai 1:2-3, "...I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau...")

Some commentators believe that there is some suggestion that Israel may be another name for Jacob's father Isaac (Amos 7:9, 16) but it is far more common to take Israel to mean only Jacob (Gen 32:22-28, especially 28). Since only Jacob was named "Israel" in Genesis, this is a safe assumption.

Jacob was the second born of the twin sons of Isaac, by Rebekah. During the pregnancy, "the children struggled together within her," (Gen.25:22) When Rebekah questioned God about the tumult, He told her that two very different nations were in her womb, and the elder would serve the younger. Later, Rebekah remembered this, but Isaac forgot it.

Jacob was probably born at Lahai-roi, twenty years after Isaac and Rebekah were married, at which time his father was sixty (Gen. 25:26), and Abraham one hundred and sixty years old. Like his father, Jacob was of a quiet and gentle disposition because, the Hebrew tells us, he was "tam," which means "simple" in the sense of simpleminded. Jacob dwelt "in tents" with his mother and did woman's work--e.g., stirring pottage--until he was 76 years of age, at which time he would be sent to find a wife from among his relatives in Haran.

Because Jacob was weak and simple, his mother favored him. His father, Isaac, favored Esau, who was "a man of the fields and a cunning hunter." Because Esau was intelligent and active, his father saw him as the one who could step into tribal leadership when Isaac could no longer lead. (Gen. 25:29-34).

According to the Bible, when Isaac was about 136 years of age (60 at Jacob's birth + Jacob's age of 76 = 136), Rebekah learned that Isaac was about to give his blessing to the wrong son, Esau. patriarch (Gen. 27). She thought Isaac would confer BOTH the birthright blessing of material inheritance and the Abrahamic blessing of the Land and a Seed that would bless "all the families of the earth."

The birthright secured to him who possessed it:

• superior rank in his family (Gen. 49:3);
• a double portion of the paternal inheritance (Deut. 21:17);
• the priestly office in the family (Num. 8:17-19);

The Abrahamic blessing secured to him who possessed it RIGHTLY:

• the promise of the Seed in which all nations of the earth were to be blessed (Gen. 22:18).

Soon after his acquisition of his father's blessing (Gen. 27), Jacob became conscious of his guilt; and afraid of the anger of Esau, at the suggestion of Rebekah Isaac sent him away to Haran, 400 miles or more, to find a wife among his cousins, the family of Laban, the Syrian (28). There he met with Rachel (29). Laban would not consent to give him his daughter in marriage till he had served seven years; but to Jacob these years "seemed but a few days, for the love he had to her." But when the seven years were expired, Laban craftily deceived Jacob, and gave him his daughter Leah. Other seven years of service had to be completed probably before he obtained the beloved Rachel. But "life-long sorrow, disgrace, and trials, in the retributive providence of God, followed as a consequence of this double union."

At the close of the fourteen years of service, Jacob desired to return to his parents, but at the entreaty of Laban he tarried yet six years with him, tending his flocks (31:41). He then set out with his family and property "to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan" (Gen. 31). Laban was angry when he heard that Jacob had set out on his journey, and pursued after him, overtaking him in seven days. The meeting was of a painful kind. After much recrimination and reproach directed against Jacob, Laban is at length pacified, and taking an affectionate farewell of his daughters, returns to his home in Padanaram. And now all connection of the Israelites with Mesopotamia is at an end.

Soon after parting with Laban he is met by a company of angels, as if to greet him on his return and welcome him back to the Land of Promise (32:1, 2). He called the name of the place Mahanaim, i.e., "the double camp," probably his own camp and that of the angels. The vision of angels was the counterpart of that he had formerly seen at Bethel, when, twenty years before, the weary, solitary traveller, on his way to Padan-aram, saw the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder whose top reached to Heaven (28:12).

He now hears with dismay of the approach of his brother Esau with a band of 400 men to meet him. In great agony of mind he prepares for the worst. He feels that he must now depend only on God, and he betakes himself to him in earnest prayer, and sends on before him a munificent present to Esau, "a present to my lord Esau from thy servant Jacob." Jacob's family were then transported across the Jabbok; but he himself remained behind, spending the night in communion with God. While thus engaged, there appeared one in the form of a man who wrestled with him. In this mysterious contest Jacob prevailed, and as a memorial of it his name was changed to Israel (wrestler with God); and the place where this occurred he called Peniel, "for", said he, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (32:25-31).

After this anxious night, Jacob went on his way, halting, mysteriously weakened by the conflict, but strong in the assurance of the divine favour. Esau came forth and met him; but his spirit of revenge was appeased, and the brothers met as friends, and during the remainder of their lives they maintained friendly relations. After a brief sojourn at Succoth, Jacob moved forward and pitched his tent near Shechem, (33:18); but at length, under divine directions, he moved to Bethel, where he made an altar unto God (35:6,7), and where God appeared to him and renewed the Abrahamic covenant. While journeying from Bethel to Ephrath (the Canaanitish name of Bethlehem), Rachel died in giving birth to her second son Benjamin (35:16-20), fifteen or sixteen years after the birth of Joseph. He then reached the old family residence at Mamre, to wait on the dying bed of his father Isaac. The complete reconciliation between Esau and Jacob was shown by their uniting in the burial of the patriarch (35:27-29).

Jacob was soon after this deeply grieved by the loss of his beloved son Joseph through the jealousy of his brothers (37:33). Then follows the story of the famine, and the successive goings down into Egypt to buy corn (Gen. 42), which led to the discovery of the long-lost Joseph, and the patriarch's going down with all his household, numbering about seventy souls (Ex. 1:5; Deut. 10:22; Acts 7:14), to sojourn in the land of Goshen. Here Jacob, "after being strangely tossed about on a very rough ocean, found at last a tranquil harbour, where all the best affections of his nature were gently exercised and largely unfolded" (Gen. 48). At length the end of his checkered course draws nigh, and he summons his sons to his bedside that he may bless them. Among his last words he repeats the story of Rachel's death, although forty years had passed away since that event took place, as tenderly as if it had happened only yesterday; and when "he had made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost" (49:33). His body was embalmed and carried with great pomp into the land of Canaan, and buried beside his wife Leah in the cave of Machpelah, according to his dying charge.

The story of Jacob in the Quran is similar. He is known as Yaqub in the Quran.

See also: History of ancient Israel and Judah

Initial text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897. Please update.

Jacob's sons

Jacob had twelve sons.

By his first wife Leah, Jacob had Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and his only daughter Dinah.

By Bilhah, handmaiden of Rachel, he had Dan and Naphtali.

By Zilpah, handmaiden of Leah, he had Gad and Asher.

Finally, by his favourite wife Rachel, he had Joseph and Benjamin.

Ten of these founded ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel. However with Levi and Joseph it is a bit more complicated. The Tribe of Levi were priests, and as such had no lands. In order to make up the number of tribes to twelve, where the tribes are listed without Levi, there is no Tribe of Joseph, instead there are listed with the other ten the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's two sons by his Egyptian wife Asenath.

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