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Revision as of 09:12, 24 July 2004 by 68.10.215.12 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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 refer only to 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).
Since the Lord had said that Jacob was the one chosen to have these blessings, and since Esau had "despised" the birthright blessing (Gen. 25:34, "Esau despised his birthright"), trading it for a bowl of soup when--as the tribal chief's favored son--he could have simply walked to another tent for a meal. And since Esau had already married two pagan women, Rebekah knew that it would be a terrible miscarriage of justice, and a terrible distortion of the faith of Abraham, to give the Abrahamic blessing to Esau.
A woman couldn't directly confront a tribal chief, so Rebekah decided to disguise Jacob as Esau, so he could go to blind Isaac and get the blessings due him before Esau arrived to get them. Jacob objected (Gen. 27:12), saying his father might detect the disguise and curse him. But Rebekah told him not to worry, she would take any curse. This was due to his simplemindedness; she knew he was not able to fend for himself, and needed some way of making Isaac do what God had said to do many years before.
In the event, however, Isaac only gave Jacob the birthright blessing of material inheritance, and did not mention any aspect of the Abrahamic blessing.
Then, when Esau arrived to receive his blessing, the deception became known, and Esau and Isaac showed their contempt for Jacob by falsely accusing him of taking a blessing that did not rightly belong to him, and called him a supplanter, when it was Esau who had supplanted Jacob by struggling out of the womb first, and perhaps causing Jacob's simplemindedness by the damage he did him to wrongly achieve that firstborn status. Perhaps that damage to Jacob is why the Lord said "I have hated Esau."
The evidence that Isaac knew what he was supposed to have done with the blessings--both of them--is that he then calls Jacob to him and gives him the Abrahamic blessing! (Gen. 28:1-4) Or most of it. He left a lot out--maybe he had forgotten how it went. Since he had not taught his sons about the importance of the faith of Abraham, or about their roles in the continuation of the family faith that would change the world, or about the importance of choosing wives of their own people (Gen. 28:6-9), we can assume that either he didn't believe in it, or his mind was dim and forgetful.
In any case, the FULL Abrahamic blessing was delivered directly by God to Jacob as he traveled to Haran in Padan-aram to find a wife. Isaac had gotten his petty revenge on Jacob by sending him out for the long journey through wild country peopled by cutthroat bandits and prowled by lions and bears with nothing but his staff in his hand and a backpack (Gen. 32:10). And this is the blessing God gave Jacob:
And, behold, the Lord stood above , and said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." (Gen. 28:13-15)
Thus God put his seal on Jacob's divine right of the inheritance of the birthright and the Abrahamic blessing by giving them to him in person.
After this blessing, Jacob was stunned and joyous, and worshipped God. Then he continued the journey to find a wife among his relatives. Unguided, he arrived in Haran and found the family of Laban, his mother's brother. (28). There he met Rachel (29) and burst into tears: He had survived the journey of hundreds of miles and found his cousin, Rachel. He asked for her to wife, but Laban would not consent to give Jacob his daughter in marriage until 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 older daughter, Leah. In the morning, when Jacob discovered the switch and complained, Laban told him "fulfill her week." That is, Jacob could have Rachel after he gave a week of "honeymoon" to Leah (Gen. 29:27-28). And that was on the condition that Jacob stay and serve another seven years for Rachel.
Some question why Laban was so cruel to Jacob. The Bible shows us that when Abraham wanted a bride for Isaac, he sent a servant with a well-supplied retinue of servants and camels and gifts for the bride of silver and gold and clothing, and "precious" gifts for her family (24). Then many years later, a raggedy feebleminded old man named Jacob comes out of the wilderness with nothing but the staff in his hand, and claims to be the son of wealthy Rebekah and Isaac, and the grandson of fabulously wealthy Abraham. Was this believeable?
So Laban acted with great caution. He didn't forbid the match, but he extracted a promise of seven years labor for Rachel--in advance of the wedding. And switched brides. And extracted another seven years for Rachel. He apparently didn't believe this was his nephew, but a simpleminded senior citizen impersonating his nephew in order to find a place to live and work. So he worked him.
At the close of his fourteen years of service, around the time that Joseph was born (after the 14 years had been served!), Jacob desired to return to "mine own place and to my country," but at the entreaty of Laban he tarried yet six years with him, tending his flocks (31:41). Laban had begged him to stay, since "the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake." But when God warned Jacob to leave, and Jacob noted that Laban's sons were hostile to him, Jacob felt it was time to return home and establish his "own house." He then set out with his family and property "to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan" (Gen. 31:18).
Laban was furious when he heard that Jacob had set out three days earlier on his journey--really a flight to preserve his life and property. So he pursued after Jacob, overtaking him in seven days. But the night before he caught up with Jacob, the Lord spoke to Laban in a dream and said:
"Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad."
So Laban was constrained from his original plan of taking all Jacob had, including wives and children, and killing Jacob if he resisted--the implication of his sons' threatenings. So instead of a battle, there was a conference. Laban kept starting to explode, then regained his composure. Jacob told Laban that after all his labor, "sure
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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