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Jacob
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According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob (Standard Tiberian ; , ; "heel"; Septuagint Greek ?a??ß), also known as Israel (Standard Tiberian ; , ; "Struggled with God", Septuagint Greek ?s?a??), was the third Biblical patriarch and the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel.
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According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob (Standard Tiberian ; , ; "heel"; Septuagint Greek ?a??ß), also known as Israel (Standard Tiberian ; , ; "Struggled with God", Septuagint Greek ?s?a??), was the third Biblical patriarch and the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was the son of Isaac and Rebecca, the grandson of Abraham and Sarah, and the younger twin brother of Esau.
Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter by his four wives, Leah, Rachel, and their maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah. His sons were: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin, and his daughter is Dinah.
Biblical accounts
Birth of Jacob and Esau
Jacob and his older twin brother, Esau, are born to Isaac and Rebekah after 20 years of marriage, when his father is 60 years of age () and Abraham is 160 years old.
Rebekah is extremely uncomfortable during her pregnancy and goes to inquire of God why she is suffering so. According to the Midrash, whenever she would pass a house of Torah study, Jacob would struggle to come out; whenever she would pass a house of idolatry, Esau would agitate to come out. She receives the prophecy that twins are in her womb. The two children that are fighting in her womb will continue to fight all their lives. The prophecy, which Rebekah does not share with her husband, continues that these two nations will never gain power simultaneously; when one falls, the other will rise, and vice versa. In addition, the elder will serve the younger.
When the time comes for her to give birth, Rebekah delivers twins. The firstborn emerges red and hairy all over like a full-grown man; onlookers name him Esau, from the , assui, meaning "completely developed." The second son comes out grasping Esau's heel (akev), and is named ????, Jacob (a play on the word "heel", and also "he who follows").
The boys display very different natures as they mature. "Esau became a hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a simple man, a dweller in tents" (Gen. 25:27). Moreover, the attitudes of their parents toward them also differ: "Isaac loved Esau because game was in his mouth, but Rebekah loved Jacob" (ibid., 25:28).
Selling the birthright
On the day that Abraham dies, Jacob prepares a lentil stew as a traditional mourner's meal for his father, Isaac. Esau returns famished from the fields and begs Jacob to give him some of the stew. (He refers to the dish as, "that red, red stuff," giving rise to his second moniker, , Edom, lit. "red".) Jacob offers to give Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for his birthright, and Esau agrees.
Deceiving Isaac
In his old age, when Isaac becomes blind, he decides to bestow his blessing on his firstborn son, Esau. He sends Esau out to the fields to trap and cook a piece of savory game for him, so that he can eat it and bless Esau before he dies.
Rebekah prophetically overhears this conversation and realizes that Isaac's blessings must go to Jacob, since she was told before the twins' birth that the elder son would serve the younger. She therefore orders Jacob to bring her two goats from the flock, which she will cook in the way Isaac loves, and to bring them to his father in place of Esau.
When Jacob protests that his father will recognize the deception and curse him as soon as he feels him — since Esau is a hairy man and Jacob is smooth-skinned — Rebekah says that the curse will be on her instead. Before she sends Jacob to his father, she dresses him in Esau's garments and lays goatskins on his arms and neck to simulate hairy skin.
Thus disguised, Jacob enters his father's room. Surprised that Esau is back so soon, Isaac asks how it could be that the hunt went so quickly. When Jacob responds, "Because the Lord your God arranged it for me," Isaac's suspicions are aroused, since Esau never uses the name of God (Rashi on Gen. 27:21). Isaac demands that Jacob come close so he can feel him, but the goatskins feel just like Esau's hairy skin. Confused, Isaac exclaims, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau!" (27:22). Still trying to get at the truth, Isaac asks him point-blank, "You are my son, Esau?" and Jacob answers simply, "I am" (meaning, "I am me," not, "I am Esau"). Isaac proceeds to eat the food and drink the wine that Jacob gives him, and then he blesses him with the dew of the heavens, the fatness of the earth, and rulership over many nations as well as his own brother.
Jacob has just left the room when Esau returns from the hunt to receive his blessing. The realization that he has been deceived shocks Isaac, yet he acknowledges that Jacob receives the blessings by saying, "Indeed, he shall remain blessed!" (27:33). Rashi explains that Isaac smells the heavenly scent of Gan Eden (Paradise) when Jacob enters his room and, in contrast, perceives Gehenna opening beneath Esau when the latter enters the room, showing him that he had been deceived all along by Esau's show of piety.
Esau is heartbroken by the deception, and begs for his own blessing. Having made Jacob a ruler over his brothers, Isaac can only promise, "By your sword you shall live, but your brother you shall serve; yet it shall be that when you are aggrieved, you may cast off his yoke from upon your neck" (27:39-40).
Esau is filled with hatred toward Jacob for taking away both his birthright and his blessing. He vows to himself to kill Jacob as soon as Isaac dies. Here again, Rebekah prophetically perceives his murderous intentions and orders Jacob to travel to her brother Laban's house until Esau's anger subsides. She convinces Isaac to send Jacob away by telling him that she despairs of him marrying a local girl from the idol-worshipping families of Canaan (as Esau has done). After Isaac sends Jacob away to find a wife, Esau realizes that his own Canaanite wives are evil in his father's eyes, and he takes a daughter of Ishmael as another wife.
Ladder to heaven
En route to Haran, Jacob experiences a vision in which he sees a ladder reaching into heaven with angels going up and down it, a vision that is commonly referred to as "Jacob's Ladder". From the top of the ladder he hears the voice of God, who repeats many of the blessings upon him. According to Rashi, this ladder signifies the exiles which the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the Mashiach. The angels which represented the exiles of Babylonia, Persia, and Greece each climb up a certain number of steps (paralleling the years of the exile) before they fall "down," but the angel representing the last exile, that of Rome/Edom (whose guardian angel is Esau himself) keeps climbing higher and higher into the clouds. Jacob fears that his children will never be free of Esau's domination, but God assures him that at the End of Days, Edom too will come falling down.
Jacob awakens in the morning and continues on his way to Haran. He sees a well where the shepherds are gathering their flocks to water them, and meets Laban's younger daughter, his cousin Rachel, who is working as a shepherdess. He loves her immediately, and after spending a month with his relatives, asks for her hand in marriage in return for working seven years for Laban. Laban agrees to the arrangement.
These seven years seem to Jacob "but a few days, for the love he had for her," but when they are complete and he asks for his wife, Laban deceives Jacob by switching Rachel's older sister, Leah, as the veiled bride. According to the Midrash, both Jacob and Rachel suspect that Laban will pull such a trick; Laban is known as the "Aramean" (deceiver), and changed Jacob's wages hundreds of times during his employ. The couple therefore devises a series of signs by which Jacob can identify the veiled bride on his wedding night. But when Rachel sees her sister being taken out to the wedding canopy, her heart goes out to her and the public shame she will suffer if she is exposed. Rachel therefore gives Leah the signs so that Jacob will not realize the switch.
In the morning, when the truth becomes known, Laban justifies himself, saying that in their country it is unheard of to give the younger daughter before the older. However, he agrees to give Rachel in marriage as well if Jacob works another seven years for her. After the week of wedding celebrations with Leah, Jacob marries Rachel, and he continues to work for Laban for another seven years.
Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah, and Leah feels hated. God opens Leah's womb and she gives birth to four sons in quick succession: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Rachel, however, remains barren. Following the example of Sarah, who gave her handmaid to Abraham after years of infertility, Rachel gives Jacob her handmaid, Bilhah, in marriage so she can raise children through her. Bilhah gives birth to Dan and Naphtali. Seeing that she has left off childbearing temporarily, Leah then gives her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob in marriage so she can raise more children through her. Zilpah gives birth to Gad and Asher. (According to some commentators, Bilhah and Zilpah are younger daughters of Laban). Afterwards, Leah becomes fertile again and gives birth to Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah. At this point, God remembers Rachel, who gives birth to Joseph.
After Joseph is born, Jacob decides to return home to his parents. Laban is reluctant to release him, as God blessed his flock on account of Jacob. Now Laban offers to pay Jacob, and Jacob proposes an unusual deal. He suggests that Laban remove all the spotted, speckled and brown goats and sheep from the flock; whichever ones would be born after that would be Jacob's wages. Left alone, Jacob plants rods of poplar, hazel, and chestnut in front of the flocks' watering holes, and when the animals see them, they give birth to spotted, speckled and brown foals. Thus Jacob's herds increase and he becomes very wealthy.
As time passes, Laban's sons notice that Jacob is taking the better part of their flocks, and Laban's friendly attitude towards Jacob begins to change. God tells Jacob that he should now leave, and he and his wives and children do so without informing Laban. Before they leave, Rachel steals all the household idols from Laban's house.
In a rage, Laban pursues Jacob for seven days. The night before he catches up to him, God appears to him in a dream and warns him not to say anything good or bad to Jacob. When the two meet, Laban plays the part of the injured father-in-law and also demands his idols back. Knowing nothing about Rachel's theft of the idols, Jacob tells Laban that whoever stole them should die, and stands aside to let him search. When Laban reaches Rachel's tent, she hides the idols by sitting on them and pretends she cannot get up because she is menstruating. Jacob and Laban then part from each other with a pact to preserve the peace between them. Laban returns to his home and Jacob continues on his way.
Journey back to Canaan
As Jacob nears the land of Canaan, he sends messengers ahead to his brother Esau. They return with the news that Esau is coming to meet Jacob with an army of 400 men. In great apprehension, Jacob prepares for the worst. He engages in earnest prayer to God, then sends on before him a tribute of flocks and herds to Esau, "a present to my lord Esau from thy servant Jacob."
Jacob then transports his family and flocks back across the ford Jabbok, then re-crosses over towards the direction from which Esau will 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) appears and wrestles with Jacob until daybreak. When the assailant sees that he cannot defeat Jacob, he touches him on the sinew of his thigh (the gid hanasheh - ??? ????). As a result, Jacob develops a limp (Genesis 32:31); and because of this, "to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket" (Genesis 32:32). This incident is the source of the requirement of porging.
Jacob then demands a blessing, and the mysterious being declares that from now on, Jacob will be called Israel (Hebrew ?????????? Yisra'el or Yisra’el, meaning "one who has prevailed with God" (Rashi). Jacob then asks the being's name, but the being refuses to answer. Afterwards Jacob names the place Pnei-el (Penuel, meaning "face of God"), saying "I have seen God face to face and lived."
Because of the ambiguous and varying terminology, and because the being refused to reveal its name, there are varying views as to whether this mysterious being is a man, an angel, or God Himself. According to Rashi, he is the guardian angel of Esau himself, sent to destroy Jacob before he can return to the land of Canaan. Trachtenberg theorizes that the being refuses to identify itself for fear that if its secret name was known, it would be conjurable by incantations (Trachtenberg 1939, p. 80). 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"). They point out that although later holy scriptures maintain that God does not manifest as a mortal, several instances of it arguably occur in Genesis, for example in 18:1 with Abraham.
In the morning, Jacob assembles his wives and 11 sons, placing Rachel and Joseph in the rear and Leah and her children in the front. Some commentators cite this placement as proof that Jacob continues to favor Rachel's children over Leah's, as presumably the rear position would be safer from a frontal assault by Esau, which Jacob fears. Jacob himself takes the foremost position. Esau's spirit of revenge, however, has by this time been appeased by Jacob's bounteous gift of camels, goats and flocks. Their reunion is an emotional one. Esau offers to accompany them on their way back to Israel, but Jacob protests that his children are still young and tender; they will eventually catch up with Esau at Mount Seir. According to the Sages, this was a prophetic reference to the End of Days, when Jacob's descendants will come to Mount Seir, the home of Edom, to deliver judgment against Esau's descendants for persecuting them throughout the millennia (see Obadiah 1:21).
Jacob arrives in Shechem, where he buys a parcel of land that will eventually house Joseph's Tomb. In Shechem, his daughter Dinah is kidnapped and raped by the prince's son, who desires to marry the girl. Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi, agree to go ahead with the match as long as all the men of Shechem first circumcise themselves, ostensibly to unite the children of Jacob in familial harmony. On the third day after the circumcision, when all the men of Shechem are most weak, Simeon and Levi put all the residents to death by the sword and rescue their sister Dinah. Jacob remains silent about the episode, but later rebukes his two sons for their anger in his deathbed blessing (Genesis 49:5-7).
As Jacob and his entourage near the border of Canaan, Rachel goes into labor and dies as she gives birth to her second—and Jacob's twelfth—son, Benjamin. Jacob buries her and erects a monument over her grave, which is located just outside Bethlehem. Rachel's Tomb remains a popular site for pilgrimages and prayers to this day.
Jacob is finally reunited with his father Isaac in Mamre (outside Hebron). When Isaac dies at the age of 180, Jacob and Esau bury him in the Cave of the Patriarchs, which Abraham had purchased as a family burial plot.
Although the death of Rebekah, Jacob's mother, is not explicitly recorded in the Bible, an allusion to it occurs as Jacob is traveling back to his father's home. As he is returning to Canaan with his large family, servants, and possessions, Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, dies and is buried at a place that Jacob calls Alon Bachuth (???? ????), "Tree of Weepings" (Genesis 35:8). According to the Midrash, the plural form of the word "weeping" indicates a double sorrow, implying that Rebekah also dies at this time.
Joseph son of Jacob and Rachel
The Bible next relates the story of Joseph, who is separated from his father Jacob at the age of 17 and sold as a slave by his brothers, who are jealous of his dreams of kingship over them. Jacob is deeply grieved by the loss of his favorite son, and refuses to be comforted.
Joseph is taken down to Egypt, where he is treated well in the house of Potiphar. But his beauty catches the eye of Potiphar's wife, who attempts to seduce him. When he refuses and runs out of the room, she screams out that she has been accosted and accuses him of trying to rape her. Joseph is thrown into prison, where he again finds favor with all and is promoted by the warden to oversee his fellow prisoners. When two of the other inmates, Pharaoh's former butler and baker, dream strange dreams one night, Joseph interprets these dreams correctly. Two years later, Pharaoh himself has two troubling dreams, and the butler recommends that Joseph be asked to interpret them. Joseph explains the dreams as relating to seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh is so impressed that he makes Joseph viceroy over Egypt and the manager of Egypt's grain stores. Joseph artfully manages first the storage and then the distribution of Egypt's grain, making Pharaoh quite wealthy.
When the famine strikes Canaan, Jacob sends 10 of his sons to Egypt to procure grain for their starving families. Upon meeting Joseph for the first time in 22 years, they do not recognize him, since he now dresses and speaks like an Egyptian. However, Joseph recognizes them and demands to see the twelfth brother of whom they speak, his own full-brother, Benjamin. As a way of making sure they will come back, he holds Simeon (being the oldest who plotted to sell him, since Reuben intended to rescue him) as a hostage until they return with Benjamin.
Jacob is distraught when he hears this news, for Benjamin is all that is left to him of his beloved wife Rachel's children, and he refuses to release him lest something happen to him too. But when their food stores run out and the famine worsen, Jacob agrees to Judah's promise to protect Benjamin from harm. The brothers return to Joseph with Benjamin, and when Joseph sees Benjamin he is overcome with emotion, and reveals himself to his brothers. He invites them to bring their families and their father, Jacob, down to Egypt to live near him, and gives them a place to live in the Egyptian province of Goshen.
Jacob's final 17 years are spent in peace and tranquility in Egypt, knowing that all his 12 sons are righteous people, and he dies at the age of 147 (Genesis 47:28). Before his death, he makes Joseph promise that he will bury him in the Cave of the Patriarchs, even though Jacob buried Joseph's mother, Rachel, by the side of the road and not in the Cave (Leah is buried there instead, along with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah). With Pharaoh's permission, Joseph leads a huge state funeral back to Canaan, with the 12 sons carrying their father's coffin and many Egyptian officials accompanying them.
Before he dies, Jacob also adopts Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, as his own. He also blesses each one of his sons. According to the Midrash, he desires to tell them the exact date when the Mashiach will arrive, but the prophecy fails him. He fears lest one of his sons is not righteous, but they respond, "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 are united in the service of God, Jacob proclaims, "Baruch Shem Kavod Malchuto Le'Olam Va'Ed" - "Blessed is the Name of His glorious Kingdom for ever and ever". Today these two verses are said together, the first one aloud and the second one quietly, in the morning and evening Jewish prayer services.
Other sons of Jacob
Jacob's wives have twelve sons and one daughter:
Reuben ,
Simeon ,
Levi ,
Judah ,
Dinah ,
Dan ,
Naphtali ,
Gad ,
Asher ,
Issachar ,
Zebulun ,
Joseph ,
and Benjamin :
The offspring of Jacob's sons are destined to become the twelve tribes of Israel following the Exodus, when the Israelites conquer and settle in the Land of Israel.
Rabbinical teachings
According to the classic Jewish texts, Jacob, as the third and last patriarch, lives a life that parallels the descent of his offspring, the Jewish people, into the darkness of exile. In contrast to Abraham — who illuminates the world with knowledge of God and earns the respect of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan — and Isaac — who continues his father's teachings and also lives in relative harmony with his neighbors — Jacob experiences many personal struggles both in the land and out of it (including the hatred of his brother, Esau; the deception of his father-in-law, Laban; the rape of his daughter, Dinah; the death of his favorite wife, Rachel; and the sale of his son, Joseph). For this reason, the Jewish commentators interpret many elements of his story as being symbolic of the future difficulties and struggles the Jewish people would undergo during their long exile, which continues to the present day.
Eastern Christianity
The Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite see Jacob's dream as a prophecy of the Incarnation of the Logos, whereby Jacob's ladder is understood as a symbol of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), who, according to Orthodox theology, united heaven and earth in her womb. The biblical account of this vision is one of the standard Old Testament readings at Vespers on Great Feasts of the Theotokos.
The account of Jacob's blessing of Joseph's sons is also seen as prophetic: when he crosses his arms to bestow his patriarchal blessing , this is seen as a foreshadowing of the blessings Christians believe resulted from Jesus' death on the cross.
Islam
In Arabic, Jacob is known as Yakub. He is revered as a prophet who received inspiration from God. The Qur'an does not give the details of Jacob’s life. Isra'il is the Arabic translation of the Hebrew Yisrael. God perfected his favor on Jacob and his posterity as he perfected his favor on Abraham and Isaac (12:6). Jacob was a man of might and vision (38:45) and was chosen by God to preach the Message. The Qur'an stresses that worshiping and bowing to the One true God was the main legacy of Jacob Kaaihue and his fathers (2:132-133). Salvation, according to the Qur'an, hinges upon this legacy rather than being a Jew or Christian (See Qur'an 2:130-141).
According to the Qur'an, Jacob was of the company of the Elect and the Good (38:47, 21:75). Yaqub is a name that is accepted in Muslim community showing the value attributed to Jacob.
See also
- History of ancient Israel and Judah
- Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, the name given to at least three different major paintings
- During the Second World War the French writer and anti-Nazi resistance fighter André Malraux worked on a long novel, The Struggle Against the Angel, the manuscript of which was destroyed by the Gestapo upon his capture in 1944. The name was apparently inspired by the Jacob story. A surviving opening book to The Struggle Against the Angel, named The Walnut Trees of Altenburg, was published after the war.
Further reading
External links
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