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Naphtali was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Jacob
Jacob

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarchs and the ancestor of the twelve Israelites....
 and Bilhah
Bilhah

In the Book of Genesis, Bilhah is Rachel's handmaid and a concubine of Jacob who bears him two sons, Dan and Naphtali.After the death of Rachel, Reuben , the firstborn son of Jacob and Leah, loses his right to a double inheritance when he is accused of infidelity with Bilhah....
, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Naphtali
Tribe of Naphtali

The Tribe of Naphtali was one of the Israelites.At its height, Naphtali occupied the eastern side of the Galilee , in the areas now known as the Lower Galilee, and Upper Galilee, and was bordered on the west by Tribe of Asher, in the north by Tribe of Dan, in the south by Tribe of Zebulun, and by the Jordan River on the east; the most si...
; however some Biblical scholars
Biblical criticism

Biblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work in its production; what sources we...
 view this as postdiction, an eponym
Eponym

An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
ous metaphor
Metaphor

Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
 providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. The text of the Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
 argues that the name of Naphtali refers to the struggle between Rachel
Rachel

Rachel is the second and favorite wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, first mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible....
 and Leah
Leah

Leah is the first of the Polygamy in Judaism of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob, and mother of six of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, along with one daughter from Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible....
 for the favours of Jacob; Bilhah was the handmaid of Rachel, who had thought herself to be infertile, and had persuaded Jacob to have a child with Bilhah as a proxy for having one with herself.

In the Biblical account, Bilhah's status as a handmaid, rather than an actual wife of Jacob, is regarded by biblical scholars
Biblical criticism

Biblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work in its production; what sources we...
 as indicating that the authors saw the tribe of Naphtali as being not of entirely Israelite origin; this may have been the result of a typographic error, as the names of Naphtali and Issachar
Issachar

Issachar/Yissachar was, according to the Book of Genesis, a son of Jacob and Leah , and the founder of the Israelites of Tribe of Issachar; however some Biblical criticism view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation....
 appear to have changed places elsewhere in the text, and the birth narrative of Naphtali and Issachar is regarded by textual scholars
Textual criticism

Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the Writing of manuscripts....
 as having been spliced together from its sources
Documentary hypothesis

The documentary hypothesis is the proposal that the first five books of the Old Testament represent a combination of documents from originally independent sources....
 in a manner which has highly corrupted the narrative.

According to the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is a western targum of the Torah from the land of Israel. Its correct title is Targum Yerushalmi , which is how it was known in medieval times....
, Naphtali was a swift runner, though this appears to have been inferred from the Blessing of Jacob
Blessing of Jacob

The Blessing of Jacob is a poem that appears in Book of Genesis at .The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the Blessing of Moses, which has the same theme....
, which equates Naphtali to a hind
Red Deer

The Red Deer is one of the largest deer species. The Red Deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor and parts of western and central Asia....
.






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Naphtali was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Jacob
Jacob

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarchs and the ancestor of the twelve Israelites....
 and Bilhah
Bilhah

In the Book of Genesis, Bilhah is Rachel's handmaid and a concubine of Jacob who bears him two sons, Dan and Naphtali.After the death of Rachel, Reuben , the firstborn son of Jacob and Leah, loses his right to a double inheritance when he is accused of infidelity with Bilhah....
, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Naphtali
Tribe of Naphtali

The Tribe of Naphtali was one of the Israelites.At its height, Naphtali occupied the eastern side of the Galilee , in the areas now known as the Lower Galilee, and Upper Galilee, and was bordered on the west by Tribe of Asher, in the north by Tribe of Dan, in the south by Tribe of Zebulun, and by the Jordan River on the east; the most si...
; however some Biblical scholars
Biblical criticism

Biblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work in its production; what sources we...
 view this as postdiction, an eponym
Eponym

An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
ous metaphor
Metaphor

Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
 providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. The text of the Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
 argues that the name of Naphtali refers to the struggle between Rachel
Rachel

Rachel is the second and favorite wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, first mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible....
 and Leah
Leah

Leah is the first of the Polygamy in Judaism of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob, and mother of six of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, along with one daughter from Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible....
 for the favours of Jacob; Bilhah was the handmaid of Rachel, who had thought herself to be infertile, and had persuaded Jacob to have a child with Bilhah as a proxy for having one with herself.

In the Biblical account, Bilhah's status as a handmaid, rather than an actual wife of Jacob, is regarded by biblical scholars
Biblical criticism

Biblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work in its production; what sources we...
 as indicating that the authors saw the tribe of Naphtali as being not of entirely Israelite origin; this may have been the result of a typographic error, as the names of Naphtali and Issachar
Issachar

Issachar/Yissachar was, according to the Book of Genesis, a son of Jacob and Leah , and the founder of the Israelites of Tribe of Issachar; however some Biblical criticism view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation....
 appear to have changed places elsewhere in the text, and the birth narrative of Naphtali and Issachar is regarded by textual scholars
Textual criticism

Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the Writing of manuscripts....
 as having been spliced together from its sources
Documentary hypothesis

The documentary hypothesis is the proposal that the first five books of the Old Testament represent a combination of documents from originally independent sources....
 in a manner which has highly corrupted the narrative.

According to the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is a western targum of the Torah from the land of Israel. Its correct title is Targum Yerushalmi , which is how it was known in medieval times....
, Naphtali was a swift runner, though this appears to have been inferred from the Blessing of Jacob
Blessing of Jacob

The Blessing of Jacob is a poem that appears in Book of Genesis at .The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the Blessing of Moses, which has the same theme....
, which equates Naphtali to a hind
Red Deer

The Red Deer is one of the largest deer species. The Red Deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor and parts of western and central Asia....
. However, Biblical scholars believe this to actually be a description of the tribe of Naphtali, particularly since textual scholars regard the Blessing of Jacob as having been written long after the tribe settled permanently in Canaan. The Torah states that Naphtali had four sons, who migrated with him to Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, with their descendants remaining there until the Exodus
The Exodus

The Exodus , is the term used for the escape, departure and emancipation of the enslaved Israelites freed from Ancient Egypt as described in the Hebrew Bible, mainly in the Book of Exodus....
.

According to the apocryphal Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, he died aged 137 and was buried in Egypt.