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Person

Jacob (Israel)

Also called Israel

An imagined portrait of Jacob in the style of a tinted engraving
An imagined, stylized portrait. No one knows what Jacob looked like. AI-generated
ManJAY-kub

In Genesis 25–50, Isaac's son, who takes his brother's blessing, wrestles through the night with a mysterious man and is renamed Israel; his twelve sons are the ancestors of Israel's tribes.

See Genesis 27:36, Genesis 32:24, Genesis 32:28, Genesis 49:28.

A ladder to a star marks Jacob in the reading view: his dream of a stairway reaching to heaven (Genesis 28:12).

A realistic AI imagining of Jacob

The same AI portrait re-imagined as a photograph. It is no more accurate than the stylized version: no one knows what Jacob looked like.

Mentioned in 1,009 verses across 37 books, first in Genesis 25:26. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).

In these stories

In the Bible

All 187 verses in Genesis, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.

Genesis

  • Genesis 25:26

    After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

  • Genesis 25:27

    When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

  • Genesis 25:28

    Because Isaac had a taste for wild game, he loved Esau; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

  • Genesis 25:29

    One day, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the field and was famished.

  • Genesis 25:30

    He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am famished.” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

  • Genesis 25:31

    “First sell me your birthright,” Jacob replied.

  • Genesis 25:33

    “Swear to me first,” Jacob said. So Esau swore to Jacob and sold him the birthright.

  • Genesis 25:34

    Then Jacob gave some bread and lentil stew to Esau, who ate and drank and then got up and went away. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

  • Genesis 27:6

    Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I overheard your father saying to your brother Esau,

  • Genesis 27:11

    Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am smooth-skinned.

  • Genesis 27:15

    And Rebekah took the finest clothes in the house that belonged to her older son Esau, and she put them on her younger son Jacob.

  • Genesis 27:17

    Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and bread she had made.

  • Genesis 27:19

    Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.”

  • Genesis 27:21

    Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau, or not?”

  • Genesis 27:22

    So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

  • Genesis 27:30

    As soon as Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob had left his father’s presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt.

  • Genesis 27:36

    So Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

  • Genesis 27:41

    Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

  • Genesis 27:42

    When the words of her older son Esau were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you.

  • Genesis 27:46

    Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”

  • Genesis 28:1

    So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded.

  • Genesis 28:5

    So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

  • Genesis 28:6

    Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”

  • Genesis 28:7

    and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

  • Genesis 28:10

    Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.

  • Genesis 28:16

    When Jacob woke up, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.”

  • Genesis 28:18

    Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,

  • Genesis 28:20

    Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,

  • Genesis 29:1

    Jacob resumed his journey and came to the land of the people of the east.

  • Genesis 29:4

    “My brothers,” Jacob asked the shepherds, “where are you from?” “We are from Haran,” they answered.

  • Genesis 29:10

    As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, with Laban’s sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.

  • Genesis 29:11

    Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.

  • Genesis 29:12

    He told Rachel that he was Rebekah’s son, a relative of her father, and she ran and told her father.

  • Genesis 29:13

    When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, where Jacob told him all that had happened.

  • Genesis 29:15

    Laban said to him, “Just because you are my relative, should you work for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

  • Genesis 29:18

    Since Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

  • Genesis 29:20

    So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.

  • Genesis 29:21

    Finally Jacob said to Laban, “Grant me my wife, for my time is complete, and I want to sleep with her.”

  • Genesis 29:28

    And Jacob did just that. He finished the week’s celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

  • Genesis 30:1

    When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.

  • Genesis 30:2

    Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld children from you?”

  • Genesis 30:4

    So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and he slept with her,

  • Genesis 30:5

    and Bilhah conceived and bore him a son.

  • Genesis 30:7

    And Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

  • Genesis 30:9

    When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.

  • Genesis 30:10

    And Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

  • Genesis 30:12

    When Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son,

  • Genesis 30:16

    When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.

  • Genesis 30:17

    And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob.

  • Genesis 30:19

    Again Leah conceived and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

  • Genesis 30:25

    Now after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can return to my homeland.

  • Genesis 30:31

    “What can I give you?” Laban asked. “You do not need to give me anything,” Jacob replied. “If you do this one thing for me, I will keep on shepherding and keeping your flocks.

  • Genesis 30:36

    Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flocks.

  • Genesis 30:37

    Jacob, however, took fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled the bark, exposing the white inner wood of the branches.

  • Genesis 30:40

    Jacob set apart the young, but made the rest face the streaked dark-colored sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and did not put them with Laban’s animals.

  • Genesis 30:41

    Whenever the stronger females of the flock were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they would breed in front of the branches.

  • Genesis 30:42

    But if the animals were weak, he did not set out the branches. So the weaker animals went to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob.

  • Genesis 31:1

    Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”

  • Genesis 31:2

    And Jacob saw from the countenance of Laban that his attitude toward him had changed.

  • Genesis 31:3

    Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

  • Genesis 31:4

    So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to the field where his flocks were,

  • Genesis 31:11

    In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’

  • Genesis 31:17

    Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels,

  • Genesis 31:20

    Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.

  • Genesis 31:22

    On the third day Laban was informed that Jacob had fled.

  • Genesis 31:24

    But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

  • Genesis 31:25

    Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there as well.

  • Genesis 31:26

    Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of war!

  • Genesis 31:29

    I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

  • Genesis 31:31

    “I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.

  • Genesis 31:32

    If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

  • Genesis 31:33

    So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

  • Genesis 31:36

    Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?

  • Genesis 31:43

    But Laban answered Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, these sons are my sons, and these flocks are my flocks! Everything you see is mine! Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine or the children they have borne?

  • Genesis 31:45

    So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a pillar,

  • Genesis 31:46

    and he said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and there by the mound they ate.

  • Genesis 31:47

    Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.

  • Genesis 31:51

    Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is the mound, and here is the pillar I have set up between you and me.

  • Genesis 31:53

    May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac.

  • Genesis 31:54

    Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. And after they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.

  • Genesis 32:1

    Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

  • Genesis 32:2

    When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

  • Genesis 32:3

    Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

  • Genesis 32:4

    He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.

  • Genesis 32:6

    When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”

  • Genesis 32:7

    In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.

  • Genesis 32:9

    Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’

  • Genesis 32:18

    then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”

  • Genesis 32:20

    You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”

  • Genesis 32:24

    So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

  • Genesis 32:25

    When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.

  • Genesis 32:27

    “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.

  • Genesis 32:28

    Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”

  • Genesis 32:29

    And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.

  • Genesis 32:30

    So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

  • Genesis 32:32

    Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon which is at the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck near that tendon.

  • Genesis 33:1

    Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.

  • Genesis 33:10

    But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably.

  • Genesis 33:17

    but Jacob went on to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.

  • Genesis 33:18

    After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.

  • Genesis 34:1

    Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.

  • Genesis 34:3

    And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly.

  • Genesis 34:5

    Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent about it until they returned.

  • Genesis 34:6

    Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.

  • Genesis 34:7

    When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

  • Genesis 34:13

    But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.

  • Genesis 34:19

    The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.

  • Genesis 34:25

    Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.

  • Genesis 34:27

    Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.

  • Genesis 34:30

    Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

  • Genesis 35:1

    Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

  • Genesis 35:2

    So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.

  • Genesis 35:4

    So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.

  • Genesis 35:5

    As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

  • Genesis 35:6

    So Jacob and everyone with him arrived in Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.

  • Genesis 35:9

    After Jacob had returned from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.

  • Genesis 35:10

    And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel.

  • Genesis 35:14

    So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him—a stone marker—and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.

  • Genesis 35:15

    Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

  • Genesis 35:20

    Jacob set up a pillar on her grave; it marks Rachel’s tomb to this day.

  • Genesis 35:21

    Israel again set out and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.

  • Genesis 35:22

    While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

  • Genesis 35:23

    The sons of Leah were Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

  • Genesis 35:26

    And the sons of Leah’s maidservant Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

  • Genesis 35:27

    Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

  • Genesis 35:29

    Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

  • Genesis 36:6

    Later, Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the people of his household, along with his livestock, all his other animals, and all the property he had acquired in Canaan, and he moved to a land far away from his brother Jacob.

  • Genesis 36:31

    These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites:

  • Genesis 37:1

    Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided, the land of Canaan.

  • Genesis 37:2

    This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

  • Genesis 37:3

    Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors.

  • Genesis 37:13

    Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.” “I am ready,” Joseph replied.

  • Genesis 37:34

    Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

  • Genesis 42:1

    When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another?”

  • Genesis 42:4

    But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “I am afraid that harm might befall him.”

  • Genesis 42:5

    So the sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, since the famine had also spread to the land of Canaan.

  • Genesis 42:29

    When they reached their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they described to him all that had happened to them:

  • Genesis 42:36

    Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is no more. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is going against me!”

  • Genesis 43:6

    “Why did you bring this trouble upon me?” Israel asked. “Why did you tell the man you had another brother?”

  • Genesis 43:8

    And Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me, and we will go at once, so that we may live and not die—neither we, nor you, nor our children.

  • Genesis 43:11

    Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and carry them down as a gift for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.

  • Genesis 45:21

    So the sons of Israel did as they were told. Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had instructed, and he also gave them provisions for their journey.

  • Genesis 45:25

    So the brothers went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

  • Genesis 45:26

    “Joseph is still alive,” they said, “and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” But Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

  • Genesis 45:27

    However, when they relayed all that Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob was revived.

  • Genesis 45:28

    “Enough!” declared Israel. “My son Joseph is still alive! I will go to see him before I die.”

  • Genesis 46:1

    So Israel set out with all that he had, and when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

  • Genesis 46:2

    And that night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” He said. “Here I am,” replied Jacob.

  • Genesis 46:5

    Then Jacob departed from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their children and wives.

  • Genesis 46:6

    They also took the livestock and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt.

  • Genesis 46:8

    Now these are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.

  • Genesis 46:15

    These are the sons of Leah born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of sons and daughters was thirty-three.

  • Genesis 46:18

    These are the sons of Jacob born to Zilpah—whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah—sixteen in all.

  • Genesis 46:19

    The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

  • Genesis 46:22

    These are the sons of Rachel born to Jacob—fourteen in all.

  • Genesis 46:25

    These are the sons of Jacob born to Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel—seven in all.

  • Genesis 46:26

    All those belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt—his direct descendants, besides the wives of Jacob’s sons—numbered sixty-six persons.

  • Genesis 46:27

    And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.

  • Genesis 46:29

    Joseph prepared his chariot and went there to meet his father Israel. Joseph presented himself to him, embraced him, and wept profusely.

  • Genesis 46:30

    Then Israel said to Joseph, “Finally I can die, now that I have seen your face and know that you are still alive!”

  • Genesis 47:7

    Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

  • Genesis 47:8

    “How many years have you lived?” Pharaoh asked.

  • Genesis 47:9

    “My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”

  • Genesis 47:10

    Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and departed from his presence.

  • Genesis 47:27

    Now the Israelites settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and became fruitful and increased greatly in number.

  • Genesis 47:28

    And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and the length of his life was 147 years.

  • Genesis 47:29

    When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise to show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,

  • Genesis 47:31

    “Swear to me,” Jacob said. So Joseph swore to him, and Israel bowed in worship at the head of his bed.

  • Genesis 48:2

    When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up in bed.

  • Genesis 48:3

    Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there He blessed me

  • Genesis 48:8

    When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?”

  • Genesis 48:10

    Now Israel’s eyesight was poor because of old age; he could hardly see. Joseph brought his sons to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.

  • Genesis 48:11

    “I never expected to see your face again,” Israel said to Joseph, “but now God has let me see your children as well.”

  • Genesis 48:13

    And Joseph took both of them—with Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand—and brought them close to him.

  • Genesis 48:14

    But Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger; and crossing his hands, he put his left on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was the firstborn.

  • Genesis 48:20

    So that day Jacob blessed them and said: “By you shall Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

  • Genesis 48:21

    Then Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.

  • Genesis 49:1

    Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come:

  • Genesis 49:2

    Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.

  • Genesis 49:7

    Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

  • Genesis 49:16

    Dan shall provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

  • Genesis 49:24

    Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

  • Genesis 49:28

    These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing.

  • Genesis 49:33

    When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.

  • Genesis 50:2

    And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him,

  • Genesis 50:24

    Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

  • Genesis 50:25

    And Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

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Events

Events the dataset lists Jacob (Israel) as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.

  1. c. 1836 BC
    Birth of Jacob and EsauGenesis 25:24–26
  2. c. 1836 BC
    Lifetime of JacobGenesis 25:24–49:33
  3. c. 1758 BC
    Birth of ReubenGenesis 29:32
  4. c. 1757 BC
    Birth of SimeonGenesis 29:33
  5. c. 1756 BC
    Birth of LeviGenesis 29:34
  6. c. 1755 BC
    Birth of JudahGenesis 29:35
  7. c. 1755 BC
    Birth of DanGenesis 30:6
  8. c. 1754 BC
    Birth of NaphtaliGenesis 30:7–8
  9. c. 1753 BC
    Birth of GadGenesis 30:10–11
  10. c. 1752 BC
    Birth of AsherGenesis 30:12–13
  11. c. 1752 BC
    Birth of IssacharGenesis 30:17–18
  12. c. 1751 BC
    Birth of ZebulonGenesis 30:19–20

Dictionary

From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.

Read Easton’s entry

One who follows on another’s heels; supplanter, (Gen. 25:26; 27:36; Hos. 12:2-4), the second born of the twin sons of Isaac by Rebekah. He was born probably at Lahai-roi, when his father was fifty-nine and Abraham one hundred and fifty-nine years old. Like his father, he was of a quiet and gentle disposition, and when he grew up followed the life of a shepherd, while his brother Esau became an enterprising hunter. His dealing with Esau, however, showed much mean selfishness and cunning (Gen. 25:29-34).

When Isaac was about 160 years of age, Jacob and his mother conspired to deceive the aged patriarch ([Gen. 27](/gen#Gen.27)), with the view of procuring the transfer of the birthright to himself. The birthright secured to him who possessed it (1) superior rank in his family (Gen. 49:3); (2) a double portion of the paternal inheritance (Deut. 21:17); (3) the priestly office in the family (Num. 8:17-19); and (4) 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](/gen#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](/gen#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 occured 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 (q.v.), 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 (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](/gen#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. There, probably, his embalmed body remains to this day (50:1-13).

The history of Jacob is referred to by the prophets Hosea (12:3, 4, 12) and Malachi (1:2). In Micah 1:5 the name is a poetic synonym for Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes. There are, besides the mention of his name along with those of the other patriarchs, distinct references to events of his life in Paul’s epistles (Rom. 9:11-13; Heb. 12:16; 11:21). See references to his vision at Bethel and his possession of land at Shechem in John 1:51; 4:5, 12; also to the famine which was the occasion of his going down into Egypt in Acts 7:12 (See LUZ; BETHEL.)

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