Person
Jacob (Israel)
Also called Israel


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).
Mentioned in 1,009 verses across 37 books, first in Numbers 1:2. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
How artists have pictured him
3 works from different centuries and traditions. Each shows how its time and place imagined Jacob, not how he looked.



In these stories
In the Bible
All 160 verses in Numbers, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Numbers
- Numbers 1:2
“Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.
- Numbers 1:45
So all the Israelites twenty years of age or older who could serve in Israel’s army were counted according to their families.
- Numbers 1:52
The Israelites are to camp by their divisions, each man in his own camp and under his own standard.
- Numbers 1:53
But the Levites are to camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony and watch over it, so that no wrath will fall on the congregation of Israel. So the Levites are responsible for the tabernacle of the Testimony.”
- Numbers 1:54
Thus the Israelites did everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
- Numbers 2:2
“The Israelites are to camp around the Tent of Meeting at a distance from it, each man under his standard, with the banners of his family.
- Numbers 2:32
These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. The total of those counted in the camps, by their divisions, was 603,550.
- Numbers 2:33
But the Levites were not counted among the other Israelites, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
- Numbers 2:34
So the Israelites did everything the LORD commanded Moses; they camped under their standards in this way and set out in the same way, each man with his clan and his family.
- Numbers 3:8
They shall take care of all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting and fulfill obligations for the Israelites by attending to the service of the tabernacle.
- Numbers 3:9
Assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they have been given exclusively to him from among the Israelites.
- Numbers 3:38
Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons were to camp to the east of the tabernacle, toward the sunrise, before the Tent of Meeting. They were to perform the duties of the sanctuary as a service on behalf of the Israelites; but any outsider who approached the sanctuary was to be put to death.
- Numbers 3:40
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Number every firstborn male of the Israelites a month old or more, and list their names.
- Numbers 3:41
You are to take the Levites for Me—I am the LORD—in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of all the firstborn of the livestock of the Israelites.”
- Numbers 3:42
So Moses numbered all the firstborn of the Israelites, as the LORD had commanded him.
- Numbers 3:45
“Take the Levites in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. The Levites belong to Me; I am the LORD.
- Numbers 3:46
To redeem the 273 firstborn Israelites who outnumber the Levites,
- Numbers 3:50
He collected the money from the firstborn of the Israelites: 1,365 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.
- Numbers 5:2
“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- Numbers 5:4
So the Israelites did this, sending such people outside the camp. They did just as the LORD had instructed Moses.
- Numbers 5:6
“Tell the Israelites that when a man or woman acts unfaithfully against the LORD by committing any sin against another, that person is guilty
- Numbers 5:9
Every sacred contribution the Israelites bring to the priest shall belong to him.
- Numbers 5:12
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him
- Numbers 6:2
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD,
- Numbers 6:23
“Tell Aaron and his sons: This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
- Numbers 6:27
So they shall put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
- Numbers 8:6
“Take the Levites from among the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean.
- Numbers 8:9
Bring the Levites before the Tent of Meeting and assemble the whole congregation of Israel.
- Numbers 8:10
You are to present the Levites before the LORD and have the Israelites lay their hands upon them.
- Numbers 8:11
Aaron is to present the Levites before the LORD as a wave offering from the sons of Israel, so that they may perform the service of the LORD.
- Numbers 8:14
In this way you shall separate the Levites from the rest of the Israelites, and the Levites will belong to Me.
- Numbers 8:16
For the Levites have been wholly given to Me from among the sons of Israel. I have taken them for Myself in place of all who come first from the womb, the firstborn of all the sons of Israel.
- Numbers 8:17
For every firstborn male in Israel is Mine, both man and beast. I set them apart for Myself on the day I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.
- Numbers 8:18
But I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel.
- Numbers 8:19
And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the Israelites, to perform the service for the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting and to make atonement on their behalf, so that no plague will come against the Israelites when they approach the sanctuary.”
- Numbers 8:20
So Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel did with the Levites everything that the LORD had commanded Moses they should do.
- Numbers 9:2
“The Israelites are to observe the Passover at its appointed time.
- Numbers 9:4
So Moses told the Israelites to observe the Passover,
- Numbers 9:5
and they did so in the Wilderness of Sinai, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
- Numbers 9:7
and said to Moses, “We are unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be excluded from presenting the LORD’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”
- Numbers 9:10
“Tell the Israelites: ‘When any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is away on a journey, he may still observe the Passover to the LORD.
- Numbers 9:17
Whenever the cloud was lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites would set out, and wherever the cloud settled, there the Israelites would camp.
- Numbers 9:18
At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, they remained encamped.
- Numbers 9:19
Even when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites kept the LORD’s charge and did not set out.
- Numbers 9:22
Whether the cloud lingered for two days, a month, or longer, the Israelites camped and did not set out as long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle; but when it was lifted, they would set out.
- Numbers 10:12
and the Israelites set out from the Wilderness of Sinai, traveling from place to place until the cloud settled in the Wilderness of Paran.
- Numbers 10:28
This was the order of march for the Israelite divisions as they set out.
- Numbers 11:4
Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat?
- Numbers 13:2
“Send out for yourself men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each of their fathers’ tribes send one man who is a leader among them.”
- Numbers 13:3
So at the consent of the LORD, Moses sent them out from the Wilderness of Paran. All the men were leaders of the Israelites,
- Numbers 13:24
Because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut there, that place was called the Valley of Eshcol.
- Numbers 13:26
and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
- Numbers 13:32
So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.
- Numbers 14:2
All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!
- Numbers 14:5
Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.
- Numbers 14:7
and said to the whole congregation of Israel, “The land we passed through and explored is an exceedingly good land.
- Numbers 14:10
But the whole congregation threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting.
- Numbers 14:27
“How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me.
- Numbers 14:39
And when Moses relayed these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly.
- Numbers 15:2
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: After you enter the land that I am giving you as a home
- Numbers 15:18
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land to which I am bringing you
- Numbers 15:25
The priest is to make atonement for the whole congregation of Israel, so that they may be forgiven; for the sin was unintentional and they have brought to the LORD an offering made by fire and a sin offering, presented before the LORD for their unintentional sin.
- Numbers 15:26
Then the whole congregation of Israel and the foreigners residing among them will be forgiven, since it happened to all the people unintentionally.
- Numbers 15:29
You shall have the same law for the one who acts in error, whether he is a native-born Israelite or a foreigner residing among you.
- Numbers 15:32
While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.
- Numbers 15:38
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout the generations to come they are to make for themselves tassels for the corners of their garments, with a blue cord on each tassel.
- Numbers 16:2
a rebellion against Moses, along with 250 men of Israel renowned as leaders of the congregation and representatives in the assembly.
- Numbers 16:38
As for the censers of those who sinned at the cost of their own lives, hammer them into sheets to overlay the altar, for these were presented before the LORD, and so have become holy. They will serve as a sign to the Israelites.”
- Numbers 16:40
just as the LORD commanded him through Moses. This was to be a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should approach to offer incense before the LORD, lest he become like Korah and his followers.
- Numbers 16:41
The next day the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”
- Numbers 17:2
“Speak to the Israelites and take from them twelve staffs, one from the leader of each tribe. Write each man’s name on his staff,
- Numbers 17:5
The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid Myself of the constant grumbling of the Israelites against you.”
- Numbers 17:6
So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff—one for each of the leaders of their tribes, twelve staffs in all. And Aaron’s staff was among them.
- Numbers 17:9
Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the LORD’s presence to all the Israelites. They saw them, and each man took his own staff.
- Numbers 17:12
Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!
- Numbers 18:5
And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again.
- Numbers 18:8
Then the LORD said to Aaron, “Behold, I have put you in charge of My offerings. As for all the sacred offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute.
- Numbers 18:11
And this is yours as well: the offering of their gifts, along with all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given this to you and your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat it.
- Numbers 18:19
All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. It is a permanent covenant of salt before the LORD for you and your offspring.”
- Numbers 18:20
Then the LORD said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.
- Numbers 18:22
No longer may the Israelites come near to the Tent of Meeting, or they will incur guilt and die.
- Numbers 18:23
The Levites are to perform the work of the Tent of Meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come. The Levites will not receive an inheritance among the Israelites.
- Numbers 18:24
For I have given to the Levites as their inheritance the tithe that the Israelites present to the LORD as a contribution. That is why I told them that they would not receive an inheritance among the Israelites.”
- Numbers 18:26
“Speak to the Levites and tell them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you as your inheritance, you must present part of it as an offering to the LORD—a tithe of the tithe.
- Numbers 18:28
So you are to present an offering to the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites, and from these you are to give the LORD’s offering to Aaron the priest.
- Numbers 18:32
Once you have presented the best part of it, you will not incur guilt because of it. But you must not defile the sacred offerings of the Israelites, or else you will die.’”
- Numbers 19:2
“This is the statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red heifer that has no defect and has never been placed under a yoke.
- Numbers 19:9
Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and store them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept by the congregation of Israel for preparing the water of purification; this is for purification from sin.
- Numbers 19:10
The man who has gathered up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will be ceremonially unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner residing among them.
- Numbers 20:1
In the first month, the whole congregation of Israel entered the Wilderness of Zin and stayed in Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
- Numbers 20:12
But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me to show My holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”
- Numbers 20:13
These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD, and He showed His holiness among them.
- Numbers 20:19
“We will stay on the main road,” the Israelites replied, “and if we or our herds drink your water, we will pay for it. There will be no problem; only let us pass through on foot.”
- Numbers 20:22
After they had set out from Kadesh, the whole congregation of Israel came to Mount Hor.
- Numbers 20:24
“Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will not enter the land that I have given the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah.
- Numbers 21:10
Then the Israelites set out and camped at Oboth.
- Numbers 22:1
Then the Israelites traveled on and camped in the plains of Moab near the Jordan, across from Jericho.
- Numbers 22:3
and Moab was terrified of the people because they were numerous. Indeed, Moab dreaded the Israelites.
- Numbers 23:7
And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘put a curse on Jacob for me; come and denounce Israel!’
- Numbers 23:10
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”
- Numbers 23:21
He considers no disaster for Jacob; He sees no trouble for Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of the King is among them.
- Numbers 23:23
For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’
- Numbers 24:5
How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel!
- Numbers 24:17
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth.
- Numbers 24:19
A ruler will come from Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.”
- Numbers 25:6
Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
- Numbers 25:8
followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted,
- Numbers 25:11
“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal.
- Numbers 25:13
It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”
- Numbers 26:2
“Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by the houses of their fathers—all those twenty years of age or older who can serve in the army of Israel.”
- Numbers 26:4
“Take a census of the men twenty years of age or older, as the LORD has commanded Moses.” And these were the Israelites who came out of the land of Egypt:
- Numbers 26:51
These men of Israel numbered 601,730 in all.
- Numbers 26:62
The registration of the Levites totaled 23,000, every male a month old or more; they were not numbered among the other Israelites, because no inheritance was given to them among the Israelites.
- Numbers 26:63
These were the ones numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.
- Numbers 26:64
Among all these, however, there was not one who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.
- Numbers 27:8
Furthermore, you shall say to the Israelites, ‘If a man dies and leaves no son, you are to transfer his inheritance to his daughter.
- Numbers 27:11
And if his father has no brothers, give his inheritance to the next of kin from his clan, that he may take possession of it. This is to be a statutory ordinance for the Israelites, as the LORD has commanded Moses.’”
- Numbers 27:12
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim range and see the land that I have given the Israelites.
- Numbers 27:20
Confer on him some of your authority, so that the whole congregation of Israel will obey him.
- Numbers 27:21
He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who will seek counsel for him before the LORD by the judgment of the Urim. At his command, he and all the Israelites with him—the entire congregation—will go out and come in.”
- Numbers 28:2
“Command the Israelites and say to them: See that you present to Me at its appointed time the food for My offerings by fire, as a pleasing aroma to Me.
- Numbers 29:40
So Moses spoke all this to the Israelites just as the LORD had commanded him.
- Numbers 30:1
Then Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel, “This is what the LORD has commanded:
- Numbers 31:2
“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”
- Numbers 31:9
The Israelites captured the Midianite women and their children, and they plundered all their herds, flocks, and goods.
- Numbers 31:12
They brought the captives, spoils, and plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of Israel at the camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
- Numbers 31:16
“Look, these women caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to turn unfaithfully against the LORD at Peor, so that the plague struck the congregation of the LORD.
- Numbers 31:30
From the Israelites’ half, take one out of every fifty, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, sheep, or other animals, and give them to the Levites who keep charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.”
- Numbers 31:42
From the Israelites’ half, which Moses had set apart from the men who had gone to war,
- Numbers 31:47
From the Israelites’ half, Moses took one out of every fifty persons and animals and gave them to the Levites who kept charge of the tabernacle of the LORD, as the LORD had commanded him.
- Numbers 31:54
And Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and brought it into the Tent of Meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD.
- Numbers 32:7
Why are you discouraging the Israelites from crossing into the land that the LORD has given them?
- Numbers 32:9
For when your fathers went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land that the LORD had given them.
- Numbers 32:11
‘Because they did not follow Me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years of age or older who came out of Egypt will see the land that I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—
- Numbers 32:17
But we will arm ourselves and be ready to go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them into their place. Meanwhile, our little ones will remain in the fortified cities for protection from the inhabitants of the land.
- Numbers 32:18
We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has taken possession of his inheritance.
- Numbers 32:28
So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the family leaders of the tribes of Israel.
- Numbers 33:1
These are the journeys of the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt by their divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
- Numbers 33:3
On the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the Passover, the Israelites set out from Rameses. They marched out defiantly in full view of all the Egyptians,
- Numbers 33:5
The Israelites set out from Rameses and camped at Succoth.
- Numbers 33:38
At the LORD’s command, Aaron the priest climbed Mount Hor and died there on the first day of the fifth month, in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt.
- Numbers 33:40
Now the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev in the land of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming.
- Numbers 33:51
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
- Numbers 34:2
“Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries:
- Numbers 34:13
So Moses commanded the Israelites, “Apportion this land by lot as an inheritance. The LORD has commanded that it be given to the nine and a half tribes.
- Numbers 34:29
These are the ones whom the LORD commanded to apportion the inheritance to the Israelites in the land of Canaan.
- Numbers 35:2
“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.
- Numbers 35:8
The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.”
- Numbers 35:10
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
- Numbers 35:15
These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
- Numbers 35:34
Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.”
- Numbers 36:1
Now the family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the clans of Joseph, approached Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families and addressed them,
- Numbers 36:2
saying, “When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, He also commanded him to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
- Numbers 36:3
But if they marry any of the men from the other tribes of Israel, their inheritance will be withdrawn from the portion of our fathers and added to the tribe into which they marry. So our allotted inheritance would be taken away.
- Numbers 36:4
And when the Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to the tribe into which they marry and taken away from the tribe of our fathers.”
- Numbers 36:5
So at the word of the LORD, Moses commanded the Israelites: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks correctly.
- Numbers 36:7
No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
- Numbers 36:8
Every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any Israelite tribe must marry within a clan of the tribe of her father, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers.
- Numbers 36:9
No inheritance may be transferred from one tribe to another, for each tribe of Israel must retain its inheritance.”
- Numbers 36:13
These are the commandments and ordinances that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.
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.
- c. 1836 BCBirth of Jacob and Esau
- c. 1836 BCLifetime of Jacob
- c. 1758 BCBirth of Reuben
- c. 1757 BCBirth of Simeon
- c. 1756 BCBirth of Levi
- c. 1755 BCBirth of Judah
- c. 1755 BCBirth of Dan
- c. 1754 BCBirth of Naphtali
- c. 1753 BCBirth of Gad
- c. 1752 BCBirth of Asher
- c. 1752 BCBirth of Issachar
- c. 1751 BCBirth of Zebulon
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.)