Jacob ( ,
Standard ;
Septuagint Greek: Ἰακώβ; "heel" or "leg-puller"), also
known as
Israel ( ,
Standard , ;
Septuagint Greek: Ἰσραήλ; "persevere with God"; ), was
the third
patriarch of the Jewish
people, and ancestor of the twelve
tribes of
Israel, named after ten of his twelve sons, as well as the two
sons of his son Joseph.
In the
Hebrew Bible he is the son of
Isaac and
Rebecca, the
grandson of
Abraham and
Sarah and of
Bethuel, and the
twin brother of
Esau. He had twelve sons and
one daughter by his
two wives,
Leah and
Rachel, and
their maidservants,
Bilhah and
Zilpah. The children were
Reuben,
Simeon,
Levi,
Judah,
Dan,
Naphtali,
Gad,
Asher,
Issachar,
Zebulun, daughter
Dinah,
Joseph, and
Benjamin.
Before the birth of Benjamin, Jacob is
renamed "Israel" by an angel, the name after which the modern
nation of Israel
is
named.
As a result of a severe famine in
Canaan,
Jacob resettled his whole family in
Egypt, in the
Land
of Goshen, at the time when his son Joseph was viceroy.
Jacob died
there 17 years later, and Joseph carried Jacob's remains to the
land of Canaan, where he gave them stately burial in the same
Cave of
Machpelah
as were
buried Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca and Jacob's wife Leah (
).
Accounts in the Hebrew Bible
- This section is a summary of the Book of Genesis, chapters 25-50.
Jacob and Esau's birth
Jacob and his twin brother, Esau, were born to Isaac and Rebekah
after 20 years of marriage, when Isaac was 60 ( , ). There are two
opinions in the
Midrash as to how old
Rebekah was at the time of her marriage and, consequently, at the
twins' birth. According to the traditional counting cited by
Rashi, Isaac was 37 years old at the time of
the
Binding of Isaac, and news of
Rebecca's birth reached
Abraham immediately
after that event (see Rashi on Gen. 22:20). Isaac was 40 years old
when he married Rebekah (Gen. 25:20), making Rebekah 3 years old at
the time of her marriage. According to the second opinion, Isaac
was 29 years old and Rebekah was 14 years old at the time of their
marriage. Another view is that Rebekah was 10 years old at the
time. In any case, 20 years elapsed before they had children.
Throughout that time, both Isaac and Rebecca prayed fervently to
God for offspring. God eventually answered Isaac's prayers and
Rebekah conceived.
Rebekah was extremely uncomfortable during her double pregnancy and
went to inquire of God why she was suffering so. The Midrash says
that 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
received the prophecy that
twins were fighting
in her womb and would continue to fight all their lives, and after
they became two separate nations. The prophecy also said that the
older would serve the younger; its statement "one people will be
stronger than the other" has been taken to mean that the two
nations would never gain power simultaneously: when one fell, the
other would rise, and vice versa. Traditionally, Rebekah did not
share the prophecy with her husband.
When the time came for Rebekah to give birth, the first to come out
emerged red and hairy all over, with his heel grasped by the hand
of the second to come out. Onlookers named the first עשו, Esau
(`Esav or `Esaw, meaning either "rough", "sensibly felt",
"handled", from ,
`asah, "do" or "make"; or "completely
developed", from ,
`assui ). The second is named יעקב,
Jacob (Ya`aqob or Ya`aqov, meaning "heel-catcher", "supplanter",
"leg-puller", "he who follows upon the heels of one", from ,
`aqab or
`aqav, "seize by the heel",
"circumvent", "restrain", a wordplay upon ,
`iqqebah or
`iqqbah, "heel").
The boys displayed very different natures as they matured. "Esau
became a hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a simple man, a
dweller in tents" ( ). Moreover, the attitudes of their parents
toward them also differ: "Isaac loved Esau because
game was in his mouth, but Rebecca loved Jacob"
(ibid., ).
Sale of the birthright
According to the
Talmud, immediately after
Abraham died, Jacob prepared a
lentil stew as
a traditional mourner's meal for his father, Isaac. The Hebrew
Bible states that Esau, returning famished from the fields, begged
Jacob to give him some of the stew. (Esau referred to the dish as,
"that red, red stuff", giving rise to his nickname,
(
`Edom, meaning "Red").) Jacob offered to give Esau a bowl
of stew in exchange for his birthright (the right to be recognized
as firstborn), and Esau agrees; the Talmudic dating indicates both
men were 15 at the time.
Jacob's deception of Isaac
Much later, Isaac became blind in his old age and, uncertain of
when he would die, decided to bestow the blessing of the firstborn
upon Esau. He sent Esau out to the fields to trap and cook a piece
of savory game for him, so that he could eat it and bless
Esau.
Rebecca overheard this conversation and realized prophetically that
Isaac's blessings would go to Jacob, since she was told before the
twins' birth that the older son would serve the younger. She
therefore ordered Jacob to bring her two goats from the flock,
which she cooked in the way Isaac loved, and had him bring them to
his father in place of Esau.
When Jacob protested that his father would recognize the deception
and curse him as soon as he felt him, since Esau was hairy and
Jacob smooth-skinned, Rebecca said that the curse would be on her
instead. Before she sent Jacob to his father, she dressed him in
Esau's garments and laid goatskins on his arms and neck to simulate
hairy skin.
Thus disguised, Jacob entered his father's room. Surprised to
perceive that Esau was back so soon, Isaac asked how it could be
that the hunt went so quickly. Jacob responded, "Because the Lord
your God arranged it for me";
Rashi (on ) says
Isaac's suspicions were aroused because Esau never used the
personal name of God. Isaac demanded that Jacob come close so he
could feel him, but the goatskins felt just like Esau's hairy skin.
Confused, Isaac exclaimed, "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 asked him point-blank, "Are you really my son
Esau?" and Jacob answered simply, "I am" (which can be taken as "I
am me", not "I am Esau"). Isaac proceeded to eat the food and to
drink the wine that Jacob gave him, and then he blessed him with
the dew of the heavens, the fatness of the earth, and rulership
over many nations as well as his own brother.
Jacob had scarcely left the room when Esau returned from the hunt
to prepare his game and receive the blessing. The realization that
he has been deceived shocks Isaac, yet he acknowledges that Jacob
had received the blessings as sworn, by adding, "Indeed, he will be
[or remain] blessed!" (27:33). Rashi explains that Isaac smelled
the heavenly scent of
Gan Eden (Paradise)
when Jacob entered his room and, in contrast, perceived
Gehenna opening beneath Esau when the latter entered
the room, showing him that he had been deceived all along by Esau's
show of piety.
Esau was heartbroken by the deception, and begged for his own
blessing. Having made Jacob a ruler over his brothers, Isaac could
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 was filled with hatred toward Jacob for taking away both his
birthright and his blessing. He vowed to himself to kill Jacob as
soon as Isaac dies. When Rebecca heard about his murderous
intentions, she ordered Jacob to travel to her brother Laban's
house in Haran, until Esau's anger subsided. She convinced Isaac to
send Jacob away by telling him that she despaired of him marrying a
local girl from the idol-worshipping families of
Canaan (as Esau had done). After Isaac sent Jacob
away to find a wife, Esau realized that his own Canaanite wives
were evil in his father's eyes, and he took a daughter of Isaac's
half-brother
Ishmael as another wife.
According to the Talmud, the Torah's explicit dating of the life of
Ishmael helps to date events in Jacob's life. Ishmael was born when
Abraham was 86 years old (Gen. 16:16) and died at the age of 137
(25:17). Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 (21:5); at that time
Ishmael was 14. Jacob and Esau were born when Isaac was 60 (25:26);
at that time Ishmael was 74. Right after Jacob receives the
blessings and flees to Laban, the Torah states that Esau married
"Mahalat, the daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham,
sister of
Nebaiot" (28:9), on which Rashi, quoting
Megillah 17a, notes that Ishmael died
between the engagement and wedding, so the girl's brother gave her
away. If Ishmael was 137 at the time of his death, this means that
Jacob and Esau were 63 at the time of the blessings. The Talmud
adds that Jacob spent 14 years in the
yeshiva of
Shem and
Eber before proceeding to Laban, arriving when he was
77.
According to this accounting, Isaac was 123 years old at the time
of the blessings, but lived to age 180, suggesting to literal
interpreters that Isaac dramatically underestimated his own life
expectancy. Rashi quotes the Midrash that one who approaches the
age at which his parents died should be concerned for five years
prior that he too will die. Since Isaac's mother, Sarah, died at
127 (Genesis 23:1), Isaac prepared for his approaching death by
blessing his sons when he was 123.
Jacob's ladder
Nearby Luz en route to Haran, Jacob experienced a vision of a
ladder or staircase reaching into heaven with angels going up and
down it, commonly referred to as "
Jacob's
ladder". From the top of the ladder he heard the voice of God,
who repeated many of the blessings upon him.
According to
Rashi, this ladder signified the
exiles that the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the
Jewish Messiah: the angels that
represented the exiles of Babylonia, Persia, and Greece each
climbed up a certain number of steps, paralleling the years of the
exile, before they "fell down"; but the angel representing the last
exile, that of Rome or Edom, kept climbing higher and higher into
the clouds. Jacob feared that his children would never be free of
Esau's domination, but God assured him that at the End of Days,
Edom too would come falling down.
Jacob awakened, and continued on his way to Haran in the morning,
naming the place "
Bethel", "God's
house".
Jacob's marriages
Arriving in Haran, Jacob saw a well where the shepherds were
gathering their flocks to water them, and met Laban's younger
daughter Rachel, Jacob's
first cousin; she
was working as a shepherdess. He loved her immediately, and after
spending a month with his relatives, asked for her hand in marriage
in return for working seven years for Laban. Laban agreed to the
arrangement. These seven years seemed to Jacob "but a few days, for
the love he had for her"; but when they were complete and he asked
for his wife, Laban deceived Jacob by switching Rachel's older
sister, Leah, as the veiled bride.
According to the
Midrash, both Jacob and
Rachel suspected that Laban would pull such a trick; Laban was
known as the "Aramean" (deceiver), and changed Jacob's wages ten
times during his employ (Genesis 31:7). The couple therefore
devised a series of signs by which Jacob could identify the veiled
bride on his wedding night. But when Rachel saw her sister being
taken out to the wedding canopy, her heart went out to her for the
public shame Leah would suffer if she were exposed. Rachel
therefore gave Leah the signs so that Jacob would not realize the
switch.
In the morning, when the truth became known, Laban justified
himself, saying that in his country it was unheard of to give the
younger daughter before the older. However, he agreed to give
Rachel in marriage as well if Jacob would work another seven years
for her. After the week of wedding celebrations with Leah, Jacob
married Rachel, and he continued to work for Laban for another
seven years.
Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, and Leah felt hated. God opened
Leah's womb and she gave birth to four sons rapidly: Reuben,
Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Rachel, however, remained barren.
Following the example of Sarah, who gave her handmaid to Abraham
after years of infertility, Rachel gave Jacob her handmaid, Bilhah,
in marriage, so that Rachel could raise children through her.
Bilhah gave birth to Dan and Naphtali. Seeing that she had left off
childbearing temporarily, Leah then gave her handmaid Zilpah to
Jacob in marriage so that Leah could raise more children through
her. Zilpah gave birth to Gad and Asher. (According to some
commentators, Bilhah and Zilpah were younger daughters of Laban.)
Afterwards, Leah became fertile again and gave birth to Issachar,
Zebulun, and Dinah. God remembered Rachel, who gave birth to
Joseph. If pregnancies of different marriages overlapped, the
twelve births could have occurred within seven years.
After Joseph was born, Jacob decided to return home to his parents.
Laban was reluctant to release him, as God had blessed his flock on
account of Jacob. Laban asked what he could pay Jacob, and Jacob
proposed that all the spotted, speckled, and brown goats and sheep
of Laban's flock, at any given moment, would be his wages. Jacob
placed peeled rods of poplar, hazel, and chestnut within the
flocks' watering holes or troughs, an action he later attributes to
a dream. The text suggests that Jacob performed breeding
experiments over the years to make his own flocks both more
abundant and stronger than Laban's, that Laban responded by
repeatedly reinterpreting the terms of Jacob's wages, and that the
breeding favored Jacob regardless of Laban's pronouncements. Thus
Jacob's herds increased and he became very wealthy.
As time passed, Laban's sons noticed that Jacob was taking the
better part of their flocks, and Laban's friendly attitude towards
Jacob began to change. God told Jacob that he should leave, and he
and his wives and children did so without informing Laban. Before
they left, Rachel stole the
teraphim, considered to be household idols,
from Laban's house.
In a rage, Laban pursued Jacob for seven days. The night before he
caught up to him, God appeared to Laban in a dream and warned him
not to say anything good or bad to Jacob. When the two met, Laban
played the part of the injured father-in-law and also demanded his
teraphim back. Knowing nothing about Rachel's theft, Jacob
told Laban that whoever stole them should die, and stood aside to
let him search. When Laban reached Rachel's tent, she hid the
teraphim by sitting on them and stating she could not get
up because she was
menstruating; this
event was considered by the Biblical audience as conveying
significant defilement upon the
teraphim. Jacob and Laban
then parted from each other with a pact to preserve the peace
between them. Laban returned to his home and Jacob continued on his
way.
Journey back to Canaan
As Jacob neared the land of Canaan, he sent messengers ahead to his
brother Esau. They returned with the news that Esau was coming to
meet Jacob with an army of 400 men. With great apprehension, Jacob
prepared for the worst. He engaged in earnest prayer to God, then
sent on before him a tribute of flocks and herds to Esau, "a
present to my lord Esau from thy servant Jacob".
Jacob then
transported his family and flocks across the ford Jabbok
by night,
then recrossed back to send over his possessions, being left alone
in communion with God. There, a mysterious being appeared
("man", Genesis 32:24, 28; or "God", Genesis 32:28, 30, Hosea 12:3,
5; or "angel", Hosea 12:4), and the two wrestled until daybreak.
When the being saw that he did not overpower Jacob, he touched
Jacob on the sinew of his thigh (the
gid hanasheh, גיד
הנשה), and as a result, Jacob developed a limp (Genesis 32:31).
Because of this, "to this day the people of Israel do not eat the
sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket" ( ). This incident is
the source of the
mitzvah of porging.
Jacob then demanded a blessing, and the being declared that from
then on, Jacob would becalled יִשְׂרָאֵל, Israel
(
Yisra`el, meaning "one that struggled with the divine
angel" (Josephus), "one who has prevailed with God" (Rashi), "a man
seeing God" (Whiston), "he will rule as God" (Strong), or "a prince
with God" (Morris), from , "prevail", "have power as a prince").
Jacob asked the being's name, but he refused to answer.
Afterwards
Jacob named the place Penuel
(Penuw`el, Peniy`el, meaning "face of God"),
saying "I have seen God face to face and lived."
Because of the ambiguous and varying terminology, and because he
refused to reveal his name, there are varying views as to whether
this being was a man, an angel, or God. Josephus uses only the
terms "angel", "divine angel", and "angel of God", describing the
struggle as no small victory. According to Rashi, the being was the
guardian angel of Esau himself, sent to destroy Jacob before he
could return to the land of Canaan. Trachtenberg theorized that the
being refused to identify itself for fear that, if its secret name
was known, it would be conjurable by incantations. Literal
Christian interpreters like
Henry M.
Morris say that the stranger was
"God Himself and, therefore, Christ in His preincarnate state",
citing Jacob's own evaluation and the name he assumed thereafter,
"one who fights victoriously with God", and adding that God had
appeared in the human form of the
Angel of the to eat a meal with Abraham in
Genesis 18.
In the morning, Jacob assembled his 4 wives and 11 sons, placing
the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children
next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear. Some commentators cite
this placement as proof that Jacob continued to favor Joseph over
Leah's children, as presumably the rear position would have been
safer from a frontal assault by Esau, which Jacob feared. Jacob
himself took the foremost position. Esau's spirit of revenge,
however, was apparently appeased by Jacob's bounteous gifts of
camels, goats and flocks. Their reunion was an emotional one.
Esau offered to accompany them on their way back to Israel, but
Jacob protested that his children were still young and tender (born
6 to 13 years prior in the narrative); Jacob suggested eventually
catching 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
actually diverted himself to Succoth and was not recorded as
rejoining Esau until, at
Machpelah, the
two bury their father Isaac, who lived to 180 and was 60 years
older than them.
Jacob then
arrived in Shechem
, where he
bought a parcel of land, now identified as Joseph's Tomb
. In Shechem, Jacob's daughter Dinah was
kidnapped and raped by the ruler's son, who desired to marry the
girl. Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi, agreed in Jacob's name to
permit the marriage as long as all the men of Shechem first
circumcised themselves, ostensibly to
unite the children of Jacob in Abraham's
covenant of familial harmony. On the third day
after the circumcisions, when all the men of Shechem were still in
pain, Simeon and Levi put them all to death by the sword and
rescued their sister Dinah, and their brothers plundered the
property, women, and children. Jacob condemned this act, saying
"You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the
Canaanites and
Perizzites, the people living in this land." He
later rebuked his two sons for their anger in his deathbed blessing
(Genesis 49:5-7).
Jacob returned to Bethel, where he had another vision of blessing.
Although the death of Rebecca, Jacob's mother, is not explicitly
recorded in the Bible,
Deborah, Rebecca's
nurse, died and was buried at Bethel, at a place that Jacob calls
Allon Bachuth (אלון בכות), "Oak of Weepings" (Genesis
35:8). According to the Midrash, the plural form of the word
"weeping" indicates the double sorrow that Rebecca also died at
this time.
Jacob then
made a further move while Rachel was pregnant; near Bethlehem
, Rachel went into labor and died as she gave birth
to her second son, Benjamin (Jacob's
twelfth son). Jacob buried her and erected a monument over
her grave.
Rachel's Tomb
, just outside Bethlehem, remains a popular site for
pilgrimages and prayers to this day. Jacob then settled in
Migdal
Eder
, where his firstborn, Reuben, slept with Rachel's
servant Bilhah; Jacob's response was not given at the time, but he
did condemn Reuben for it later, in his deathbed blessing.
Jacob was
finally reunited with his father Isaac in Mamre
(outside
Hebron
).
When
Isaac died at the age of 180, Jacob and Esau buried him in the
Cave of the
Patriarchs
, which Abraham had purchased as a family burial plot. At this point in the
Biblical narrative, two genealogies of Esau's family appear under
the headings "the generations of Esau". A conservative
interpretation is that, at Isaac's burial, Jacob obtained the
records of Esau, who had been married 80 years prior, and
incorporated them into his own family records, and that Moses
augmented and published them.
Joseph in Egypt
Joseph was separated from his
father Jacob at the age of 17 when his brothers, who had been
jealous of his dreams of kingship over them, sold him to traders
heading down to Egypt, then-capital of the slave trade. Jacob was
deeply grieved by the loss of his favorite son, and refused to be
comforted. Unbeknownst to the family, Joseph was sold as a slave to
Potiphar,
Pharaoh's chief butcher. He
resisted the advances of his master's wife for a long time until
she accosted him and then accused him of trying to rape her; he was
then thrown into prison.
After
Joseph had spent twelve years in prison, the Pharaoh of Egypt
had two
troubling dreams, and his butler recalled having met Joseph, a
successful interpreter of dreams, in Pharaoh's prison.
Joseph was called from prison and interpreted the dreams as
prophesying seven years each of abundance and famine; Pharaoh was
so impressed that he made Joseph viceroy (second in command) over
Egypt and the manager of Egypt's grain stores, due to the prophecy
of famine. When the prophesied famine struck throughout the known
world, Joseph sold stored grain to men of all nations.
In the first year of famine, Jacob sent ten sons to Egypt,
excluding Benjamin, to procure grain for their starving families (
). Joseph recognized them but did not reveal himself to them;
desirous to see his full brother Benjamin, of whom they had spoken,
Joseph accused them of being spies, imprisoned Simeon as a hostage,
and demanded Benjamin be produced to verify their claims. Jacob was
distraught by this news, concluding that Simeon was as lost as
Joseph, and refusing to send Benjamin, even in response to a rash
vow by Reuben. Benjamin is taken to represent all that is left to
Jacob of his favorite wife's children.
When famine worsened the second year and food stores ran out, Judah
pledged his own honor to Jacob that he would protect Benjamin from
harm, and Jacob relented and sent the brothers again. On meeting
them, Joseph threatened to imprison Benjamin, but Judah offered
himself in Benjamin's place. Interpreters say Joseph had tested his
brothers with this threat and recognized that Judah passed the
test, by refusing to sell Rachel's son into slavery as he had done
once before. Overcome with emotion, Joseph revealed himself to his
brothers and provided for them to move Jacob's entire family to
Egypt.
Jacob's family, including 66 direct descendants, were housed by
Joseph in the Egyptian province of
Goshen. Jacob's final 17 years were spent in
peace and tranquility in Egypt, with all 12 sons.
Jacob adopted Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, as his own.
Anticipating his death, he blessed each of his 12 sons with varying
blessings he deemed appropriate. It has been understood that Judah,
the fourth born, received the primary blessing, due to Reuben's
incest and Simeon's and Levi's betrayal.
Jacob also made Joseph promise that he would bury him in the Cave
of the Patriarchs (with Leah, and Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and
Rebecca; Rachel was buried at Bethlehem). According to the Midrash,
he desired to tell his sons the exact date when the Messiah would
arrive, but the prophecy fails him. Another tradition states that
the two lines of the
Shema Yisrael
were exchanged, the sons proclaiming their righteousness to
"Yisrael" (Jacob), and Jacob blessing God's name responsively. The
first line is actually and the response was instituted by the
rabbis, and the chant is central to Jewish prayer services.
After giving these instructions, Jacob died at the age of 147
(Genesis 47:28). With Pharaoh's permission, Joseph had Jacob
meticulously
embalmed and led a huge state
funeral back to Canaan, with the twelve sons carrying their
father's coffin and many Egyptian officials accompanying
them.
Sons of Jacob
Jacob's wives had twelve sons and one daughter:
Reuben ( ),
Simeon ( ),
Levi (
),
Judah ( ),
Dan ( ),
Naphtali (
),
Gad ( ),
Asher (
),
Issachar ( ),
Zebulun ( ),
Dinah ( ),
Joseph ( ),and
Benjamin ( ).
The offspring of Jacob's sons became the twelve
tribes of Israel following
the Exodus, when the
Israelites conquered and settled in the
Land of Israel.
Jewish 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.
Apocalyptic literature
The
Apocalyptic literature
includes many ancient texts with narratives about Jacob, many times
with details different from Genesis. The more important are the
book of
Jubilees and the
Book of Biblical Antiquities.
Jacob is also the protagonist of the
Testament of Jacob, of the
Ladder of Jacob and of the
Prayer of Joseph, which interpret the
experience of this Patriarch in the context of
merkabah mysticism.
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.
References
- entry "Jacob"
- Enumerations of the twelve tribes vary. Because Jacob
effectively adopted two of his grandsons by Joseph and
Asenath, namely
Ephraim and
Manasseh, the two
grandsons were often substituted for the Tribe of Joseph,
yielding thirteen tribes, or twelve if Levi is set apart.
- Torah Insights: Parshat Toldot.
- Bereshit
Rabbah 63:6.
- Strong's Concordance 6215, 6213.
- Strong's Concordance 3290, 6117.
- Bava Batra
16b.
- Scherman, Rabbi Nosson (1993). The Chumash.
Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications,
p. 135.
- Pirkei d'Rav Kahana, quoted in Scherman, p. 139.
- Yevamot 6a.
- Ibid.
- Bereishit
Rabbah 65:12.
- Strong's Concordance 3478, 8280.
- Strong's Concordance 6439.
- Trachtenberg 1939, p. 80.
- Bereshit
Rabbah 81:5.
- Bereishit
Rabbah 98:2.
Further reading
External links