To fully understand the twelve tribes, a glance must put upon Jacob. In Hebrew it signifies 'trickster', or 'supplanter'. He was the Hebrew patriarch, the younger twin son of Isaac and Rebecca, whose favourite he was, and the shepherd ancestor of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. By trickery Jacob won the birthright and the father's blessing due to his older brother, Esau. Esau's anger caused Jacob to flee to their ancestral land of Haran, where he had a vision at Bethel of a ladder from heaven to Earth and of his own promised blessing and prosperity. While in Haran he married his uncle Laban's two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Crossing a river on his way back to Canaan he wrestled until dawn with a mysterious, unseen presence at Peniel and for his perseverance received from it the name of 'Israel' - 'he that strives with God'. Ya'qub (Jacob), in early Meccan shuras of the Koran, appears as the brother of Ishaq (Isaac), and the son of Ibrahim (Abraham). He is regarded as a prophet, and was temporarily blinded by the grief he experienced at the loss of Yusuf (Joseph). In post-Koranic legend, Ya'qub and Esau are said to have fought in their mother's womb over who should be born first. Ya'qub allowed his brother preference to spare his mother pain.
The twelve tribes named after the ten sons of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel by God; it probably means 'he that strives with God' and the two sons of Jacob's son, Joseph. Jacob's first wife bore him six sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulon, and Issachar. Two other tribes, Gad and Asher, were named after sons born to Jacob and Zilpah, Leah's maidservant. Two further tribes, those of Dan and Naphtali, were named after sons of Jacob by Bilhah, the maidservant of his second wife, Rachel. Rachel herself bore Jacob two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Two tribes were named after Joseph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The Hebrews who occupied Palestine in 12th and 11th centuries BC called themselves 'the children of Israel'.
Israel was also the name given to the kingdom over which Saul, David, and Solomon ruled in Palestine, between c.1020 and c.922 BC, and which comprised ten of the tribes. Thereafter it was the name of the northern Hebrew kingdom, which seceded from the Jerusalem-centred kingdom of Judah, and which covered the territory of all the tribes except Judah (and parts of Benjamin). The Assyrians overthrew this kingdom in 721 BC; the ten tribes (the 'Lost Tribes') were gradually assimilated by other peoples. After the return of the Jews from Exile in Babylon the name Israel was used more generally of the Jewish nation.
The twelve tribes named after the ten sons of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel by God; it probably means 'he that strives with God' and the two sons of Jacob's son, Joseph. Jacob's first wife bore him six sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulon, and Issachar. Two other tribes, Gad and Asher, were named after sons born to Jacob and Zilpah, Leah's maidservant. Two further tribes, those of Dan and Naphtali, were named after sons of Jacob by Bilhah, the maidservant of his second wife, Rachel. Rachel herself bore Jacob two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Two tribes were named after Joseph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The Hebrews who occupied Palestine in 12th and 11th centuries BC called themselves 'the children of Israel'.
Israel was also the name given to the kingdom over which Saul, David, and Solomon ruled in Palestine, between c.1020 and c.922 BC, and which comprised ten of the tribes. Thereafter it was the name of the northern Hebrew kingdom, which seceded from the Jerusalem-centred kingdom of Judah, and which covered the territory of all the tribes except Judah (and parts of Benjamin). The Assyrians overthrew this kingdom in 721 BC; the ten tribes (the 'Lost Tribes') were gradually assimilated by other peoples. After the return of the Jews from Exile in Babylon the name Israel was used more generally of the Jewish nation.
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