Figures

Jacob

Patriarchs

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Jacob." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/figures/jacob.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Jacob. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/figures/jacob

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-jacob,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Jacob},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/figures/jacob},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Jacob, in Hebrew Yaakov, later named Israel, is the third of the patriarchs, younger twin of Esau, who bought his brother's birthright and by his mother's counsel obtained the blessing of their blind father Isaac. Fleeing to Haran he served Laban for Leah and Rachel, and returning home he wrestled through the night with a mysterious stranger at the ford of the Jabbok and was given the name Israel, one who strives with God. His twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. Islam reveres him as the prophet Yaqub, the grieving father of Yusuf. He is a founding ancestor of the covenant people, the very namesake of Israel.

Facts

Origins

Origin of the Name

Renamed Israel (he who strives with God, or God strives) after wrestling with a divine being at Peniel. 1

Veneration

Shrine or Burial Place

Tradition places his burial, alongside Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, Rebekah and Leah, in the Cave of Machpelah at Hebron, purchased by Abraham as recorded in Genesis. 2

Disputed

Historicity

Historicity debated 4

Lester L. Grabbe's Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? (2007) finds no extra-biblical evidence for Jacob on the same second-millennium documentary record examined for the other patriarchs, and that the patriarchal narratives cannot be securely placed in any specific second-millennium setting. Judaism, Christianity and Islam hold him to be a historical patriarch, father of the twelve tribes and namesake of Israel.

Scholarship

How Its Legacy Is Contested

Genesis itself records that he obtained both the birthright and their father's blessing from Esau through deception, working with his mother Rebekah to trick the blind and dying Isaac, an episode later Jewish and Christian interpreters have read variously as the justified fulfillment of a prior divine oracle or as a genuine moral stain the text does not fully excuse. 2

Position Profile

Key Text

Genesis recounts that he wrestled through the night with a mysterious figure at the ford of the Jabbok and emerged with a dislocated hip and a new name, Israel, the name later given to the nation his twelve sons founded. 2

Practice

Lineage

Son of Isaac and Rebekah, twin brother of Esau, and father of the twelve sons whose descendants become the twelve tribes of Israel. 3

Attributions

Mythic Association

His dream at Bethel of a ladder reaching to heaven, and his wrestling match at the ford of the Jabbok. 1

Identity

Gender

Male 1

Life

Place of Activity

Genesis places his life across Canaan, Haran in upper Mesopotamia where he served Laban for twenty years, and finally Egypt, where he settles with his sons' families during the famine and where Genesis records his death and the request that his body be carried back for burial at Machpelah beside Abraham and Isaac. 2

Attestation

Traditions Revering This Figure

Judaism 3

Traditions Revering This Figure

Christianity 3

Traditions Revering This Figure

Islam 3

Learn More

The Supplanter Who Became Israel

Jacob is the third of the patriarchs, son of Isaac and Rebekah and younger twin of Esau. His name (Ya'aqov) is linked in the narrative to the heel and to supplanting, and the Genesis story turns on that theme: he grasps Esau's heel at birth, buys his brother's birthright for a bowl of stew, and, at Rebekah's urging, deceives the blind Isaac into giving him the blessing meant for the elder son.

Fleeing Esau's anger, he journeys to his uncle Laban, where he labours long years for his wives Leah and Rachel, himself deceived by Laban into marrying the elder sister first, and prospers. Returning home, on the night before he must face Esau, he wrestles until dawn with a mysterious figure at the ford of the Jabbok (Peniel), refusing to release him without a blessing, and is given a new name: Israel, explained as one who strives with God. He limps away from the encounter, marked for life.

His twelve sons, by Leah, Rachel and their maidservants, become the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel, so that the nation is quite literally named for him. Reconciliation with Esau follows, and in old age Jacob goes down into Egypt to be reunited with his lost son Joseph.

The Eponymous Ancestor, and the Figure in Later Tradition

To the historian, Jacob is above all an eponymous ancestor, the figure through whom a people explains its own origin and unity. The renaming to Israel, the birth of the twelve sons who correspond to the twelve tribes, and the encounters at named sanctuaries such as Bethel (where Jacob dreams of a ladder set between earth and heaven and the angels ascending and descending upon it) all function to root the later nation, its shrines and its structure in the life of a single patriarch. The narratives were shaped over a long period and are not straightforwardly biographical.

In Jewish tradition Jacob-Israel is the last of the three patriarchs invoked in prayer, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the immediate father of the nation; the wrestling at Peniel is read as the archetype of Israel's own striving with God through history.

Christianity received the ladder at Bethel as an image of the link between heaven and earth, applied in the Gospel of John to Christ himself. Islam honours Ya'qub as a prophet and the father of the prophet Yusuf (Joseph), and the Qur'an, calling the Israelites the Children of Israel, preserves his second name as the name of the people descended from him. From a single trickster-patriarch, in each telling, a nation and a covenant descend.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Bedeken

The bedeken custom is explained as a legal precaution recalling Jacob's deception at his own wedding by a veiled substitute bride.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of World ReligionsJohn Bowker (ed.)

Benjamin, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970.635.12)

This source names Jacob directly: "of the series "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," by Jacques de Gheyn II, 1584 to 1594, after Karel van Mander I, giving each of Jacob's twelve sons his own named plate."

Source Benjamin, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 1970.635.12 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Benjamin, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 1970.635.12 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: ""Benjamin, from 'The Twelve Sons of Jacob,'" an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn II, 1584 to 1594."

Source Benjamin, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 1970.635.12 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Esau Selling His Birthright to Jacob for a Pottage of Lentils (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 53.601.335(4))

This source names Jacob directly: "titled "Esau Selling His Birthright to Jacob for a Pottage of Lentils," plate 1 from "The Story of Jacob and Esau," after Maerten de Vos, 1585, showing Esau trading his birthright to his brother..."

Source Esau Selling His Birthright to Jacob for a Pottage of Lentils, accession 53.601.335(4) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Esau Selling His Birthright to Jacob for a Pottage of Lentils, accession 53.601.335(4) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: "for "Esau Selling His Birthright to Jacob for a Pottage of Lentils," plate 1 from "The Story of Jacob and Esau," an engraving after Maerten de Vos, 1585."

Source Esau Selling His Birthright to Jacob for a Pottage of Lentils, accession 53.601.335(4) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Gad, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.95.1806)

This source names Jacob directly: "titled "Gad, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob," by Jacques de Gheyn II, dated 1584 to 1594, one sheet of a series after Karel van Mander I depicting each of Jacob's twelve sons individually."

Source Gad, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1806 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Gad, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1806 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: "for "Gad, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob," an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn II, dated 1584 to 1594."

Source Gad, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1806 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Hebron

This source names Jacob directly: "and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah."

Source The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)Anonymous (multiple authors)

Isaac Blessing Jacob, accession 25.110.16 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: "collection record for "Isaac Blessing Jacob," an oil on canvas painting by the Dutch artist Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, 1621 to 1674, dated 1642."

Source Isaac Blessing Jacob, accession 25.110.16 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Issachar, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.95.1804)

This source names Jacob directly: ""Issachar, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob," by Jacques de Gheyn II, dated 1584 to 1594, one sheet of a series after Karel van Mander I depicting each of Jacob's twelve sons individually."

Source Issachar, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1804 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Issachar, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1804 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: "for "Issachar, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob," an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn II, dated 1584 to 1594."

Source Issachar, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1804 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Jacob (Wikipedia)

This source names Jacob directly: "A Wikipedia article on Jacob, recording how his mother Rebecca disguised him in his brother Esau's clothing, with goatskins over his arms and neck to simulate hairy skin, so that their aging, nearly..."

Source Jacob (Wikipedia)

Joseph and His Brothers

The father whose favour begins the trouble

Levi Avenging the Honor of his Sister Dinah (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001.87)

This source names Jacob directly: "a narrative that Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah, is named for."

Source Levi Avenging the Honor of his Sister Dinah, accession 2001.87 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe

This source names Jacob directly: "Margaret C. Jacob is a historian of the Enlightenment, and this academic book, published by Oxford University Press, examines eighteenth century Freemasonry as a genuine social and political..."

Source Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century EuropeMargaret C. Jacob

Naphthali, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.95.1808)

This source names Jacob directly: ""Naphthali, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob," by Jacques de Gheyn II, dated 1584 to 1594, one sheet of a series after Karel van Mander I depicting each of Jacob's twelve sons individually."

Source Naphthali, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1808 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Naphthali, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1808 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: ""Naphthali, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob," an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn II, dated 1584 to 1594."

Source Naphthali, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1808 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Ruben, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.95.1799)

This source names Jacob directly: "of the series "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," by Jacques de Gheyn II, 1584 to 1594, after Karel van Mander I, giving each of Jacob's twelve sons his own named plate."

Source Ruben, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 49.95.1799 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Ruben, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 49.95.1799 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: "for "Ruben, from 'The Twelve Sons of Jacob,'" an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn II, 1584 to 1594, first state of three."

Source Ruben, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 49.95.1799 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Simeon, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.95.1801)

This source names Jacob directly: "of the series "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," by Jacques de Gheyn II, 1584 to 1594, after Karel van Mander I, giving each of Jacob's twelve sons his own named plate."

Source Simeon, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 49.95.1801 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Simeon, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 49.95.1801 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: "for "Simeon, from 'The Twelve Sons of Jacob,'" an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn II, 1584 to 1594."

Source Simeon, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob, accession 49.95.1801 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

This source names Jacob directly: "of each of the twelve sons of Jacob to their own descendants, one testament per patriarch, each combining autobiographical review, moral exhortation built around a besetting virtue or vice, and..."

Source The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1 (Charlesworth)James H. Charlesworth (editor)

The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (Rijksmuseum, Moeyaert)

This source names Jacob directly: "Nicolaes Moeyaert, circa 1638, showing Jacob and Rachel meeting at the well, the scene told in Genesis 29."

Source The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, Rijksmuseum (SK-A-1485)

The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, Rijksmuseum (SK-A-1485)

This source names Jacob directly: "record for "De ontmoeting van Jacob en Rachel" (The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel), an oil on panel painting by Nicolaes Moeyaert, circa 1638."

Source The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, Rijksmuseum (SK-A-1485)

Zebulon, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.95.1803)

This source names Jacob directly: ""Zebulon, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob," by Jacques de Gheyn II, dated 1584 to 1594, one sheet of a series after Karel van Mander I depicting each of Jacob's twelve sons individually."

Source Zebulon, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1803 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Zebulon, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1803 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Jacob directly: "for "Zebulon, from The Twelve Sons of Jacob," an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn II, dated 1584 to 1594."

Source Zebulon, from "The Twelve Sons of Jacob," accession 49.95.1803 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Belongs to Tradition

Judaism

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Child Of

Isaac

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)

Children

Benjamin

Dinah

Daughter of Jacob and Leah; her assault by Shechem provokes Simeon and Levi's massacre of his city.

Source The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)Anonymous (multiple authors)

Gad

Issachar

Joseph son of Jacob

Source The Holy BibleAnonymous (multiple authors)

Naphtali

Reuben

Simeon

Zebulun

Depicted In

Isaac Blessing Jacob (Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 25.110.16)

The painting's directly named subject per the museum's own title, receiving Isaac's blessing in disguise, matching the corroborating Wikipedia record's account of that biblical episode.

Source Isaac Blessing Jacob, accession 25.110.16 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Additional Source Jacob (Wikipedia)