Jacob, Jacob

Jacob was the son of Isaac with Rebekah, the twin brother of Esau, and grandson of Abraham. Jacob played a major part in some of the later events in the Book of Genesis.

His sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin and the daughter was Dinah. During the Exodus from Egypt, the Tribe of Joseph is replaced by the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph by his Egyptian wife Asenath, whom Jacob elevated to the status of full tribes).

Because Jacob was grasping Esau's heel at birth, he is named Ya'akov (), which is derived from the Hebrew root "," "heel." Commentators explain that Jacob was trying to hold Esau back from being the firstborn, and in that way claim the Abrahamic legacy for himself. According to , Jacob was favored by his mother, while Esau was favored by his father.

One day, Esau returned from the field faint from hunger. Seizing an opportunity, Jacob informed Esau that he would sell him some lentil soup which he had just cooked, in exchange for the birthright which belonged to Esau as the older brother. Esau agreed "I am going to die what is this birthright to me?" The fact that Esau would sell his familial rights in exchange for soup indicates the disdain in which he held his fathers' traditions. In the words of the Bible, "Esau despised the birthright." () However, there are many interpretations of this statement. Some believe he meant that if he were dead, then his brother would have the birthright anyway; why should he die? If Esau were not to sell his birthright, he may have died from starvation, giving Jacob the birthright either way.The blessing however, wasn't in the possession of the twins either for Esau to sell or for Jacob to buy, as it was a Given Potestas of Isaac's.That both brothers knowingly or unknowingly attempted such iniquity made them guilty equally. Although naturally, the descendants of Jacob would exonerate their Patriarch in placing the blame on his brother. Isaac knew better, not to curse both or bless further.

This sheds some light on Esau's comment that he "was going to die." The midrash further states that Esau had committed the three cardinal sins murder, adultery and idolatry, which is why he was tired that day. Setting the scene at the time of Abraham's death would mean that Jacob and Esau were both 15 years old at that time.

He sent Esau out in the fields to hunt down some meat and prepare him a meal, after which he would receive his blessing. (According to the Jewish commentators, since the blessing would be prophetic, and prophecy only rests on one who is in a joyful state of mind, Isaac desired to first eat meat and drink wine to arouse himself to happiness.) Rebekah overheard this exchange. As Esau went out to the hunt, she instructed Jacob to fetch her two goats so that she could prepare a tasty meal for his father, and commanded him to bring the meal to Isaac to receive the blessing in his brother's stead. Jacob protested that his father might notice the substitution through touch, since Esau was hairy and he was smooth-skinned. Rebekah told him not to worry, and placed hairy goatskins over his neck and arms.

To Esau's pathetic entreaties, he agreed to give Esau a lesser blessing. Esau exclaimed, "Is that why he is called Jacob (), because he has deceived me () these two times?" (Genesis 27:36), another play on Jacob's name. Then Esau swore to himself that he would kill Jacob in revenge as soon as his father was dead.

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 which the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the Messiah. The angels that represented the exiles of Babylonia, Persia, and Greece climbed "up" very high before falling "down," but the last exile, that of Rome/Edom (whose guardian angel was Esau himself) 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.

According to the traditional Midrashic interpretation of the story, both Jacob and Rachel suspected that Laban would pull such a trick, for he was known as the "Aramean" (deceiver), and changed Jacob's wages hundreds of times during his employ. The couple devised a series of signs by which Jacob could identify the veiled bride, but when Rachel saw her sister being taken out to the wedding canopy, her heart went out to her and the public shame she would suffer if she was exposed. Therefore she gave Leah the signs so that Jacob would not realize the switch.

However, he agreed to give Rachel in marriage as well if Jacob worked another seven years for him. After the week of wedding celebrations with Leah, Jacob finally married Rachel, but he continued to work for Laban another seven years.

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 she could raise more children through her. Zilpah gave birth to Gad and Asher. (According to some , Bilhah and Zilpah were younger daughters of Laban). Afterwards, Leah became fertile again and gave birth to Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah. At this point, God remembered Rachel, who gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin. Various interpretations of biblical passages suggest that Jacob's favoritism of Rachel over Leah passed over to their children; some commentators feel that this plays an important role in the later attempt on Joseph's life by his half-brothers.

Now Laban offered to pay Jacob, and Jacob proposed an unusual deal. He suggested that Laban remove all the spotted, speckled and brown goats and sheep from the flock; whichever ones would be born after that would be Jacob's wages. Left alone, Jacob planted rods of poplar, hazel, and chestnut in front of the flocks' watering holes, and when the animals saw them, they gave birth to spotted, speckled and brown foals. Thus Jacob became quite wealthy.

God told Jacob he should now leave, and he and his wives and children did so without informing Laban. Before they left, Rachel stole all the 'household idols' from Laban's house.

In great apprehension, Jacob prepared for the worst. He felt that he must now depend only on God, and he betook himself to him in earnest prayer, then sent on before him a munificent present to Esau, "a present to my lord Esau from thy servant Jacob." Jacob then transported his family and flocks back across the ford Jabbok, then crossed over towards the direction from which Esau would come, spending the night alone, in communion with God. There, a mysterious being ("a man", according to Genesis 32:24, or "the angel", according to Hosea 12:4) appeared and wrestled with Jacob until daybreak. When he saw he could not defeat Jacob, he touched him on the sinew of his thigh (the gid hanasheh - ). As a result we are told that Jacob now had a limp (Genesis 32:31) but that also because of this "to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket" (Genesis 32:32). The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ge 32:32.

According to Rashi, he was the guardian angel of Esau himself, sent to destroy Jacob before he could return to the land of Canaan. Trachtenberg theorizes that the being refused to identify itself for fear that if its secret name was known, it would have been conjurable by incantations (Trachtenberg 1939, p. 80). Some commentators, however, argue that the stranger was God himself, citing Jacob's own words and the name he assumed thereafter ("One who has struggled with God"). They point out that although later holy scriptures maintain that God does not manifest as a mortal, several instances of it arguably occur in Genesis, for example in 18:1 with Abraham.

Esau offered to accompany them on their way back to Israel, but Jacob protested that his children were still young and tender; they would eventually catch up with Esau at Mount Seir. According to the Sages, this was a prophetic reference to the End of Days, when Jacob's descendants would come to Mount Seir, the home of Edom, to deliver judgment against Esau's descendants for persecuting them throughout the millennia (Obadiah 1:21).

Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi, offered to go ahead with the match as long as all the men of Shechem first performed the mitzvah of circumcision upon themselves, ostensibly to unite the children of Jacob in familial harmony. On the third day after the circumcision, when all the men of Shechem were most weak, Simeon and Levi put all the residents to death by the sword and escaped with their sister, Dinah. Jacob remained silent about the episode, but later rebuked his two sons for their anger in his deathbed blessing (Genesis 49:5-7).

When Isaac died at the age of 180, Jacob and Esau buried him together in the Cave of Machpelah which Abraham had purchased as a family burial plot.

Jacob was deeply grieved by the loss of his favorite son, and refused to be comforted.

But when their food stores ran out and the famine worsened, Jacob agrees to Judah's promise to protect Benjamin from harm. The brothers returned to Joseph with Benjamin, and when Joseph saw Benjamin he was overcome with emotion, and revealed himself to his brothers. He invited them to bring their families and their father, Jacob, down to Egypt to live near him, and gave them a place to live in the Egyptian province of Goshen.

Before his death, he made Joseph promise that he would bury him in the Cave of Machpelah, even though Jacob had buried Joseph's mother, Rachel, by the side of the road and not in the Cave (Leah had been buried there, instead, along with Abraham, Sarah, Rebecca and Issac). With Pharaoh's permission, Joseph led a huge state funeral back to the land of Canaan, with the 12 sons carrying their father's coffin and many Egyptian officials accompanying them.

He is revered as a prophet who received inspiration from God. The Qur'an does not give the details of Jacobs 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).

Yaqub is a name that is accepted in Muslim community showing the value attributed to Jacob.

Source: Wikipedia > Jacob