|
Leah
Leah () appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two wives of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Leah was Jacob's first wife, and the older sister of his second (and favored) wife Rachel. She is the mother of Jacob's first son Reuben. She has three more sons, namely Simeon, Levi and Judah, but does not bear another son until Rachel offers her a night with Jacob in exchange for some mandrake root (, ''dûdâ'îm''). Leah gives birth to two more sons after this, Issachar and Zebulun, and to Jacob's only daughter, Dinah. Name Leah means "wild cow”, a common title with ancient goddesses like Inana, Urash, and Nanshe. Rachel means "ewe lamb." Noegel says there's an irony involving Laban's flocks within this detail, one is on generative acts, - ''Give me my wife for my days are fulfilled, that I may go into her'' (אליה) (29:21). Herein also lies a subtle pun on Leah's name, which occurs again in 29:23. however, note that references to bovines and their fertility would not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob
Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother Esau, Jacob's paternal grandparents are Abraham and Sarah and his maternal grandfather is Bethuel, whose wife is not mentioned. He is said to have bought Esau's birthright and, with his mother's help, deceived his aging father to bless him instead of Esau. Then, following a severe drought in his homeland Canaan, Jacob and his descendants migrated to neighbouring Egypt through the efforts of his son Joseph, who had become a confidant of the pharaoh. After dying in Egypt at the age of 147, he is supposed to have been buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. Per the Hebrew Bible, Jacob's progeny were beget by four women: his wives (and maternal cousins) Leah and Rachel; and his concubines Bilhah and Zilpah. His sons were, in orde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rachel
Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aunt Rebecca was Jacob's mother. After Leah conceived again, Rachel finally had a son, Joseph (son of Jacob), Joseph, who would become Jacob's favorite child. Children Rachel's son Joseph (Genesis), Joseph was destined to be the leader of Israel's tribes between exile and nationhood. This role is exemplified in the Biblical story of Joseph, who prepared the way in Egypt for his family's exile there. After Joseph's birth, Jacob decided to return to the land of Canaan with his family. Fearing that Laban would deter him, he fled with his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and twelve children without informing his father-in-law. Laban pursued him and accused him of stealing his teraphim. Indeed, Rachel had taken ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judah (son Of Jacob)
Judah () was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah and the founder of the Tribe of Judah of the Israelites. By extension, he is indirectly the eponym of the Kingdom of Judah, the land of Judea, and the word ''Jew (word), Jew''. According to the narrative in Genesis, Judah alongside Tamar (Genesis), Tamar is a patrilineal ancestor of the Davidic line. Textual criticism, Textual critics see Genesis 38’s Judah and Tamar narrative as both a deliberate literary bridge within the Joseph story and a pro-Judah insertion reflecting the tribe’s later political and theological dominance in Israel’s history. Etymology The Hebrew name for Judah, ''Yehuda'' (יהודה), literally "thanksgiving" or "praise," is the noun form of the root Y-D-H (ידה), "to thank" or "to praise." His birth is recorded at ''Gen.'' 29:35; upon his birth, Leah exclaims, "This time I will praise the LORD/YHWH," with the Hebrew word for "I will praise," ''odeh'' (או ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinah
In the Book of Genesis, Dinah (; ) was the seventh child and only named daughter of Leah and Jacob. The episode of her rape by Shechem, son of a Canaanite or Hivite prince, and the subsequent revenge of her brothers Simeon and Levi, commonly referred to as ''the rape of Dinah'', is told in Genesis 34. In Genesis Dinah is first mentioned in Genesis 30:21 as the daughter of Leah and Jacob, born to Leah after she bore six sons to Jacob. In Genesis 34, Dinah went out to visit the women of Shechem, where her people had made camp and where her father Jacob had purchased the land where he had pitched his tent. Shechem (son of Hamor, the prince of the land) then took her and raped her, but how this text is to be exactly translated and understood is the subject of scholarly controversy. (E-book edition) Shechem asked his father to obtain Dinah for him, to be his wife. Hamor came to Jacob and asked for Dinah for his son: "Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reuben (son Of Jacob)
Reuben or Reuven (, Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard ''Rəʾūven'', Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ''Rŭʾūḇēn'') was the first of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's oldest son), according to the Book of Genesis. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Reuben. Etymology The text of the Torah gives two different etymology, etymologies for the name of ''Reuben'', which textual criticism, textual scholars attribute to various sources: one to the Yahwist and the other to the Elohist; the first explanation given by the Bible is that the name refers to Yahweh having witnessed Leah's misery, concerning her status as the less-favourite of Jacob's wives, implying that the etymology of ''Reuben'' derives from ; the second explanation is that the name refers to Leah's hope that Reuben's birth will make Jacob love her, and thus his name means "He will love me". Another Hebrew phrase to which ''Reuben'' is particularly close is "Behold, a son!", which is how classical ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zebulun
Zebulun (; also ''Zebulon'', ''Zabulon'', or ''Zaboules'' in ''Antiquities of the Jews'' by Josephus) was, according to the Books of Genesis and Numbers,Genesis 46:14 the last of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's tenth son), and the founder of the Israelite tribe of Zebulun. Some biblical scholars believe this to be an eponymous metaphor providing an etiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. With Leah as a matriarch, biblical scholars believe the tribe to have been regarded by the text's authors as a part of the original Israelite confederation. The Tomb of Zebulun is located in Sidon, Lebanon. In the past, towards the end of Iyyar, Jews from the most distant parts of the land of Israel would make a pilgrimage to this tomb. Etymology The name is derived from the triliteral root , common in 2nd millennium BCE Ugaritic texts as an epithet (title) of the god Baal, as well as in Phoenician and (frequently) in Biblical Hebrew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esau
Esau is the elder son of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and by the minor prophet, prophets Obadiah and Malachi. The story of Jacob and Esau reflects the historical relationship between Israel and Edom, aiming to explain why Israel, despite being a younger kingdom, dominated Edom. The Christian New Testament alludes to him in the Epistle to the Romans and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. According to the Hebrew Bible, Esau is the progenitor of the Edomites and the elder brother of Jacob, the Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Israelites.Metzger & Coogan (1993). ''Oxford Companion to the Bible'', pp. 191–92. Jacob and Esau were the sons of Isaac and Rebecca, and the grandsons of Abraham and Sarah. Of the twins, Esau was the first to be born with Jacob following, holding his heel. Isaac was sixty years old when the boys were born. Esau, a "man of the field", became a hunter who had "rough" qualities that distinguished him from his twin brother. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laban (Bible)
Laban (Aramaic: ܠܵܒܵܢ; ), also known as Laban the Aramean, is a figure in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible. He was the brother of Rebekah, the woman who married Isaac and bore Jacob. Laban welcomed his nephew, and set him the stipulation of seven years' labour before he permitted him to marry his daughter Rachel. Laban tricked Jacob into marrying his elder daughter Leah instead. Jacob then took Rachel as his second wife, on condition of serving an additional seven years' labour. Laban and his family were described as dwelling in Paddan Aram, in Mesopotamia. Hebrew Bible Laban first appears in the Hebrew Bible in as the grown spokesman for his father Bethuel's house; he was impressed by the gold jewelry given to his sister on behalf of Isaac, and played a key part in arranging their marriage. Twenty years later, Laban's nephew Jacob was born to Isaac and Rebekah. When grown, Jacob comes to work for Laban. The biblical narrative provides a framework for dating the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Issachar
Issachar () was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fifth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's ninth son), and the founder of the Israelites, Israelite Tribe of Issachar. However, some Biblical criticism, Biblical scholars view this as an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. Name The text of Genesis provides two different sources for the name of ''Issachar''. The first derives it from ''ish sakar'', meaning ''man of hire'', in reference to Leah's hire of Jacob's Human reproduction#Copulation, sexual favours for the price of some Mandrake (mythology)#In the Bible, mandrakes. The second derives it from ''yesh sakar'', meaning ''there is a reward'', in reference to Leah's opinion that the birth of Issachar was a divine reward for giving her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob as a concubine. Albright notes that the name Issachar finds a rich parallel in the name of a Semitic slave recorded in the Eightee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simeon (son Of Jacob)
Simeon () was the second of the six sons of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite tribe of Simeon, according to the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible. Biblical scholars regard the tribe as having been part of the original Israelite confederation. Simeon is absent in some sections of the Bible that list the other tribes, and some scholars think that it was not originally regarded as a distinct tribe. Some Biblical scholars believe that Simeon was not regarded as a distinct tribe due to the scandal involving Zimri. The Blessing of Moses before his death had omitted the Tribe of Simeon because Jacob had castigated hiGenesis 49:5-7 and because of the affair of Baal-peor. Simeon's name The text of the Torah states that the name of ''Simeon'' is in reference that God heard that Leah was unloved by Jacob and preferred her sister Rachel. This implies a derivation from the Hebrew root () ''šāma'' meaning 'to hear', 'to listen', and the verb () ''ʾōnī'' meaning 'my suff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Levi
Levi ( ; ) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's third son), and the founder of the Israelites, Israelite Tribe of Levi (the Levites, including the Kohanim) and the great-grandfather of Aaron, Moses and Miriam. Certain religious and political functions were reserved for the Levites. Most scholars view the Torah as projecting the origins of the Levites into the past to explain their role as landless cultic functionaries. Origins The Torah suggests that the name ''Levi'' refers to Leah's hope for Jacob to Human reproduction#Copulation, ''join'' with her, implying a derivation from Hebrew language, Hebrew ''yillaweh'', meaning ''he will join'', but scholars suspect that it may simply mean "priest", either as a loanword or by referring to those people who were ''joined'' to the Ark of the Covenant. Another possibility is that the Levites were a tribe of Judah not from the clan of Moses or Aaron and that the name "Levites" indicat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac
Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in which he is the son of Abraham and Sarah, the father of Jacob and Esau, and the grandfather of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, twelve tribes of Israel. Isaac's name means "he will laugh", reflecting the laughter, in disbelief, of Abraham and Sarah, when told by God that they would have a child., He is the only patriarch whose name was not changed, and the only one who did not move out of Canaan. According to the narrative, he died aged 180, the longest-lived of the three patriarchs. Recent scholarship has discussed the possibility that Isaac could have originally been an ancestor from the Beersheba region who was venerated at a sanctuary. Etymology The anglicized name "Isaac" is a transliteration of the Hebrew language, Hebrew name () whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
