According to biblical accounts, Jacob (later known as Israel) had 13 children (12 boys and a girl) by his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and their two maidservants, Bilhah (Rachel's servant) and Zilpah (Leah's servant). Leah bore six sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah. Rachel's sons were Joseph and Benjamin. Bilhah's sons were Dan and Naphtali, while Zilpah's sons were Gad and Asher.
The descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob later formed the 12 Tribes of Israel. Following the Exodus from Egypt and the entry into the Promised Land, Joshua divided the land of Canaan among the tribes. However, the tribe of Levi did not receive any land because the members were hereditary priests. In listings that record land apportioned to the tribes, the tribe of Levi does not appear and the tribe of Joseph is replaced by two tribes, those of his sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
Subsequently, when Israel divided following the death of Solomon, the northern Kingdom of Israel, based on Shechem, was founded by the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, and Ephraim and Manasseh, while the southern Kingdom of Judah was founded by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. When the northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria in 722 BCE, those tribes were driven into exile in Khorasan (a region of northern Persia) and thereafter lost to history. In religious and cultural tradition, they are remembered as the “ten lost tribes of Israel.” A large number of ethnic and religious groups have claimed to be their descendants. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin (and a few of the landless priests, the Levi), who in 586 BCE were driven from Jerusalem into captivity in Babylon, later returned to reestablish their kingdom and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. They are believed to be the ancestors of all modern Jews.
Fleeing famine, left with his extended family for the fertile soil of the Nile Delta in Egypt, where his descendants, “the children of Israel,” remained for many centuries.
Many historians believe that the stories of Jacob’s travels are rooted in the early history of the Israelites. These historians agree that some of the Hebrew tribes migrated to Egypt, probably during the mid-17th to the mid-16th centuries BCE. During this period, the Semitic Hyksos kings (probably from Canaan) conquered the northernmost part of Egypt. However, when the Hyksos rulers were deposed in the 16th century BCE, the Hebrews were persecuted and treated as slaves.
World History
