---

Jacob 

 Text:  one who follows on another's heels; supplanter, (Gen. 25:26; 
27:36; Hos. 12:2-4), the second born of the twin sons of Isaac by 
Rebekah. He was born probably at Lahai-roi, when his father was 
fifty-nine and Abraham one hundred and fifty-nine years old. Like his 
father, he was of a quiet and gentle disposition, and when he grew up 
followed the life of a shepherd, while his brother Esau became an 
enterprising hunter. His dealing with Esau, however, showed much mean 
selfishness and cunning (Gen. 25:29-34). When Isaac was about 160 
years of age, Jacob and his mother conspired to deceive the aged 
patriarch (Gen. 27), with the view of procuring the transfer of the 
birthright to himself.

 The birthright secured to him who possessed it 

(1.) superior rank in his family (Gen. 49:3); 

(2.) a double portion of the paternal inheritance (Deut. 21:17); 

(3.) the priestly office in the family (Num. 8:17-19); and 

(4.) the promise of the Seed in which all nations of the earth were to 
be blessed (Gen. 22:18). 

Soon after his acquisition of his father's blessing (Gen. 27), Jacob 
became conscious of his guilt; and afraid of the anger of Esau, at the 
suggestion of Rebekah Isaac sent him away to Haran, 400 miles or more, 
to find a wife among his cousins, the family of Laban, the Syrian 
(28). There he met with Rachel (29). 

Laban would not consent to give him his daughter in marriage till he 
had served seven years; but to Jacob these years "seemed but a few 
days, for the love he had to her." But when the seven years were 
expired, Laban craftily deceived Jacob, and gave him his daughter 
Leah. Other seven years of service had to be completed probably before 
he obtained the beloved Rachel. But "life-long sorrow, disgrace, and 
trials, in the retributive providence of God, followed as a 
consequence of this double union." 

At the close of the fourteen years of service, Jacob desired to return 
to his parents, but at the entreaty of Laban he tarried yet six years 
with him, tending his flocks (31: 41). He then set out with his family 
and property "to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan" (Gen. 
31). Laban was angry when he heard that Jacob had set out on his 
journey, and pursued after him, overtaking him in seven days. The 
meeting was of a painful kind. 

After much recrimination and reproach directed against Jacob, Laban is 
at length pacified, and taking an affectionate farewell of his 
daughters, returns to his home in Padanaram. And now all connection of 
the Israelites with Mesopotamia is at an end. Soon after parting with 
Laban he is met by a company of angels, as if to greet him on his 
return and welcome him back to the Land of Promise (32:1, 2). He 
called the name of the place Mahanaim, i.e., "the double camp," 
probably his own camp and that of the angels. The vision of angels was 
the counterpart of that he had formerly seen at Bethel, when, twenty 
years before, the weary, solitary traveller, on his way to Padan-aram, 
saw the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder whose top 
reached to heaven (28:12). 

He now hears with dismay of the approach of his brother Esau with a 
band of 400 men to meet him. In great agony of mind he prepares for 
the worst. He feels that he must now depend only on God, and he 
betakes himself to him in earnest prayer, and sends on before him a 
munificent present to Esau, "a present to my lord Esau from the 
servant Jacob." 

Jacob's family were then transported across the Jabbok; but he himself 
remained behind, spending the night in communion with God. While thus 
engaged, there appeared one in the form of a man who wrestled with 
him. In this mysterious contest Jacob prevailed, and as a memorial of 
it his name was changed to Israel (wrestler with God); and the place 
where this occured he called Peniel, "for", said he, "I have seen God 
face to face, and my life is preserved" (32:25-31). 

After this anxious night, Jacob went on his way, halting, mysteriously 
weakened by the conflict, but strong in the assurance of the divine 
favour. Esau came forth and met him; but his spirit of revenge was 
appeased, and the brothers met as friends, and during the remainder of 
their lives they maintained friendly relations. 

After a brief sojourn at Succoth, Jacob moved forward and pitched his 
tent near Shechem (q.v.), 33:18; but at length, under divine 
directions, he moved to Bethel, where he made an altar unto God 
(35:6,7), and where God appeared to him and renewed the Abrahamic 
covenant. While journeying from Bethel to Ephrath (the Canaanitish 
name of Bethlehem), Rachel died in giving birth to her second son 
Benjamin (35: 16-20), fifteen or sixteen years after the birth of 
Joseph. He then reached the old family residence at Mamre, to wait on 
the dying bed of his father Isaac. 

The complete reconciliation between Esau and Jacob was shown by their 
uniting in the burial of the patriarch (35:27-29). Jacob was soon 
after this deeply grieved by the loss of his beloved son Joseph 
through the jealousy of his brothers (37: 33). Then follows the story 
of the famine, and the successive goings down into Egypt to buy corn 
(42), which led to the discovery of the long-lost Joseph, and the 
patriarch's going down with all his household, numbering about seventy 
souls (Ex. 1:5; Deut. 10:22; Acts 7:14), to sojourn in the land of 
Goshen. Here Jacob, "after being strangely tossed about on a very 
rough ocean, found at last a tranquil harbour, where all the best 
affections of his nature were gently exercised and largely unfolded" 
(Gen. 48). 

At length the end of his checkered course draws nigh, and he summons 
his sons to his bedside that he may bless them. Among his last words 
he repeats the story of Rachel's death, although forty years had 
passed away since that event took place, as tenderly as if it had 
happened only yesterday; and when "he had made an end of charging his 
sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost" 
(49:33). 

His body was embalmed and carried with great pomp into the land of 
Canaan, and buried beside his wife Leah in the cave of Machpelah, 
according to his dying charge. There, probably, his embalmed body 
remains to this day (50:1-13). (See HEBRON.) The history of Jacob is 
referred to by the prophets Hosea (12:3, 4, 12) and Malachi (1:2). In 
Micah 1:5 the name is a poetic synonym for Israel, the kingdom of the 
ten tribes. 

There are, besides the mention of his name along with those of the 
other patriarchs, distinct references to events of his life in Paul's 
epistles (Rom. 9:11-13; Heb. 12:16; 11:21). See references to his 
vision at Bethel and his possession of land at Shechem in John 1:51; 
4:5, 12; also to the famine which was the occasion of his going down 
into Egypt in Acts 7:12 (See LUZ; BETHEL.)