Genesis

by Anonymous

Jacob (Israel) Character Analysis

Jacob is the younger of Isaac’s and Rebekah’s twin sons. His name means “he supplants.” Known as a trickster, Jacob is quieter and more wily than his brother, Esau. After getting Esau’s birthright in exchange for some stew, Jacob (urged by Rebekah) later tricks his blind father into giving him Esau’s blessing—he covers himself with goatskin so that if Isaac touches him, he’ll think it’s really the hairier Esau. When Esau is enraged by this deception, Jacob flees to his uncle Laban in Haran. On his way, Jacob dreams of a ladder to heaven and of God’s promise to bless his offspring and to always be with him. As soon as he arrives among his mother’s family, he falls in love with Laban’s daughter Rachel. Laban agrees to grant Rachel to him in marriage in exchange for seven years’ labor. However, on the wedding night, Laban brings his other daughter, Leah, to Jacob instead. After Jacob finds out what’s happened, Laban agrees to give him Rachel as well, but Jacob must work an additional seven years. Jacob has numerous children with Rachel, Leah, and their maids Bilhah and Zilpah. After 20 years in Laban’s household, Jacob, now wealthy, returns to Canaan—sending before him a huge gift of livestock in order to appease Esau. The night before Jacob and Esau are reunited, Jacob wrestles with a mysterious figure, and God renames him Israel. The next day, in spite of Jacob’s misgivings, Esau welcomes him warmly. After Isaac dies, Jacob settles in Isaac’s homeland; his favorite child is Rachel’s son Joseph. After Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery, Jacob spends many years believing that his beloved son is dead. After Joseph prospers in Egypt and reunites with his brothers, Jacob moves with the rest of the family to Egypt, is joyfully reunited with Joseph, and dies there. He is buried with his ancestors in Canaan.

Jacob (Israel) Quotes in Genesis

The Genesis quotes below are all either spoken by Jacob (Israel) or refer to Jacob (Israel). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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).

Chapter 27 Quotes

Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!” When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, father!” But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

Related Characters: Esau (speaker), Isaac (speaker), Rebekah, Jacob (Israel)
Page Number and Citation: 27:33–36
Explanation and Analysis:

Chapter 30 Quotes

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” […]

Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach”; and she named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!”

Related Characters: Rachel (speaker), Jacob (Israel) (speaker), Leah, Joseph, God/the LORD God
Page Number and Citation: 30:1–2, 22–24
Explanation and Analysis:

Chapter 32 Quotes

And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant […] Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. Yet you have said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’”

Related Characters: Jacob (Israel) (speaker), God/the LORD God, Esau, Isaac, Abram (Abraham)
Page Number and Citation: 32:9–12
Explanation and Analysis:

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.”

Related Characters: Jacob (Israel) (speaker), God/the LORD God
Page Number and Citation: 32:24–28
Explanation and Analysis:

Chapter 44 Quotes

Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy's life, when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became surety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame in the sight of my father all my life.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord in place of the boy; and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the suffering that would come upon my father.”

Related Characters: Judah (speaker), Jacob (Israel), Joseph, Benjamin
Page Number and Citation: 44:30–34
Explanation and Analysis:

Chapter 48 Quotes

When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father! Since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.” But his father refused, and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”

Related Characters: Joseph (speaker), Jacob (Israel) (speaker), Ephraim, Manasseh
Page Number and Citation: 48:17–19
Explanation and Analysis:

Chapter 50 Quotes

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die; but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, “When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here.” And Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old; he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Related Characters: Joseph (speaker), God/the LORD God, Isaac, Abram (Abraham), Jacob (Israel)
Related Symbols: Land
Page Number and Citation: 50:24–26
Explanation and Analysis:
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Jacob (Israel) Character Timeline in Genesis

The timeline below shows where the character Jacob (Israel) appears in Genesis. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 25
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...they name him Esau. The second twin emerges clutching Esau’s heel, so he is named Jacob. As the boys grow up, Esau becomes a hunter, while Jacob prefers a quiet life.... (full context)
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One day, while Jacob is cooking a stew, Esau comes in from the field and hungrily demands some of... (full context)
Chapter 27
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...prepare some game for him, just the way he likes it. Overhearing this, Rebekah tells Jacob to get two kids from the flock; she will prepare them for Isaac, and Isaac... (full context)
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When Jacob comes in, he tells Isaac that he is Esau. Isaac wonders how the game was... (full context)
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No sooner has Jacob received the blessing and left than Esau comes in with the game he caught. When... (full context)
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Esau hates Jacob for stealing his blessing, and he resolves to kill Jacob after Isaac dies. But when... (full context)
Chapter 28
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Isaac blesses Jacob once again, telling him not to marry a Canaanite woman. Instead, he must travel to... (full context)
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On his way to Haran from Beer-sheba, Jacob stops and sleeps for the night, using a stone for a pillow. He dreams of... (full context)
Chapter 29
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When Jacob arrives in the east, he sees a well with three flocks of sheep lying beside... (full context)
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After Jacob has stayed at Laban’s house for a month, Laban says that Jacob shouldn’t work for... (full context)
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At the end of the seven years, Jacob asks Laban for Rachel, and Laban throws a marriage feast. But that night, he brings... (full context)
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...Leah names her son Reuben because God has looked on her affliction, and surely now Jacob will love her. Soon she bears another son, naming him Simeon because the Lord has... (full context)
Chapter 30
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Rachel, still barren, envies Leah for her many children. She tells Jacob to give her children or else she’ll die. Jacob becomes angry and tells Rachel that... (full context)
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Leah stops bearing children, so she gives her maid Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. Zilpah bears Jacob two sons, Gad (“Good fortune”) and Asher (“Happy am... (full context)
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After Joseph’s birth, Jacob asks Laban to release him from service, so that he can return to his own... (full context)
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Then Jacob takes rods of poplar, almond, and plane wood and peels white streaks in them. He... (full context)
Chapter 31
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Jacob hears that Laban’s sons are upset about the wealth he’s gained at their father’s expense;... (full context)
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Continuing his explanation to Rachel and Leah, Jacob says that once, while the flock was mating, he dreamed that all the male goats... (full context)
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Meanwhile, Rachel has stolen her father Laban’s household gods. Three days after Jacob’s household sets out, Laban’s household pursues Jacob’s. When Laban overtakes Jacob, he accuses Jacob of... (full context)
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Jacob gets angry about his father-in-law’s intrusion. He reminds Laban of all the good fortune he’s... (full context)
Chapter 32
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Jacob continues on his way, in the company of the angels of God. As he approaches... (full context)
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That night, Jacob prepares a gift for Esau—large flocks of goats, sheep, camels, cows, and donkeys. Then he... (full context)
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That same night, Jacob crosses the Jabbok river along with his wives, maids, and 11 children. After settling them... (full context)
Chapter 33
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Jacob sees Esau approaching with 400 men, so he divides up his household with the maids... (full context)
Chapter 34
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...love with Dinah and asks his father to get Dinah to be his wife. Meanwhile, Jacob hears about the rape. He and his sons are furious with Hamor, and when Hamor... (full context)
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...males, including Hamor and Shechem. They rescue Dinah from Shechem’s house and take her home. Jacob’s other sons plunder the city, taking captive the wives and children. Jacob tells Simeon and... (full context)
Chapter 35
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God tells Jacob to settle at Bethel and build an altar there, so Jacob tells his household to... (full context)
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God appears to Jacob again and says that he will now be called Israel. He commands him to “be... (full context)
Chapter 36
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...to the hill country of Seir since the land could not support both his and Jacob’s possessions. Esau has several sons, Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jalam, and Korah, from whom Edomite clans... (full context)
Chapter 37
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Jacob (Israel) settles in the land of Canaan, where his father Isaac had lived. When Israel’s... (full context)
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...in which the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowed down to him. This time, even Israel rebukes Joseph. (full context)
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On another day, Israel sends Joseph to check on his brothers, who are pasturing the flock near Shechem. When... (full context)
Chapter 42
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Back in Canaan, Israel hears that there’s grain in Egypt, so he tells his sons to go and buy... (full context)
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...frightened, wondering what more God has done to them. When they get home, they tell Jacob everything that’s happened. Jacob is distraught that, after having lost Joseph and now Simeon, he’s... (full context)
Chapter 43
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...family eats up the grain they’ve brought from Egypt, while the famine persists. Judah reminds Jacob that there’s no use in returning to Egypt unless they bring Benjamin, as they were... (full context)
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...them and releases Simeon from jail. At the noon feast, Joseph asks after his father, Jacob, and greets Benjamin. Overwhelmed with love for his youngest brother, he leaves the room briefly... (full context)
Chapter 45
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...here in order to preserve his family’s life. He urges his brothers to return to Jacob and bring him to Egypt without delay. They must all settle in Goshen, where Joseph... (full context)
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When Pharaoh hears that Joseph’s brothers have come, he personally invites Jacob and the brothers’ households to move to Egypt and enjoy the best that the land... (full context)
Chapter 46
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On the way to Egypt, Jacob stops at Beer-sheba and offers sacrifices. In a vision, God speaks to Jacob and tells... (full context)
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Joseph meets his family’s caravan in Goshen, and he weeps on Jacob’s neck for a long time. Jacob says that he can now die, having seen for... (full context)
Chapter 47
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...has said, Pharaoh allows Joseph’s brothers to settle in Goshen as shepherds. Joseph also presents Jacob to Pharaoh, and Jacob blesses Pharaoh. He tells Pharaoh that he is 130 years old... (full context)
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In Goshen, Jacob’s family prospers. Jacob lives 17 years more and dies at age 147. Before he dies,... (full context)
Chapter 48
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When Joseph hears that Jacob is dying, he takes his sons Manasseh and Ephraim and visits his father. Jacob musters... (full context)
Chapter 49
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Then Jacob offers his last words to his sons, telling each of them what will happen to... (full context)
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Judah receives an especially long blessing; his father’s sons will praise and bow before him. Jacob describes him as a lion, and a ruler who will bear a scepter. (full context)
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Jacob commands his sons to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac,... (full context)
Chapter 50
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Weeping, Joseph kisses his father’s face. He orders the physicians to embalm Jacob, which takes 40 days, and the Egyptians mourn him for 70 days. Then Pharaoh gives... (full context)
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After Jacob dies, Joseph’s brothers fear that he will bear a grudge against them and avenge himself.... (full context)
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...bring them up from this land to the land he’d promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He makes the Israelites swear to carry his bones to Canaan “when God comes to... (full context)