Lessons from the life of jacob
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A Summary of Jacob’s Life
Jacob, the child of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, was born as a twin with his brother Esau. As an unborn infant, he wrestled in the womb with his brother, and it was conflict with his brother that would define the course of his life.
Jacob was a ‘plain man’ who preferred quite living in tents rather than the adventures of outdoor living as a nomad. This made him the favorite of his mother, Rebekah. Jacob seems to have been one who believed in using strategy and cunning rather than force. Recognizing that his brother Esau was the firstborn, with special blessings, he waited until a day when his brother was famished, then offered him a meal of red pottage in exchange for the firstborn’s birthright, which Esau accepted. Later, Jacob took the advice of his mother to ‘dress up’ as his brother Esau and steal his brother’s firstborn blessing from his aged and nearly blind father. This drew the hatred of his brother, and Jacob was sent back by his parents to the family homeland of Padan-Aram in order to this murderous rage.
Jacob headed back to the ance
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Jacob, Patriarch
Jacob (Heb. ya'ăqōb, meaning uncertain), also known as Israel, son of Isaac and twin of Esau. By popular etymology his name was associated with the Hebrew word 'āqēb, "heel" (Gn 25.26) and the denominative verb 'āqab, "to trip someone by seizing his heel, to supplant" (Gn 27.36 and Hos 12.4). Either the sacred writer did not know the true derivation and meaning of the name, or he deliberately set it aside to highlight the fact that, because of divine election, Jacob, and through him, the Israelites, were destined to supplant Esau, and his progeny, the Edomites. It is probable that the name Jacob was originally an abbreviated form of a theophoric name such as ya'ăqōb-’el (M. Noth, Personennamen 179, 197, associates it with the South-Arabic root 'qb and suggests the meaning "God protects").
Ostensibly the biblical narratives concerning Jacob appear as straightforward records of the personal exploits of Israel's progenitor. Yet closer scrutiny reveals that these narratives are, in reality, quite complex.
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Jacob
Abrahamic forefather of the Israelites
This article is about the patriarch. For the name, see Jacob (name). For other uses, see Jacob (disambiguation).
Jacob,[a] later given the name Israel,[b] is a patriarch regarded as the forefather of the Israelites, according to Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jacob first appears in the Book of Genesis, originating from the Hebrew tradition in the Torah. Described as the son of Isaac and Rebecca, and the grandson of Abraham, Sarah, and Bethuel, Jacob is presented as the second-born among Isaac's children. His fraternal twin brother is the elder, named Esau, according to the biblical account. Jacob is said to have bought Esau's birthright and, with his mother's help, deceived his aging father to bless him instead of Esau.[1] Later in the narrative, following a severe drought in his homeland of Canaan, Jacob and his descendants, with the help of his son Joseph (who had become a confidant of the pharaoh), moved to Egypt where Jacob died at the age of 147. He is supposed to
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