The end of Genesis also concludes the patriarchal period, ending with Jacob’s death. This chapter focuses on his character and the legacy he leaves Israel.
“Few and Evil Have Been the Days of the Years of My Life”
Jacob’s life was tragic. Trouble followed trouble, without a moment of peace or rest. Threatened both within and outside his household, his position was always insecure. In youth he fled Esau, then Laban. On returning home his life was endangered before his reunion with Esau. His beloved wife died on the road to Ephrath. Soon afterward his daughter Dinah was raped. His sons disobeyed him, killing Shechem’s men against his judgment and endangering the whole family. Reuben then grievously wronged him in the Bilhah episode. Next came Joseph’s sale, Benjamin’s descent to Egypt, and all the accompanying anguish. Many deceived him: Laban, Leah who cooperated with her father on the intended wedding night of Jacob and Rachel, and later even his own sons in Joseph’s sale. All these troubles might be understood as measure-for-measure punishment for Jacob’s error in using deceit to obtain primacy.
Jacob and Israel
Jacob’s name changes to Israel. Other Torah figures are renamed: Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Hoshea to Joshua. Thereafter their former names cease to be used. Jacob, unlike them, continues to bear his first name even after receiving “Israel.”
The Babylonian Talmud states:
Bar Kappara taught: whoever calls Abraham “Abram” violates a positive command, for Genesis 17:5 says that his name shall be Abraham. Rabbi Eliezer says: he violates a negative command, for it says his name shall no longer be called Abram. (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 13a; translated from the Hebrew)
Abraham thus must no longer be called by his former name. Yet the Torah itself continues calling Jacob both Jacob and Israel, although his new name is explicitly announced twice: by the angel, who connects it to his prevailing in struggle with God and men (Genesis 32:29: “לֹא יַעֲקֹב יֵאָמֵר עוֹד שִׁמְךָ כִּי אִם יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי שָׂרִיתָ…”), and by God Himself (35:10: “שִׁמְךָ יַעֲקֹב לֹא יִקָּרֵא שִׁמְךָ עוֹד יַעֲקֹב כִּי אִם יִשְׂרָאֵל…”). Why?
Biblical names are not merely identifiers. They often describe character, express hope, or mark out a destiny. Lamech, for example, names his son Noah hoping he will comfort humanity:
And he called his name Noah, saying: ‘This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, which cometh from the ground which the LORD hath cursed.’ (Genesis 5:29)
וַיִּקְרָא אֶת שְׁמוֹ נֹחַ לֵאמֹר זֶה יְנַחֲמֵנוּ מִמַּעֲשֵׂנוּ וּמֵעִצְּבוֹן יָדֵינוּ מִן הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר אֵרְרָהּ ה'. (בראשית ה' כט)
If parents’ names for newborn children have such significance, all the more so names God gives in place of original ones. Israel indicates a change of direction demanded of Jacob, a calling bestowed on him. What change should occur?
Jacob’s original name arose from his birth with his twin Esau. Esau emerged first, Jacob grasping his heel as though trying to delay him and emerge ahead. If this could be understood as an innocent newborn gesture, his later conduct was different. As an adult he continued seeking primacy through crookedness and deceit: first trying to buy the birthright for lentil stew, then impersonating Esau to obtain Isaac’s intended blessings.
The Torah derives Jacob’s name from the heel, akev. But the root ע.ק.ב also denotes deception and fraud; akov means crooked or dishonest. Jeremiah 17:9, for example, describes the heart as “עָקֹב,” deceitful. Esau accordingly accuses Jacob:
And he said: ‘Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing.’ And he said: ‘Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?’ (Genesis 27:36)
וַיֹּאמֶר הֲכִי קָרָא שְׁמוֹ יַעֲקֹב וַיַּעְקְבֵנִי זֶה פַעֲמַיִם אֶת בְּכֹרָתִי לָקָח וְהִנֵּה עַתָּה לָקַח בִּרְכָתִי. (בראשית כ"ז לו)
Esau says Jacob’s name suits him because he deceived him twice: taking the birthright for lentil stew and cheating over the blessings. The name thus embodies deceit. Such indirect methods perhaps suited Jacob’s time with Laban, but carried a heavy price. Jeremiah implicitly criticizes Jacob’s way in his complaint about Israel:
Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, And trust ye not in any brother; For every brother acteth subtly, And every neighbour goeth about with slanders. (Jeremiah 9:3)
אִישׁ מֵרֵעֵהוּ הִשָּׁמֵרוּ וְעַל כָּל אָח אַל תִּבְטָחוּ כִּי כָל אָח עָקוֹב יַעְקֹב וְכָל רֵעַ רָכִיל יַהֲלֹךְ. (ירמיהו ט' ג)
Israel, by contrast, symbolizes firm standing and direct, courageous confrontation, as in Jacob’s striving with God and men and prevailing (Genesis 32:29: “כִי שָׂרִיתָ עִם אֱלֹהִים וְעִם אֲנָשִׁים וַתּוּכָל”). Hosea aptly depicts this contrast between Jacob at birth and Israel at his height:
In the womb he took his brother by the heel, And by his strength he strove with a godlike being; (Hosea 12:4)
בַּבֶּטֶן עָקַב אֶת אָחִיו וּבְאוֹנוֹ שָׂרָה אֶת אֱלֹהִים. (הושע י"ב ד)
When the angel tells Jacob he shall be called Israel rather than Jacob, he does not simply decree a change of name. He blesses him, wishing him to abandon guile and deceit for direct, courageous engagement, as in his struggle with the angel, thereby deserving “Israel.” He sets Jacob a calling and a new path: to move from being Jacob to being Israel.
This explains another difference from other Torah renamings. Abram–Abraham, Sarai–Sarah, and Hoshea–Joshua involve only slight changes: adding one of the vowel letters א, ה, ו, י, or exchanging such letters. These express addition and advancement. The new name contains the old, rendering it obsolete. Israel, by contrast, bears no resemblance to Jacob. The great difference reflects opposite meanings. Why, then, precisely in this case does the former name remain?
The calling embodied in Israel was never fully realized in Jacob or his descendants, nor could it be fully realized while Israel was in exile. Only in the ultimate future, when Isaiah describes the crooked becoming straight (40:4: “וְהָיָה הֶעָקֹב לְמִישׁוֹר”), will Jacob become Israel completely. The Hebrew wordplay links Yaakov with the crooked, and Yisrael with the straight. Until then Jacob’s descendants move between these poles according to changing circumstances and continue to bear both names.
As an aside, these two modes suggest two ways Israel relates to other nations. Jacob’s way suits exile under Esau’s successors; Israel’s firmness suits independent life in its own land. What is called “Israeli chutzpah,” characteristic of Jews in the State of Israel, may faithfully reflect the psychological transformation in their stance toward other nations after returning to the land and establishing their national home.
Jacob’s Testament
Approaching death, Jacob conveys two messages to future generations through his blessings of the twelve tribes and Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The first concerns the appropriate relationship between the qualities represented by Jacob and Israel. The second concerns sinful tribes’ place within Israel’s family.
The first message appears in different traits of Jacob and Israel in the blessings of the future tribes. Some are distinctly “Israel-like,” choosing direct and courageous confrontation. Judah, for example, resembles a lion:
Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise; Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father’s sons shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? (Genesis 49:8–9)
...יָדְךָ בְּעֹרֶף אֹיְבֶיךָ יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְךָ בְּנֵי אָבִיךָ. גּוּר אַרְיֵה יְהוּדָה מִטֶּרֶף בְּנִי עָלִיתָ כָּרַע רָבַץ כְּאַרְיֵה וּכְלָבִיא מִי יְקִימֶנּוּ. (בראשית מ"ט ח-ט)
Benjamin resembles a wolf:
Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth; In the morning he devoureth the prey, And at even he divideth the spoil.’ (Genesis 49:27)
בִּנְיָמִין זְאֵב יִטְרָף בַּבֹּקֶר יֹאכַל עַד וְלָעֶרֶב יְחַלֵּק שָׁלָל. (בראשית מ"ט כז)
Others have Jacob-like qualities, and their blessings even contain the root ע.ק.ב. Dan is described:
Dan shall be a serpent in the way, A horned snake in the path, That biteth the horse’s heels, So that his rider falleth backward. (Genesis 49:17)
יְהִי דָן נָחָשׁ עֲלֵי דֶרֶךְ שְׁפִיפֹן עֲלֵי אֹרַח הַנֹּשֵׁךְ עִקְּבֵי סוּס וַיִּפֹּל רֹכְבוֹ אָחוֹר. (בראשית מ"ט יז)
Dan resembles a snake biting a horse’s heel and indirectly causing the enemy rider to fall. This is an indirect form of confrontation.
Gad is described:
Gad, a troop shall troop upon him; But he shall troop upon their heel. (Genesis 49:19)
גָּד גְּדוּד יְגוּדֶנּוּ וְהוּא יָגֻד עָקֵב. (בראשית מ"ט יט)
The verse means that Gad will attack the enemy from behind, at the heel.
Jacob’s message is that until the ultimate future, both Jacob-like and Israel-like traits have a place, depending on time and circumstances. Sometimes stratagems, guile, even deceit are appropriate; at other times direct confrontation is needed.
His second message concerns the place of tribes that sinned. On his deathbed he does not evade an accounting with Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, the sons who wronged him.
Reuben remains called firstborn, but his rashness, impetuous like water in the Bilhah episode, costs him the extra portion originally his:
Reuben, thou art my first-born, My might, and the first-fruits of my strength; The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, have not thou the excellency; Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; Then defiledst thou it–he went up to my couch. (Genesis 49:3–4)
רְאוּבֵן בְּכֹרִי אַתָּה כֹּחִי וְרֵאשִׁית אוֹנִי יֶתֶר שְׂאֵת וְיֶתֶר עָז. פַּחַז כַּמַּיִם אַל תּוֹתַר כִּי עָלִיתָ מִשְׁכְּבֵי אָבִיךָ אָז חִלַּלְתָּ יְצוּעִי עָלָה. (בראשית מ"ט ג-ד)
Simeon and Levi are cursed and dispersed within Israel. After killing Shechem’s men, they had the last word, asking whether their sister should be treated as a harlot (Genesis 34:31). What Jacob refrained from saying then, Israel states plainly in his testament:
Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence their kinship. Let my soul not come into their council; Unto their assembly let my glory not be not united; For in their anger they slew men, And in their self-will they houghed oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, And their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel. (Genesis 49:5–7)
שִׁמְעוֹן וְלֵוִי אַחִים כְּלֵי חָמָס מְכֵרֹתֵיהֶם. בְּסֹדָם אַל תָּבֹא נַפְשִׁי בִּקְהָלָם אַל תֵּחַד כְּבֹדִי כִּי בְאַפָּם הָרְגוּ אִישׁ וּבִרְצֹנָם עִקְּרוּ שׁוֹר. אָרוּר אַפָּם כִּי עָז וְעֶבְרָתָם כִּי קָשָׁתָה אֲחַלְּקֵם בְּיַעֲקֹב וַאֲפִיצֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל. (בראשית מ"ט ה-ז)
Yet here Jacob also introduces another message, a principle Israel must remember henceforth: unlike the earlier practice in Abraham’s family, sinful sons are not rejected. The tragedy of rejected firstborns, Ishmael and Esau, will not recur. Reuben remains Jacob’s firstborn, strength, and first vigor (Genesis 49:3), and therefore is still listed first. Most importantly, despite his sin he remains within the family. The Torah expresses this principle earlier, in its conclusion to the Bilhah episode:
And it came to pass, while Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: (Genesis 35:22)
וַיְהִי בִּשְׁכֹּן יִשְׂרָאֵל בָּאָרֶץ הַהִוא וַיֵּלֶךְ רְאוּבֵן וַיִּשְׁכַּב אֶת בִּלְהָה פִּילֶגֶשׁ אָבִיו וַיִּשְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיִּהְיוּ בְנֵי יַעֲקֹב שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר. (בראשית ל"ה כב)
Immediately after Reuben’s sin, the Torah states that Jacob’s sons were twelve. Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani, in Rabbi Jonathan’s name, inferred that Reuben did not sin – did not actually lie with Bilhah as the plain text suggests – since otherwise how could the Torah still count him with the other sons, keeping their number twelve?
Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani said in Rabbi Jonathan’s name: whoever says Reuben sinned is simply mistaken. The statement that Jacob’s sons were twelve teaches that all were considered equally. (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 55b; translated from the Hebrew)
On my reading the reverse is true. The Torah emphasizes that although Reuben sinned, he remains one of the twelve tribes, still in the family. This accords with the Talmudic saying that Israel, though it sins, remains Israel (Sanhedrin 44a). Some of Jacob’s sons sinned, yet all remain inseparable from Israel. We encounter the principle in symbolic interpretations of commandments. Each of the four species, for example, symbolizes a group within Israel. The willow, with neither taste nor fragrance, represents those with neither Torah nor good deeds. Since the command cannot be fulfilled without it, Israel cannot exist without its sinners. Similarly, the incense cannot dispense with its ill-smelling ingredient, identified in the source here as frankincense.
Manasseh and Ephraim
This principle is fully realized in Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons. If he retains Reuben, Simeon, and Levi despite serious sins, all the more so Manasseh, who has not sinned but is merely found less worthy:
And when Joseph saw that his father was laying his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto his father: ‘Not so, my father, for this is the first-born; put thy right hand upon his head.’ And his father refused, and said: ‘I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; howbeit his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.’ (Genesis 48:17–19)
וַיַּרְא יוֹסֵף כִּי יָשִׁית אָבִיו יַד יְמִינוֹ עַל רֹאשׁ אֶפְרַיִם וַיֵּרַע בְּעֵינָיו וַיִּתְמֹךְ יַד אָבִיו לְהָסִיר אֹתָהּ מֵעַל רֹאשׁ אֶפְרַיִם עַל רֹאשׁ מְנַשֶּׁה. וַיֹּאמֶר יוֹסֵף אֶל אָבִיו לֹא כֵן אָבִי כִּי זֶה הַבְּכֹר שִׂים יְמִינְךָ עַל רֹאשׁוֹ. וַיְמָאֵן אָבִיו וַיֹּאמֶר יָדַעְתִּי בְנִי יָדַעְתִּי גַּם הוּא יִהְיֶה לְּעָם וְגַם הוּא יִגְדָּל וְאוּלָם אָחִיו הַקָּטֹן יִגְדַּל מִמֶּנּוּ וְזַרְעוֹ יִהְיֶה מְלֹא הַגּוֹיִם. (בראשית מ"ח יז-יט)
Seeing his father favor younger Ephraim over firstborn Manasseh, Joseph objects. He vividly remembers what favoritism did when Jacob loved him above his brothers, ultimately leading to his sale. He does not want another generation to repeat it. Perhaps he too recognizes Ephraim’s superiority, but does not wish to unsettle the family by preferring the younger. Israel nevertheless insists that worthy Ephraim precede firstborn Manasseh. Manasseh remains within the family, even standing at Jacob’s right as both are blessed together. But the right hand rests on Ephraim, who deserves it despite being born second:
And he blessed them that day, saying: ‘By thee shall Israel bless, saying: God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’ And he set Ephraim before Manasseh. (Genesis 48:20)
וַיְבָרְכֵם בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמוֹר בְּךָ יְבָרֵךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר יְשִׂמְךָ אֱלֹהִים כְּאֶפְרַיִם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁה וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת אֶפְרַיִם לִפְנֵי מְנַשֶּׁה. (בראשית מ"ח כ)
Jacob’s legacy is complex. The worthy person receives precedence and primacy, not necessarily the firstborn. Yet the one not chosen to lead is not rejected like Ishmael and Esau, but remains in the family. This is Jacob’s great innovation; see the fuller discussion in “Of All That Thou Shalt Give Me I Will Surely Give the Tenth unto Thee.”
Despite similarities with earlier cases of younger brothers’ preference, Joseph’s sons introduce something new in Genesis. Previous rejection of Abraham’s firstborn descendants bred hatred and conflict for generations. Here Manasseh is not expelled despite Ephraim’s greater worth. Unlike rejected Ishmael (Genesis 21:10–13) and estranged Esau (36:6–8), Manasseh can accept Jacob’s judgment that Ephraim will be greater, and remain in Israel. We therefore hear of no quarrels or wars between their tribes.
Jacob’s message has been received.
