Jacob

Birth and the Birthright

Isaac prayed for his barren wife, and Rebekah conceived twins (Gen 25:21-24). The first was Esau; “After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob” (Gen 25:26). “The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents” (Gen 25:27). “Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob” (Gen 25:28). Esau traded his birthright for Jacob’s bread and lentil stew (Gen 25:29-34). For these things, see Isaac, Lesson 2.

When Isaac was old, he meant to bless Esau. Jacob did as his mother arranged and went in to his father, saying, “I am Esau your firstborn” (Gen 27:19), and received his father’s blessing. “Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him” (Gen 27:41). His mother told Jacob, “Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran” (Gen 27:43). “Isaac sent Jacob away” (Gen 28:5). For these things, see Isaac, Lesson 5.

Bethel

“Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran” (Gen 28:10). When night fell he slept with a stone under his head, “He dreamed and saw a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (Gen 28:12). The LORD said to him: “Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you” (Gen 28:15). “Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I didn’t know it’” (Gen 28:16). He set up the stone as a pillar and named the place Bethel (Gen 28:18-19), and he vowed: “If God will be with me … and the LORD will be my God” (Gen 28:20-21).

Twenty Years with Laban

In Haran, at the well, Jacob met Rachel, the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and “Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept” (Gen 29:11). “Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her” (Gen 29:20). “In the morning, behold, it was Leah!” and he said to Laban, “Why then have you deceived me?” (Gen 29:25). Laban said: “It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn” (Gen 29:26). Jacob married Rachel and served seven more years (Gen 29:30).

“The LORD saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (Gen 29:31). Leah, Rachel and the two servants bore Jacob many children (Gen 29:32–30:24). Later, “God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb” (Gen 30:22), and she bore Joseph (Gen 30:23-24).

“The LORD said to Jacob, ‘Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you’” (Gen 31:3). Jacob set out with his wives, children and flocks; “he didn’t tell him that he was running away” (Gen 31:20). Laban caught up with him, and Jacob said, “These twenty years I have been in your house” (Gen 31:41), and “God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands” (Gen 31:42). The two made a covenant, and Laban said: “The LORD watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another” (Gen 31:49). “Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place” (Gen 31:55).

Wrestling and Meeting

Jacob heard that Esau was coming, “and four hundred men are with him” (Gen 32:6), and “Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed” (Gen 32:7). He prayed: “I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant” (Gen 32:10), and “Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau” (Gen 32:11).

That night at the ford of the Jabbok, “Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day” (Gen 32:24). Jacob said, “I won’t let you go unless you bless me” (Gen 32:26). The man said: “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel” (Gen 32:28). “Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved’” (Gen 32:30). “The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh” (Gen 32:31).

The next day, Jacob “bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother” (Gen 33:3). “Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept” (Gen 33:4). Jacob said: “I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me” (Gen 33:10). Esau went back to Seir, and Jacob went to Succoth (Gen 33:16-17).

Shechem, Bethel, and the Deaths of Rachel and Isaac

Jacob settled near Shechem (Gen 33:18). There his daughter Dinah was humbled by Shechem, the prince of the land (Gen 34:2); her brothers Simeon and Levi “came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males” (Gen 34:25).

“God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God’” (Gen 35:1). There God appeared to him again and said: “Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel” (Gen 35:10). They traveled on from Bethel, and “Rachel travailed. She had hard labor” (Gen 35:16); after she bore Benjamin she died, and “was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem)” (Gen 35:19). Jacob came back to his father Isaac; Isaac died, and “Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him” (Gen 35:29).

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children” (Gen 37:3). Joseph was sold by his brothers, and Jacob thought a wild animal had killed him; “he refused to be comforted. He said, ‘For I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning’” (Gen 37:35). For this, see Joseph, Lesson 1.

Down to Egypt and the Last Blessing

There was famine in Canaan, and Jacob sent his sons down to Egypt to buy grain (Gen 42:1-2). Later his sons came back and said Joseph was still alive, and “His heart fainted, for he didn’t believe them” (Gen 45:26); when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent for him, “the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived” (Gen 45:27). For these things, see Joseph, Lessons 5–7.

He set out and came to Beersheba, and “God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, ‘Jacob, Jacob!’ He said, ‘Here I am’” (Gen 46:2). God said: “Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt” (Gen 46:3), “I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again” (Gen 46:4). “All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy” (Gen 46:27). Joseph came to meet him, “and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while” (Gen 46:29). “Israel said to Joseph, ‘Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive’” (Gen 46:30). He told Pharaoh: “The days of the years of my life have been few and evil” (Gen 47:9).

“Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred forty-seven years” (Gen 47:28). When he fell sick, he blessed Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, saying: “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day” (Gen 48:15). He said to Joseph: “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you” (Gen 48:21). He called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come” (Gen 49:1). “When Jacob finished charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, breathed his last breath, and was gathered to his people” (Gen 49:33). His sons “carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah” (Gen 50:13).

In the New Testament

Matthew’s Gospel records the genealogy of Jesus Christ: “Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers” (Matt 1:2).

Jesus said: “many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 8:11). He also quoted God’s words: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Matt 22:32).

John’s Gospel records that Jesus came to Sychar in Samaria, “near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there” (John 4:5-6). The woman there spoke to Jesus of “our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself” (John 4:12).

Stephen said: “Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his relatives, seventy-five souls” (Acts 7:14); “Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, himself and our fathers” (Acts 7:15).

Paul wrote: “Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac” (Rom 9:10); “it was said to her, ‘The elder will serve the younger’” (Rom 9:12).

Hebrews says that Abraham “lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise” (Heb 11:9); “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come” (Heb 11:20); “By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff” (Heb 11:21).