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 ancestral town of Haran at the age of 77. On his way, he saw a dream of a ladder that stretched to heaven, and he set up a pillar of remembrance, vowing a vow to God at the location of Bethel in central Palestine. Meeting his extended family for the first time, Jacob fell madly in love with his cousin Rachel, and agreed to work for his uncle Laban for seven years in order to marry her.

After the completion of his seven years of service, Laban made a feast and brought the bride to Jacob. The wedding was consumated in the darkness of the night, but Jacob was shocked to discover, in the morning, that he had been tricked into marrying Rachel’s sister, Leah, who was the firstborn. When he took his complaint to his uncle, Laban relented – he agreed to marry Jacob to Rachel, after the conclusion of Leah’s week-long wedding feast, provided that Jacob would then serve him for another seven years. Jacob immediately agreed.  

During his years of service, Jacob had a number of sons – fuelled in large part by his wives constantly jealously over the other’s fertility. Leah bore him Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah (his only known daughter). Rachel, jealous over her apparent infertility, persuaded Jacob to have children with her servant Bilhah, with whom he had Dan and Naphtali. Leah then gave her handmaid Zilpah to her husband, with whom he had Gad and Asher. Rachel finally gave birth to her first son, Joseph.

After fulfiling his fourteen-year obligation to Laban, Jacob continued to work for his uncle, agreeing that his wages will be all the cattle with odd markings. Using trickery (and perhaps some magical divination?) Jacob managed to make most of the cattle into his own. Eventually, recognizing the growing divide with his uncle, Jacob secretly fled with his family back to Palestine. Laban pursued him with a force of men and overtook him in Mount Gilead. Although the meeting was calm, it was a dangerous moment, since the countryside was essentially ruled by whoever had the largest force of men.

Far more dangerous to Jacob was the possiblity of meeting his estranged brother, Esau. Jacob travelled onward, meeting the ‘angels of God’ at Mahanaim. Soon after, he heard that his brother was approaching him with a sizeable force of 400 men. Jacob prepared to meet his brother with elaborate preparations by the brook Jabbok. That evening he met an unknown man with whom he wrestled most of the night. As daybreak neared, Jacob refused to let go of the man until he was given a blessing. The stranger blessed him by replacing his name ‘Jacob’ with the name ‘Israel,’ announcing that he had ‘striven with God and with man’ and had prevailed. Jacob, astonished, anounced that he had seen God ‘face to face’ and yet his life had been delivered. The next day, Jacob met his brother Esau in peace.

Jacob journeyed to Succoth, then to Shalem, where he built an altar. During this time, Jacob’s family was racked by scandal, as his daughter Dinah was defiled by a pagan, and his sons retaliated by slaughtering the entire village of the perpetrator. Jacob moved on again to Bethel, where he cleansed his family of false gods and built another altar to Jehovah. It was here that Deborah, his mother’s nurse who had apparently joined the family, died. Jacob was blessed by God and set up a pillar of remembrance.

Moving on to Ephrath, Jacob experinced heartbreak when his dearest wife, Rachel, died in child birth. As she died, she named the child Benoni, but Jacob renamed him Benjamin. Again, scandal racked the family – Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah. Finally, at 120 years old, Jacob moved to Hebron, and his father Isaac died.

At some point during these events, Jacob developed an intense fondness for his son Joseph, which made his other sons jealous. Eventually, the other sons sell Joseph as a slave, then report to their father that his favorite son has been devoured by a wild beast.

Years later, a dreadful famine affected the entire Near East, bringing intense suffering. Hearing a rumor grain in Egypt, Jacob sent his ten remaining sons (except Benjamin) to buy grain. They returned with the grain, lacking their brother Simeon, and reporting that they were dreadfully mistreated by the Egyptian leader.

All was fine until the grain ran low. Jacob again sent the nine brothers back to Egypt, but they refused to go unless their brother Benjamin came with them. Jacob was extremelly hesitant to part with his youngest, favorite son, but the others are steadfast: they will not go unless he comes, since the Egyptian leader warned that they he will not sell them grain unless they bring their youngest brother, as a way to guarantee their words which they had previously spoken. Jacob eventually relented.

To his astonishment, the brothers return with far more than their brother Benjamin: they bring a fabulous tale that Joseph is not only alive, but actually the ruler of Egypt, and he is inviting Jacob to move to Egypt! At 130 years, Jacob gathered the entire family, now numbering around 70 individuals, and carted them down to Egypt, where he meets and blesses Pharaoh, and then settles into the fertile land of Goshen.

Sensing his end drawing near, Jacob adjured Joseph to bury him with his fathers in the land of Canaan. He then blessed Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and gave prophesies about the futures of all of his sons. Dying at the ripe age of 147, Jacob was celebrated in the Egyptian style, with a complete embalming, mourning for 70 days, and then his body was transported back to the family burial-ground of the cave of the field of Machpelah, where he was laid to rest.