What Does the Bible Say About Israel?

In the biblical narrative, Israel is a person before it’s a people. The great patriarch Jacob, the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, is renamed Israel (“he who wrestles with God”) following his nocturnal contest with the Lord:

The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh 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.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Gen 32:22-28)

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Jacob (Israel) went on to have no less than twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. These twelve sons were the basis for what eventually became the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.

When Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt, he later became a lifeline for them and for many others when the land was struck by famine. At Joseph’s invitation, his father and brothers settled in Egypt together with their wives and children. As the generations passed by, their numbers steadily grew: “But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong; so that the land was filled with them” (Exod 1:7). The Israelites were becoming a great people. As a result, the envious Egyptians began persecuting them in a variety of ways.

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