Jacob Becomes Israel
about 1929 BC to 1909 BC, traditional dateTraditional date
Jacob, fleeing his brother Esau, receives the promise of Abraham in a dream at Bethel. Twenty years later he wrestles through the night at the Jabbok and is given the name Israel, which his descendants will bear.
Jacob and Esau were the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Before their birth Rebekah was told that “the elder will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:21–26). Esau, the firstborn, sold Jacob his birthright for a meal (Genesis 25:29–34), and Jacob, with his mother’s help, obtained by deceit the blessing that Isaac meant for Esau (Genesis 27:5–29). Esau planned to kill him, and Jacob was sent away to his uncle Laban in Haran (Genesis 27:41–45).
On the road, Genesis says, he slept in the open with a stone under his head. He dreamed of a stairway set between earth and heaven, with the angels of God going up and down on it. The Lord stood above it and gave him the promise made to Abraham and Isaac: the land, descendants like the dust of the earth, and blessing for all the families of the earth (Genesis 28:10–15). Jacob set up the stone as a pillar, named the place Bethel, “God’s house”, and vowed that if God brought him home in peace the Lord would be his God (Genesis 28:16–22).
He served Laban for twenty years, married Leah and Rachel, and became the father of eleven sons and a daughter (Genesis 29:15–30) (Genesis 29:31–30:24) (Genesis 31:38–41). On his way home he heard that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. He sent gifts ahead and sent his family across the ford of the Jabbok (Genesis 32:3–23). Left alone, he “wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day”. The man struck Jacob’s hip and injured it, but Jacob would not let him go without a blessing. The man said: “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:24–28). Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). He went on limping, and Esau ran to meet him and embraced him (Genesis 32:31–33:4).
Back in Canaan, Jacob returned to Bethel and built an altar. There, Genesis says, God appeared to him again, confirmed the name Israel and repeated the promise of the land (Genesis 35:6–15). Benjamin, his twelfth son, was born soon afterwards (Genesis 35:16–18). The twelve sons are the ancestors from whom the tribes of Israel take their names (Genesis 49:28).
Hosea recalls that Jacob “struggled with the angel, and prevailed” and met God at Bethel (Hosea 12:3–4). In John’s Gospel Jesus takes up the dream and speaks of “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51).
How this is dated
Traditional date. From later tradition or from internal biblical chronology, with no outside anchor.
Genesis gives Jacob’s age at neither scene, but it can be worked out from figures elsewhere in the book. Jacob was 130 when he came to Egypt, in the second year of the famine (Genesis 47:9) (Genesis 45:6). Joseph was then about 39: he had entered Pharaoh’s service at 30, and seven years of plenty had followed (Genesis 41:46–47) (Genesis 41:53–54). So Jacob was about 91 when Joseph was born, at the end of his first fourteen years with Laban (Genesis 30:25–26) (Genesis 31:41). That makes him about 77 at Bethel on the way out and about 97 at Peniel on the way back, twenty years later (Genesis 31:38).
On the chronology explained at the Call of Abraham, in which Jacob is born about 2006 BC, the dream at Bethel falls about 1929 BC and the night at Peniel about 1909 BC. These are the Bible’s own figures added together. Nothing outside the Bible dates the events, and the other reckonings described there would move both dates by the same amount.
Primary sources
Scripture
- Genesis 25:21–26
- Genesis 25:29–34
- Genesis 27:5–29
- Genesis 27:41–45
- Genesis 28:10–15
- Genesis 28:16–22
- Genesis 29:15–30
- Genesis 29:31–30:24
- Genesis 31:38–41
- Genesis 32:3–23
- Genesis 32:24–28
- Genesis 32:30
- Genesis 32:31–33:4
- Genesis 35:6–15
- Genesis 35:16–18
- Genesis 49:28
- Hosea 12:3–4
- John 1:51
- Genesis 47:9
- Genesis 45:6
- Genesis 41:46–47
- Genesis 41:53–54
- Genesis 30:25–26
- Genesis 31:41
- Genesis 31:38
In context
Grows out of
- about 2050 BC, traditional date
Leads to
- about 1898 BC to 1876 BC, traditional date