The twelve tribes of Israel

The Twelve Tribes of Israel

Jacob, whom God renamed Israel, had twelve sons, and from them came the twelve tribes of Israel, the people God chose to carry his promise into the world. Each son received a prophetic blessing from his dying father in Genesis 49, and each tribe took its own place, its own land, and its own part in the story of Scripture. Above them all stands the tribe of Judah, for from Judah, in the fullness of time, came the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

The sons of Jacob and their tribes

A note on counting the twelve: Jacob had twelve sons, but the tribes are reckoned in more than one way in Scripture. The tribe of Levi was set apart for the priesthood and received no territory of its own, and Joseph, given the double portion of the firstborn, was counted as two tribes through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. So when the land was divided the tribes still numbered twelve, with Levi outside the count. Different lists in the Bible reflect this: the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy leaves out Simeon, and the sealed tribes in Revelation 7 omit Dan and Ephraim while naming Levi, Joseph, and Manasseh. The number twelve is preserved as a sign of the whole people of God.