The twelve tribes of Israel

The Tribe of Naphtali

Son of Jacob by Bilhah (Rachel's maid) · Name means My wrestling (Rachel said, with great wrestlings have I wrestled) · Settled in the north around the hills west of the Sea of Galilee

Naphtali was a son of Jacob by Bilhah, and his tribe settled in the beautiful hill country of the north, around Galilee. Jacob called Naphtali a hind let loose that gives goodly words, an image of freedom and grace. Centuries later the prophet Isaiah foretold, and the Gospels record, that the land of Naphtali would be the first to see the great light of the Messiah, for it was in Galilee that Jesus began to preach.

Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.Genesis 49:21 (KJV)

Naphtali the man

Naphtali was the sixth son of Jacob, the second born to Bilhah, Rachel's maid. When he was born Rachel cried, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed, and she named him Naphtali, from a word meaning wrestling. The name was born out of the long, sorrowful rivalry between Rachel and Leah for their husband's love and for children.

Scripture tells few personal stories of Naphtali himself, but the tribe that bore his name became known for courage. In the days of the judges, when Deborah and Barak rose against the oppressor Sisera, it was Naphtali, with Zebulun, who jeopardized their lives unto the death in the high places of the field, and the song of victory praised them for it. Naphtali was a tribe that answered the call to fight for Israel when others held back.

Jacob's blessing: a hind let loose

Jacob's blessing over Naphtali is short and lovely: Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. A hind is a swift and graceful deer, and let loose it runs free over the hills. It is an image of liberty, speed, and beauty, and of a tribe that would live in a land of open highlands. The goodly words, the beautiful sayings, suggest eloquence, a people who would speak well and bear good news.

It is one of the gentler blessings among the twelve, with no rebuke in it, only freedom and grace. And when we see where the land of Naphtali lay, and what would one day happen there, the promise of goodly words takes on a meaning Jacob could never have known.

The tribe and its land in Galilee

Naphtali received a fair inheritance in the north, a stretch of hill country and lakeshore west and north of the Sea of Galilee, fertile and well watered. Moses blessed the tribe as satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the LORD. Its towns bordered the region that would later be called Galilee of the Gentiles, a crossroads where many peoples passed.

Naphtali was quick to answer when God called. Beside the war against Sisera, ten thousand men of Naphtali followed Barak down Mount Tabor, and later the tribe sent its warriors to make David king at Hebron. Its courage was matched by its beauty, for the highlands and the shores of Galilee were among the loveliest lands in all Israel, a fitting home for the swift and graceful hind of Jacob's blessing.

That location made Naphtali one of the first to fall when the Assyrians invaded from the north, and its people were among the earliest of the ten tribes carried into exile. To later generations the region seemed a place of darkness and defeat, sitting in the shadow of the great empires. But it was precisely there that the greatest light would dawn.

Naphtali in God's plan: the land that saw the great light

The prophet Isaiah looked at that very region, humbled and darkened by invasion, and spoke a promise: the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali would be made glorious, for the people that walked in darkness would see a great light. It was a word of hope over the very tribes the world had written off.

The Gospel of Matthew tells us the promise came true in Jesus. When he began his ministry, he left Nazareth and came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim, that it might be fulfilled. There, in the land of Naphtali, the people which sat in darkness saw great light. The tribe of the hind let loose, the tribe of goodly words, became the very ground where the eternal Word walked and taught and healed.

It was along the shores of Naphtali's inheritance that Jesus called his first disciples, fed the multitudes, stilled the storm, and spoke the Sermon on the Mount. The good news was first heard, in fullness, in the land of Naphtali, and from that darkened and despised corner of Israel it went out to the whole earth. God delights to bring his brightest light to the places the world has counted lost, and Naphtali is the standing proof of it.

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.

Related: The Tribe of Zebulun · The Tribe of Dan · Who is Jesus? · All twelve tribes