50 Fun Facts About Jacob

What did a famished Esau accept from his twin Jacob as the price of his birthright?

Lentil stew, red in color, bought Jacob the firstborn's rights; afterward Esau simply ate, drank, got up and went on his way.

What did the fugitive Jacob see stretching from earth to heaven in a dream while sleeping outdoors?

A ladder, or stairway, with angels going up and down it; from above, God promised Jacob the very ground he was lying on.

What new name was Jacob given by the mysterious stranger he wrestled on his way home?

Israel was the name the stranger gave him, explained on the spot as fitting a man who had contended with God and with men and prevailed.

What did Rebekah put on Jacob's hands and neck so that he would feel like Esau to the touch?

Goatskins did double duty: the two young animals they came from were also cooked into the savory dish Jacob carried in to his father.

Which part of his twin Esau was the newborn Jacob gripping as he followed him into the world?

Heel is the word the story ties to Jacob's name, which echoes the Hebrew for it; Esau later quips that the name suits a man who twice supplanted him.

How many years did Jacob first agree to work for Laban in exchange for marrying Rachel?

Seven years, which felt to Jacob like only a few days because he loved her; Laban's wedding trick then doubled the bill.

What gift from Jacob marked Joseph out as the favorite and made his older brothers hate him?

A colorful coat is the traditional wording; some modern Bibles translate the same rare Hebrew phrase as a long robe with sleeves.

Which part of Jacob's body was knocked out of joint during his wrestling match with a stranger?

His hip left Jacob limping, and it is why Jewish law still forbids eating an animal's sciatic nerve.

How did Esau greet Jacob when the estranged twins finally met again after twenty years apart?

With an embrace: Esau ran to meet the brother who had cheated him, fell on his neck and wept, and at first refused the gifts Jacob pressed on him.

How many sons did Jacob have, each one remembered as the ancestor of a tribe?

Twelve sons, plus a daughter; all but the last were born while Jacob worked for Laban, and the last arrived on the road home.

What did Jacob use as a pillow on the night of his famous dream while fleeing from Esau?

A stone served as his pillow, and in the morning Jacob stood it upright as a pillar and poured oil over it to mark the spot.

Which weakness of the elderly Isaac allowed Jacob to pass himself off as Esau and take the blessing?

Poor eyesight left Isaac relying on touch and smell, so he felt his son's hands and sniffed his borrowed clothes before blessing him.

What did God tell the pregnant Rebekah was in her womb when she asked about her struggling twins?

Two nations, she was told, with the older destined to serve the younger, which turned the usual rights of a firstborn son upside down.

Which pursuit made Esau his father's favorite, while Jacob stayed quietly among the tents?

Hunting put fresh game on Isaac's table, and that taste is the one reason given for his preferring Esau; Rebekah preferred Jacob.

By local custom, Laban told Jacob after the wedding-night swap, who had to be married off first?

The elder daughter was Leah, so Jacob woke up married to her and had to promise more years of work before marrying Rachel a week later.

Which son of Jacob was born on the road to Ephrath as his mother Rachel lay dying?

Benjamin was the name Jacob chose; with her last breath Rachel had called the boy Ben-oni, usually read as son of my sorrow.

From which son of Jacob and Leah was the royal line of King David descended?

Judah also gave his name to a kingdom, to the region of Judea and, in time, to the word Jew.

Which crisis led Jacob to send ten of his sons down to Egypt, keeping only the youngest home?

A famine had gripped the whole region, and Jacob had heard there was grain for sale in Egypt, where Joseph, unknown to him, ran the storehouses.

Which patriarch, whose family burial cave later held Jacob too, was the father of Isaac?

Abraham bought that cave as a tomb for his wife Sarah, and in time it held three generations of the family.

Which book of the Bible follows Jacob from his birth to his burial and ends with Joseph's death?

Genesis has 50 chapters, and Jacob's life spans the back half: he is born in chapter 25 and buried in chapter 50.

Which son, the oldest of all Jacob's children, was the first child that Leah bore him?

Reuben got his name from Leah's hope that a son would win her husband's love; he later lost the firstborn's honors for sleeping with his father's concubine.

Which daughter of Jacob and Leah was at the center of her brothers' bloody attack on Shechem?

Dinah is the only daughter of Jacob the text names, and after the massacre he feared her brothers had made the family hated by all its neighbors.

Counting wives and maidservants together, how many different mothers bore children to Jacob?

Four mothers shared the family: Leah bore six sons and a daughter, Rachel two sons, and each wife's maid two more sons.

What did Joseph order Egyptian physicians to do with Jacob's body before the long journey to Canaan?

Embalm it they did, a process that took forty days, and all Egypt went into mourning for the father of its governor.

What did Rachel steal from her father Laban as Jacob's family slipped away from his house?

Household idols, called teraphim, vanished while Laban was away shearing; Jacob knew nothing and swore that whoever had them would not live.

Whom does Jesus ask for a drink of water at Jacob's Well in the Gospel of John?

A Samaritan woman, who asks him in turn whether he is greater than Jacob, the ancestor who gave her people the well and drank from it himself.

Near which town, later known as King David's birthplace, did Jacob bury Rachel beside the road?

Bethlehem, then called Ephrath, is where Jacob raised a pillar over her grave; a shrine revered as her tomb stands at the town's northern entrance.

Before becoming his father-in-law twice over, how was Laban already related to Jacob?

His uncle: Laban was Rebekah's brother, which made Jacob's brides Leah and Rachel his first cousins as well.

What did Isaac say still belonged to Jacob, even though the hands he was feeling seemed Esau's?

His voice nearly gave Jacob away, yet the hairy hands won the argument and Isaac went ahead with the blessing.

What did Jacob conclude had become of Joseph when his other sons brought home false evidence?

A wild beast ate him, Jacob decided, and he refused all comfort, saying he would go down to the grave still mourning his son.

By what name, meaning red, did Esau and the people descended from him come to be known?

Edom recalls both the red dish Esau begged from Jacob and the red color he was born with.

To which city, home of his mother's family, did Jacob flee after Esau vowed to kill him?

Haran was Rebekah's idea: she told Jacob to stay there a few days until Esau's fury passed, and he was gone for twenty years.

What name did Jacob give the place once called Luz where he had his famous dream?

Bethel means house of God, and it stayed a landmark in Jacob's life: years later God sent him back there to build an altar.

Which maid did the childless Rachel give to Jacob, later claiming the maid's two sons as her own?

Bilhah's boys were both named by Rachel, who called them Dan and Naphtali and said of the second that she had wrestled with her sister and won.

Which maid of Leah became the mother of Jacob's sons Gad and Asher?

Zilpah had come to Leah as a wedding gift from Laban, and Leah handed her to Jacob once she thought her own childbearing was over.

Which two sons of Jacob put the men of Shechem to the sword to avenge their sister?

Simeon and Levi heard about it again at Jacob's deathbed, where he cursed their anger and said their descendants would be scattered.

Which animals from Laban's flocks did Jacob ask to keep as his only wages for tending them?

Spotted ones were promptly removed by Laban, who sent every marked animal three days' journey away and left Jacob to start with none.

In which region of Egypt, good land for grazing, did Pharaoh let Jacob's family settle?

Goshen kept the family apart, which suited everyone: Joseph coached his brothers to say they were herdsmen, a trade the Egyptians despised.

Why did the stranger wrestling with Jacob ask to be let go after hours of struggle?

Day was breaking, but Jacob refused to loosen his grip until the stranger blessed him, and he got his blessing.

Which of Joseph's sons, though not the firstborn, did Jacob bless with his right hand?

Ephraim got the greater blessing because Jacob deliberately crossed his arms; when Joseph tried to move his father's hand, Jacob said he knew what he was doing.

Across which river did Jacob send his family just before his night of wrestling with a stranger?

The Jabbok, known now as Jordan's Zarqa River, is where Jacob sent everyone and everything he had across by night, then stayed behind alone.

What did Jacob name the site of his wrestling match, saying he had seen God face to face?

Peniel means face of God, and Jacob chose the name in amazement that he had come so close and was still alive.

In which cave, bought as a family tomb from Ephron the Hittite, did Jacob's sons bury him?

Machpelah was Jacob's dying request: he wanted to lie beside Leah, whom he had buried there, and the site in Hebron is revered today as the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Which plants, found in a field by Leah's eldest boy, did Rachel trade a night with Jacob to get?

Mandrakes were thought to cure infertility, which is why the childless Rachel wanted them; Leah took her side of the deal and conceived a fifth son herself.

At which town in the far south of Canaan did Jacob stop to offer sacrifices on his way to Egypt?

Beersheba is where God spoke to him in a night vision, telling him not to fear the move and promising that Joseph's own hand would close his eyes.

What did Jacob set in the watering troughs where Laban's flocks mated, hoping to shape their young?

Peeled branches of poplar, almond and plane were his trick, and he set them out only when the stronger animals came to drink, so the sturdiest lambs ended up his.

On his deathbed, Jacob compared the son whose tribe would hold the royal scepter to which animal?

A lion is the image Jacob chose, a cub crouching over its prey; in the same speech other sons became a donkey, a serpent, a doe and a wolf.

By which Arabic name does the Quran, which honors Jacob as a prophet, refer to him?

Yaqub is named sixteen times in the Quran, most memorably as the grieving father in the chapter that tells Joseph's story.

What sight finally convinced Jacob that Joseph was alive, after he had refused to believe his sons?

A train of wagons did what words could not: Jacob's heart had gone numb at the news, but on seeing them his spirit revived and he resolved to go.

Which English name, borne by two of Jesus's apostles, is a later form of the Hebrew name Jacob?

James grew out of Jacobus, the Latin form of Jacob, through a later spelling with an m; Spain's Jaime and Italy's Giacomo come from that same altered form.