My name means "heel-grabber", and I suppose for most of my life I lived up to it (or down to it, if you talk to some people) my name. I was the younger of a set of twins born to my father Isaac and my mother Rebekah. Even though I was the younger one, I always figured out ways to connive my older brother Esau out of what was rightfully his.

Once when my brother was starving for a meal, I convinced him to trade his birthright for tasty stew. He didn’t really mind that one. Years later when my father was very old and nearly blind, I pretended to be Esau by altering my voice, putting on my brother’s clothes, and tying hair skins on my arms (my brother is a hairy guy).I tricked Dad into giving me the special blessing he had intended for Esau. That time my brother did mind, and I had to run away to keep him from killing me.

For twenty years I lived with my uncle Laban in Haran. It was in Haran that I met my match for trickery. I wanted to marry his younger daughter Rachel, but he tricked me into first marrying his older daughter Leah before I could marry Rachel. I didn’t like it, but I accepted it. I also paid for it; Rachel and Leah developed a fierce rivalry and started competing for my attention. It went so far that they each gave me one of their female servants as a concubine, and between the four women I had twelve sons. Those twelve sons—Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin—each had families of their own who eventually became the twelve tribes of Israel. Not an ideal family, maybe, but God used us anyway. He’s good at that.

Sincerely,

            Jacob

Commented by Jocelyndixon

This is a really good post! I knew everything already, but thought about what you said the other day...

With much love, from one Hobbit to another,
Myrtle