Jacob

Also known as: Israel / Jesurun · Family: Israel · Role: patriarch · First appears: Isaiah 27

Jacob, also known as Israel and Jesurun, is the patriarch of Israel. In Isaiah 11–19, Israel’s dispersed people are gathered, defeats come over the Philistines, Edom, and Moab, and Israel becomes a blessing alongside Egypt and Assyria. In Isaiah 27, God causes Jacob’s descendants to take root and flourish, while Jacob’s iniquity is purged as idolatrous altars and images are removed. God identifies him as a chosen servant and Abraham’s seed: “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.” God forms and helps Jacob, promises to strengthen and uphold him, and declares that those who oppose him will perish.

Through Isaiah 43–52, God claims, redeems, and gathers Jacob and Israel, promising to blot out their sins, make a way through the wilderness, pour blessing on their offspring, and bring salvation near in Zion. Jacob is commanded to leave Babylon and is led through the desert with water from a rock; Israel’s service is also extended toward restoring Jacob and bringing light to the Gentiles. In Isaiah 63, God is described as having redeemed and carried Israel, yet Israel rebels, and God becomes its enemy. In Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Hosea, Israel and Jacob face punishment for iniquity, idolatry, injustice, and rejection of knowledge: God casts down Israel’s beauty, swallows Jacob’s habitations, gathers Israel among the nations, and promises to settle its people again in the land given to Jacob.

In Hosea 12, Jacob is punished according to his ways, but his earlier struggle with God is remembered: “He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God.” Israel continues through judgment—its kings, altars, images, and foreign dependence are removed—yet God calls Israel to return, promises to heal its backsliding, and restores its growth. Amos describes further punishment for Israel’s oppression and disobedience, while Joel records God gathering the nations to judge them for scattering Israel and dividing its land.

By Obadiah, Esau stands as Jacob’s brother and enemy because of violence against him, while Jacob’s house receives deliverance and possesses its possessions on Mount Zion. Micah describes Israel’s deliverance from Assyrian, the triumph of Jacob’s remnant over its enemies, and the removal of horses, chariots, strongholds, witchcrafts, and images. Jacob’s covenant with God remains tied to Abraham’s mercy: “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”