Twelve Tribes
Previous | Home | Next

Jacob had twelve sons in the book of Genesis. The family tree is as follows:

Jacob's family tree. Jacob was married to Leah and Rachel. He also had children with their slaves Zilpah and Bilhah. Leah's children were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. Zilpah's children were Gad and Asher. Bilhah's children were Dan and Naphtali. Rachel's children were Joseph and Benjamin.

Leah and Rachel were sisters. Jacob worked for their father for seven years to earn the right to marry each sister. Zilpah was Leah's slave and Bilhah was Rachel's slave. Rachel was Jacob's favourite wife, and Joseph was his favourite son.

Each son represents a commandment. The two sons of Rachel represent the two commandments of Jesus:

Love the Lord with all your strength, heart, mind, body and soul.
Love your neighbour as yourself.

The other ten sons represent the Ten Commandments:

Six Commandments are about relationships with other people (do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not covet, do not accuse anyone falsely and honour your parents). These correspond to Leah's sons. The other four are instructions for people's relationships with the Old Testament god (worship only Him, do not idolise, keep the Sabbath Holy and do not blaspheme). These are represented by the other four sons. The fact that they were the sons of slaves indicates that the Old Testament god (Satan) has played a significant role in preventing the Truth from setting people free.

Jesus' commandments are represented by the the sons of Jacob's favourite wife, which relates to the idea that the teachings of Jesus supersede and replace the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Moses.

The outline of the land of the tribes forms a picture of a head.

Map of the 12 tribes of Israel, forming the shape of a head