Introduction
Issachar is a son of Jacob, one of the twelve sons who become the eponymous ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. He is a son of Jacob and Leah, born after the episode in which Leah traded mandrakes found by her son Reuben to Rachel for a night with Jacob.
This article follows the biblical account in Genesis. Where later Jewish, Christian or Islamic tradition adds detail not found in the text itself, the article identifies it as such.
Family
- Father: Jacob
- Mother: Leah
- Siblings: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dinah
Birth and name
Genesis 30:14-18 records Issachar's birth and the reasoning given, in the text's own etiological style, for his name.
Later significance
As one of Jacob's twelve sons, Issachar becomes the ancestral eponym of one of the tribes of Israel in the later biblical narrative, a status the Genesis text itself anticipates but does not fully develop, since the tribal territories and identities are elaborated more fully in later books such as Numbers, Joshua and Judges.