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Jacob
Biblical character

The son of Isaac, he is the patriarch of the nation Israel. He supplanted his elder brother Esau, obtaining his father's special blessing and thus being seen as the inheritor of God's promises. He was re-named 'Israel' (perhaps meaning 'God strives' or 'he who strives with God') after his struggle with a divine being. By his wives Leah and Rachel and their maids he fathered 12 sons, to whom Jewish the 12 tribes of Israel are traced by tradition.