12 sons…Issachar…Zebulun…

 12 sons…Issachar….Zebulun…

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

Genesis 35:22b-26

And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. 

And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.

Genesis 30:17-20 

Jacob’s blessings at the end of his life… to Zebulun and Issachar…

“Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon.

“Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds. He saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor.

Genesis 49:13-15

Issachar (hired)

“God hath given me," said Leah, "my hire (Heb. sekhari)...and she called his name Issachar." He was Jacob's ninth son, and was born in Padan-aram (comp 28:2 ). He had four sons at the going down into Egypt ( 46:13 ; Numbers 26:23 Numbers 26:25 ).

Issachar, Tribe of, during the journey through the wilderness, along with Judah and Zebulun ( Numbers 2:5 ), marched on the east of the tabernacle. This tribe contained 54,400 fighting men when the census was taken at Sinai. After the entrance into the Promised Land, this tribe was one of the six which stood on Gerizim during the ceremony of the blessing and cursing ( Deuteronomy 27:12 ). The allotment of Issachar is described in Joshua 19:17-23 . It included the plain of Esdraelon (=Jezreel), which was and still is the richest portion of Palestine ( Deuteronomy 33:18 Deuteronomy 33:19 ; 1 Chronicles 12:40 ).

The prophetic blessing pronounced by Jacob on Issachar corresponds with that of Moses ( Genesis 49:14 Genesis 49:15 ; 

18 About Zebulun he said: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and you, Issachar, in your tents. Deuteronomy 33:18

“Zebulun (a habitation ), 

the tenth of the sons of Jacob, according to the order in which their births are enumerated, the sixth and last of Leah.His birth is mentioned in ( Genesis 30:19 Genesis 30:20 ) Of the individual Zebulun nothing is recorded. The list of Genesis 46 ascribes to him three sons, founders of the chief families of the tribe (comp.) ( Numbers 26:26 ) at the time of the migration to Egypt. The tribe is not recorded to have taken part, for evil or good, in any of the events of the wandering or the conquest. The statement of Josephus is probably in the main correct, that it reached on the one side to the Lake of Gennesareth and on the other to Carmel and the Mediterranean. On the south it was bounded by Issachar, who lay in the great plain or valley of the Kishon; on the north it had Naphtali and Asher. Thus remote from the centre of government, Zebulun remains throughout the history with one exception, in the obscurity which envelops the whole of the northern tribes. That exception, however, is a remarkable one. The conduct of the tribe during the struggle with Sisera, when they fought with desperate valor side by side with their brethren of Naphtali, was such as to draw down the special praise of Deborah, who singles them out from all the other tribes. 

18 The people of Zebulun risked their very lives; so did Naphtali on the terraced fields.( Judges 5:18 ) 

Bible Study Tools…

I thought it interesting that Jacob’s blessing for Zebulun was having to do with the sea, but for all the maps I could find, the tribe appears to be landlocked…but later Josephus talks of them reaching from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean…

When we went to Israel three years ago, we crisscrossed where Issachar’s allotment was and the agricultural production was plentiful…just as Jacob blessed…

 

Drive through History, YouTube, jezreel Valley…interesting…



Take away…for me…Leah was unloved but her part in the history of Israel is secure…with her sons from Reuben to Zebulun…she started with pain, she praised through Judah…thanked with an “endowment “ with Zebulun….

It made me think of various Psalms written by David…he started in pain and ended with praise…God changed the direction of his thinking…as He does with ours…leading us to thankfulness and praise of who He is…thank YOU….