Tribe of Issachar
Encyclopedia
According to the Hebrew Bible
, the Tribe of Issachar was one of the Tribes of Israel.
Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan
by the Israelite
tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua
allocated the land among the twelve tribes. The territory which it was allocated was immediately south of (the western half of) Manasseh
, and south of Zebulun
and Naphtali
, stretching from the Jordan River in the east, to the coast in the west; this region included the fertile Esdraelon plain.
, the tribe consisted of descendants of Issachar
, the ninth son of Jacob
, and a son of Leah
, from whom it took its name; however some biblical scholars
view this also as postdiction, an eponym
ous metaphor
providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. According to this biblical passage, the name Issachar refers to Leah hiring Jacob's sexual favours
at the cost of some Mandrakes
; this suggests the etymology
is ish-sachar, literally meaning man of hire, though some Jewish sources take it instead to mean reward or recompense, in reference to Issachar being the result of Jacob being hired.
A number of people think that some of the Israelite tribes actually originated as part of the sea peoples
. Issachar may be one of these, since in Egyptian
accounts there is a tribe of sea peoples named Shekelesh; Shekelesh is here believed to be composed from shekel-ish, meaning men of the shekel
, a meaning synonymous with Issachar's man of hire. The biblical passage in which Leah is described as Issachar's matriarch is one which is regarded by some textual scholars
as having been spliced together from its sources
in a manner which has highly corrupted the narrative; Leah as a matriarch is interpreted to suggest that the text's authors believed the tribe to be one of the original Israelite groups, and it is having a handmaiden - Bilhah
or Zilpah
- as a matriarch that would have indicated a foreign origin. In the ancient Song of Deborah, Issachar is closely associated with Naphtali, which itself does have a handmaiden as matriarch, and at one point the text appears to have been changed by the word Issachar being inserted instead of Naphtali
, it is said that Issachar were the most influential in proselytism
, and that Jewish religious scholars were either from the tribe of Levi or that of Issachar. Additionally, the Midrash argues that Issachar's description in the Blessing of Jacob
- Issachar is a strong ass
lying down between the sheepfolds: and he saw that settled life was good, and the land was pleasant; he put his shoulder to the burden, and became a slave under forced labour - is a reference to the religious scholarship of the tribe of Issachar, rather than simply to a more literal interpretation of Issachar's name.
Since the tribe of Zebulun
were traditionally seen as merchants and Issachar as religious teachers, Issachar and Zebulun were considered to have a symbiotic
relationship, whereby Issachar would devote its time to the study and teaching of Torah, while Zebulun would provide the financial support, in exchange for a share of Issachar's spiritual reward . Such was the tradition of this symbiosis, that anyone engaged in such a partnership became termed Issachar and Zebulun respectively, even into modern times.
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
, the Tribe of Issachar was one of the Tribes of Israel.
Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
by the Israelite
Israelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...
tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
allocated the land among the twelve tribes. The territory which it was allocated was immediately south of (the western half of) Manasseh
Tribe of Manasseh
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Manasseh was one of the Tribes of Israel. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Manasseh also formed the House of Joseph....
, and south of Zebulun
Tribe of Zebulun
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Zebulun was one of the Tribes of Israel....
and Naphtali
Tribe of Naphtali
The Tribe of Naphtali was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes...
, stretching from the Jordan River in the east, to the coast in the west; this region included the fertile Esdraelon plain.
Origin
According to the TorahTorah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
, the tribe consisted of descendants of Issachar
Issachar
Issachar/Yissachar was, according to the Book of Genesis, a son of Jacob and Leah , and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Issachar; however some Biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite...
, the ninth son of Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
, and a son of Leah
Leah
Leah , as described in the Hebrew Bible, is the first of the two concurrent wives of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob and mother of six of sons whose descendants became the Twelve Tribes of Israel, along with at least one daughter, Dinah. She is the daughter of Laban and the older sister of Rachel, whom...
, from whom it took its name; however some biblical scholars
Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the scholarly "study and investigation of Biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work...
view this also as postdiction, an eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
ous metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. According to this biblical passage, the name Issachar refers to Leah hiring Jacob's sexual favours
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
at the cost of some Mandrakes
Mandrake (plant)
Mandrake is the common name for members of the plant genus Mandragora, particularly the species Mandragora officinarum, belonging to the nightshades family...
; this suggests the etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
is ish-sachar, literally meaning man of hire, though some Jewish sources take it instead to mean reward or recompense, in reference to Issachar being the result of Jacob being hired.
A number of people think that some of the Israelite tribes actually originated as part of the sea peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
. Issachar may be one of these, since in Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
accounts there is a tribe of sea peoples named Shekelesh; Shekelesh is here believed to be composed from shekel-ish, meaning men of the shekel
Shekel
Shekel , is any of several ancient units of weight or of currency. The first usage is from Mesopotamia around 3000 BC. Initially, it may have referred to a weight of barley...
, a meaning synonymous with Issachar's man of hire. The biblical passage in which Leah is described as Issachar's matriarch is one which is regarded by some textual scholars
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
as having been spliced together from its sources
Documentary hypothesis
The documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
in a manner which has highly corrupted the narrative; Leah as a matriarch is interpreted to suggest that the text's authors believed the tribe to be one of the original Israelite groups, and it is having a handmaiden - Bilhah
Bilhah
In the Book of Genesis, Bilhah is Rachel's handmaid who becomes a wife of Jacob and bears him two sons, Dan and Naphtali....
or Zilpah
Zilpah
In the Book of Genesis, Zilpah is Leah's handmaid who becomes a wife of Jacob and bears him two sons Gad and Asher....
- as a matriarch that would have indicated a foreign origin. In the ancient Song of Deborah, Issachar is closely associated with Naphtali, which itself does have a handmaiden as matriarch, and at one point the text appears to have been changed by the word Issachar being inserted instead of Naphtali
Character
Traditionally, Issachar was seen as being dominated by religious scholars; there is said by some to be an allusion to this in the Book of Chronicles - ...from Issachar, men who understood the times, and knew what Israel ought to do... - and if this is indeed an allusion to the tradition, then it would imply that the tradition was in existence by the time that the Book of Chronicles was compiled. In the MidrashMidrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
, it is said that Issachar were the most influential in proselytism
Proselytism
Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion. The word proselytize is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix προσ- and the verb ἔρχομαι in the form of προσήλυτος...
, and that Jewish religious scholars were either from the tribe of Levi or that of Issachar. Additionally, the Midrash argues that Issachar's description in the Blessing of Jacob
Blessing of Jacob
The Blessing of Jacob is a poem that appears in Genesis at . Jacob had twelve sons, each of whom is mentioned.The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the Blessing of Moses, which has the same theme...
- Issachar is a strong ass
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
lying down between the sheepfolds: and he saw that settled life was good, and the land was pleasant; he put his shoulder to the burden, and became a slave under forced labour - is a reference to the religious scholarship of the tribe of Issachar, rather than simply to a more literal interpretation of Issachar's name.
Since the tribe of Zebulun
Tribe of Zebulun
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Zebulun was one of the Tribes of Israel....
were traditionally seen as merchants and Issachar as religious teachers, Issachar and Zebulun were considered to have a symbiotic
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
relationship, whereby Issachar would devote its time to the study and teaching of Torah, while Zebulun would provide the financial support, in exchange for a share of Issachar's spiritual reward . Such was the tradition of this symbiosis, that anyone engaged in such a partnership became termed Issachar and Zebulun respectively, even into modern times.