From Abraham to Moses
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Glossary
Abraham
Abraham (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם, Modern ʾAvraham Tiberian ʾAḇrāhām, Arabic: إبراهيم Ibrahim), The founding father of the Covenant, the special relationship between the Jewish people and God. Abraham was the first person to teach the idea that there was only one God; before then, people believed in many gods.
Isaac
The name of Isaac (/ˈaɪzək/; Hebrew: יִצְחָק, Modern Yiṣḥáq Tiberian Yiṣḥāq; Arabic: إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq) means "he will laugh", reflecting Sarah's response when told that she would have a child.In the Bible, he is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites, the only one whose name was not changed, and the only one who did not move out of Canaan.
The Binding of Isaac (Hebrew: עֲקֵידַת יִצְחַק Aqedat Yitzhaq, in Hebrew also simply "The Binding", הָעֲקֵידָה Ha-Aqedah), is a story from the Hebrew Bible found in Genesis 22. In the biblical narrative, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Moriah, Abraham begins to comply, when a messenger from God interrupts him. Abraham then sees a ram and sacrifices it instead.
Jacob
Jacob (/ˈdʒeɪkəb/; Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב, Modern About this sound Ya‘aqōv (help·info) Tiberian Yā‘āqōḇ), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a Patriarch of the Israelites. According to the Book of Genesis, Jacob was the third Hebrew progenitor with whom God made a covenant.
As a result of a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt at the time when his son Joseph was viceroy. After 17 years in Egypt, Jacob died, and the length of Jacob's life was 147 years. Joseph carried Jacob's remains to the land of Canaan, and gave him a stately burial in the same Cave of Machpelah as were buried Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, and Jacob's first wife, Leah.
Levi
Levi (or Levy) (/ˈliːvaɪ/, Hebrew: לֵּוִי; Standard Levi Tiberian Lēwî) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Levi (the Levites). Certain religious and political functions were reserved for the Levites.
In the Book of Genesis, Levi and his brother, Simeon, exterminate the city of Shechem in revenge for the rape of Dinah, seizing the wealth of the city and killing the men. The brothers had earlier misled the inhabitants of Shechem by consenting to Dinah's rapist marrying her, and when Jacob hears about their destruction of Shechem, he castigates them for it. In the Blessing of Jacob, Jacob is described as imposing a curse on the Levites, by which they would be scattered, in punishment for Levi's actions in Shechem. Some textual scholars date the Blessing of Jacob to a period between just one and two centuries prior to the Babylonian captivity, and some Biblical scholars regard this curse, and Dinah herself as an aetiological postdiction to explain the fates of the tribe of Simeon and the Levites, with one possible explanation of the Levites' scattered nature being that the priesthood was originally open to any tribe, but gradually became seen as a distinct tribe itself (the Levites).Nevertheless, Isaac, Levi's grandfather, give a special blessing about the lineage of priests of God.
Kebath
According to the Torah, Kehath (Hebrew: קְהָת, Qəhāṯ) or Kohath was one of the sons of Levi and the patriarchal founder of the Kehathites, one of the four main divisions of the Levites in biblical times.
In the Testament of Levi, Kehath's birth when his father Levi was 35 years old was accompanied by a vision of Kehath "on high in the midst of all the congregation"; in the vision, Kehath's name is given as meaning "the beginning of majesty and instruction" and prophesies his being raised above his siblings.
Amram
In the Book of Exodus, Amram (/ˈæmræm/ ; Hebrew: עַמְרָם, Modern ‘Amram Tiberian ʻĀmrām, "Friend of the most high" / "The people are exalted") is the husband of Jochebed and father of Aaron, Moses and Miriam.
In addition to being married to Jochebed, Amram is also described in the Bible as having been related to Jochebed prior to the marriage.
Moses
Moses was adopted by an Egyptian princess, and later in life became the leader of the Israelites and lawgiver, to whom the authorship of the Torah, or acquisition of the Torah from Heaven is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ, lit. "Moses our Teacher"), he is the most important prophet in Judaism.
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved minority, were increasing in numbers and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might ally themselves with Egypt's enemies. Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed, secretly hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed in order to reduce the population of the Israelites. Through the Pharaoh's daughter (identified as Queen Bithia in the Midrash), the child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile river and grew up with the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slavemaster (because the slavemaster was smiting a Hebrew), Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered The Angel of the Lord, speaking to him from within a burning bush on Mount Horeb.
God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak with assurance or eloquence, so God allowed Aaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mount Nebo.