When was biblical jacob born

Genesis And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;. Genesis Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

The verses above give an account of events right after Isaac blesses Jacob. Recall that Jacob, the younger brother of Esau, took the blessing meant for Esau, Jacob's eldest son. As a result, Esau was very angry and had determined to kill his brother in revenge. Rebekah also got the support of Jacob's father Isaac by reminding him how unhappy they were with Esau's Canaanite wives Genesis , and how it would be better for Jacob to find a wife in the land of Haran instead Genesis Now it was at this time that verse 8 indicates that Esau, possibly in an attempt to regain favor with his father and upon learning that his parents were unhappy with the Canaanite wives he had, decides to go to take a wife of Abraham's son Ishmael, his father's brother.

One might suspect Esau figured if he married into the family of Abraham's descendants, that this would satisfy his parents. In any case, we learn that Esau goes to Ishmael, and arranges to marry Ishmael's daughter Mahalath.

So why is this important? First, recall from Genesis that Ishmael lived to be years old. Also, Ishmael was 14 years older than Isaac being born when Abraham was 86 years old Genesis , while Isaac was born when Abraham was years old Genesis Further, we know Jacob and Esau were born to Isaac when he was 60 years old Genesis From these various ages we can determine that in the year Ishmael died at years old , Isaac who was 14 years younger, was years old.

And since Jacob and Esau were born when Isaac was 60 years old, then in the year Ishmael died they would both have been 63 years old. This means that the oldest Esau could have been when he went to visit Ishmael to marry his daughter Mahalath was 63 years old, and similarly, the oldest Jacob could have been when he left for Padanaram Haran was also 63 years old. Thus, we have established that the oldest Jacob could have been when he left his parents to go to Haran was 63 years old. The Bible said Joseph was born after Jacob served Laban 14 years before he served him additional 6 years -.

Search this site. And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years : few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. Genesis Another well-accepted meaning of his name is a deceiver. Unique Circular Format — see more in less space.

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! After successfully acquiring the blessing of the birthright from his father, he began to fear the wrath of his brother.

Because of the encouragement of his mother and the recommendation of his father, Jacob fled to the land of Haran. There he was to find a wife. Jacob did fall in love with Rachel, his cousin, and negotiated to serve seven years of labor to acquire her hand in marriage. Bargaining for another seven years of labor for Rachel , Jacob did eventually earn Rachel as his wife.

Jacob proceeded to build his family. On his return journey, Jacob was visited by three angels. Many believe this was a sort of welcoming party back to the Promised Land. When he became aware of the approaching band of people led by his brother he sent a peace offering and greetings on to his brother Esau.

He died an old man who had lived a full life. At the time that Isaac died, his sons would have been years old. One of the things we learn from sketching out the chronology is that Abraham would have been alive when Esau and Jacob were born and that they were fifteen when he died.

Assuming they lived in close proximity, Esau and Jacob would have known Abraham. We are not given any dates until towards the end of his life, so to an extent we need to work backwards.

We find in Genesis that Jacob was when he arrived in Egypt. Verse 28 of that same chapter tells us that Jacob lived a total of years, the last seventeen being in Egypt. We first find a date marker for Joseph when he was 17 years old and sold into slavery in Egypt.

He was 30 when he became the first minister of Egypt There were seven good years of crops in Egypt Two of the years of famine passed before he revealed himself to his brothers and the family of Israel moved to Egypt Putting all of this together, Joseph would have been 39 at the time that Israel moved to Egypt.

This would mean that Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born. There are a few years leeway in either direction, but that gives us a rough estimate of when he was born and also of when the twenty years Jacob spent in Haran took place. If you notice, he would have been in his 70s when he arrived in Haran. We usually think of Jacob as being a young man, falling in love with young Rachel. While Rachel may have been young, Jacob was getting on in years!

Notice, as well, that although Isaac was old and felt he was about to die when Jacob stole the blessing Genesis 27 , the reality is that he still had over forty years of life left!