From the Patriarchs to the Judges: The Origins of Israel

The book of Genesis narrates the story of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the founding ancestors of the people of Israel, traditionally placed within the second millennium BCE. According to the biblical account, Abraham emigrated from Ur of the Chaldees toward Canaan in response to a divine call, and the promise of numerous descendants and a land formed the theological foundation of the covenant between God and Israel. Isaac and, later, Jacob — renamed "Israel" after wrestling with a divine being in Genesis 32 — transmitted this promise, and Jacob's twelve sons became, according to tradition, the eponymous founders of the twelve tribes of Israel.