Jacob: The Story of a Family

“Few and hard have been the years of my life,” Jacob summarizes his life when he stands before Pharaoh in Egypt. The tragic tone of this statement is a rare glimpse into Jacob’s perception of himself and his journey, with all its trials and tribulations. However, the reader of Jacob’s story (Genesis, chapters 25–36) will see a far more complex journey: a journey accompanied by angels who teach him that it is possible to walk between heaven and earth; a journey where he meets the love of his life by a well as he flees for his life from his brother; and above all, a journey in which he fathers the twelve tribes and the nation that is founded upon them, a nation named for his literal and figurative struggles. Jacob’s story is a turbulent and stormy one, a tale of wanderings and upheavals, alongside quite a few moments of grace and kindness. His stories move relentlessly between personal and family tragedies and close divine protection; between pain and distress and inspiration; between earth and heaven. Jacob: The Story of a Family follows the narratives according to their order and natural flow, and tries, in light of the literary structures that shape them, to stay true to the psychological, moral, and theological themes of the individual stories and of the entire cycle.