The Israelites

The name Israel refers to:

1. The patriarch Jacob, who was given this name after wrestling with a heavenly messenger. The name means “struggles with God” (Gen. 32:28).

2. The nation descended from Jacob and his twelve sons (the ancestors of the “twelve tribes of Israel”). The nation could be referred to as Israelites, all Israel, or children of Israel.

3. The kingdom formed when the nation Israel divided in two after the death of King Solomon (1 Kings 11).

Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel formed the “northern kingdom” of Israel. The two other tribes formed the “southern kingdom,” Judah.

In the Bible, “Israel” generally refers more often to the people than to the land itself. The land of Israel in the Bible did not cover precisely the same area as the nation of Israel today.

The modern term Israeli refers to the people of the nation Israel. Israeli is not found in the Bible.
See 936 (Hebrew).

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