The patriarchs

The man God called out of Ur with a promise of land, offspring, and blessing for all nations, at an age when he had none of the three. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all trace their story back through him. Paul makes his trust in the promise, credited to him as righteousness, the pattern of faith itself.

Abraham's wife, who waited decades for a promised child and laughed when she finally overheard it announced. Isaac's name, which means 'he laughs,' keeps the memory of that laughter in the family line.

The son of the promise, born to parents past childbearing age. His life is quieter than his father's or his son's: he reopens his father's wells, is deceived by his own family, and passes the blessing on.

The younger twin who grasped for a blessing he was promised anyway, and spent twenty years in exile before wrestling a stranger at the Jabbok and coming away limping with a new name. His twelve sons become the twelve tribes.

Jacob's favored son, sold into slavery by his brothers, imprisoned on a false accusation, and raised to second in Egypt because he could read dreams. When his brothers finally stood before him he said the line the whole story turns on: you meant it for evil, God meant it for good.

Abraham's nephew, who traveled with him from Haran and then chose the well-watered Jordan plain when the two had to separate, settling near Sodom. Rescued from the city before its destruction, at the cost of his wife, who looked back.

Abraham's son by Hagar, born when Sarah despaired of a child of her own. Sent away with his mother after Isaac's birth, and promised by God that he too would become a great nation.

Chosen for Isaac at a well in Haran, where she watered ten camels for a stranger, which is a great deal of water. Barren for twenty years, then mother of Esau and Jacob, who struggled in her womb.

Isaac's elder son, a hunter, who sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of stew and later lost the blessing to the same brother in disguise. Ancestor of the Edomites.

Rebekah's brother, living in Haran, who took in Jacob and then outmaneuvered him for twenty years: seven years of work for Rachel, the substitution of Leah on the wedding night, another seven years, and wages changed ten times.

Laban's elder daughter, given to Jacob by substitution on his wedding night. Unloved, and the mother of six of the twelve tribes including Levi and Judah, from whom the priesthood and the kingship come.

Laban's younger daughter, for whom Jacob worked fourteen years, and who was long childless before bearing Joseph and then Benjamin, dying in the birth. Buried on the road to Bethlehem.

Judah's widowed daughter-in-law, denied the marriage the law owed her, who disguised herself and secured a child from Judah himself. He admits she was more righteous than he was. She stands in the genealogy of Jesus. A second Tamar, David's daughter, is raped by her half-brother Amnon.

Tamar's twin sons and their descendants, the line that runs from Judah to Boaz to Jesse to David. Perez's name refers to the breach he made in being born first, out of the expected order, which by now is a Genesis habit.

The chiefs and kings descended from Esau, listed in Genesis 36 and again in 1 Chronicles 1. Teman becomes a byword for wisdom, which is why Job's friend Eliphaz is a Temanite and why Jeremiah asks whether counsel has perished from Teman.

The rulers outside Israel who invade, extract tribute, or grant permission. Shishak of Egypt stripped the temple in Rehoboam's fifth year and left a relief at Karnak listing the towns he took. Necho killed Josiah at Megiddo. Tiglath-pileser III began the Assyrian deportations.

The wives, servants, allies, and children who fill out the patriarchal narratives. Zilpah and Bilhah are the servants whose sons become four of the twelve tribes, which the text records without ever giving them a line of speech.

The Hivite ruler of Shechem whose son violated Dinah and then asked to marry her. Jacob's sons agreed on condition that every male in the city be circumcised, and killed them all while they were recovering.

A Philistine king of Gerar, in the Negev, who took Sarah into his household after Abraham passed her off as his sister, and was warned in a dream before he touched her. He confronted Abraham about it with a fairness that puts the patriarch in a poor light.

A wealthy man of Uz, described as blameless and upright, who loses his children, his property, and his health in a single stroke, and spends thirty-eight chapters demanding an explanation from God. His three friends come to comfort him, sit with him in silence for seven days, and then start talking.

The Hebrew word satan means adversary or accuser, and in its earliest uses it is a role rather than a name, complete with the definite article: the accuser, standing in the heavenly court to press a case, as in Job and Zechariah.

Manasseh's son and the clan descended from him, who took Gilead east of the Jordan. In the Song of Deborah, Machir stands in for the whole tribe. A separate Machir of Lo-debar sheltered Mephibosheth and later supplied David during Absalom's revolt.