From what is known of Jacob, he had two wives, sisters Leah and Rachel, and two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah, by whom he had thirteen children. According to biblical texts, he was chosen by God to be the patriarch of the Israelite nation. Jacob, later called Israel, was the second-born son of Isaac and Rebecca, the younger twin brother of Esau, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. In modern scholarship, there is skepticism as to whether there ever were twelve Israelite tribes, with the use of the number 12 thought more likely to signify a symbolic tradition as part of a national founding myth, although some scholars disagree with this view.
The tribes were through his twelve sons through his wives, Leah and Rachel, and his concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah. The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( Hebrew: שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, romanized: Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit.'Tribes of Israel') are, according to Hebrew scriptures, the descendants of the biblical patriarch Jacob (also known as Israel), who collectively form the Israelite nation.
