The tribes into which the Israelites were originally divided. Traditionally, the tribes are traced back to Jacob's 12 sons, born to him by his two wives and their maidservants. They were: Leah's sons Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun; her maidservant Bilhah's sons Dan and Naphtali; Rachel's sons Joseph and Benjamin; her maidservant Zilpah's sons Gad and Asher.
The references to the Twelve Tribes do not always refer to the same 12. On occasion it is indeed to the 12 as listed above, whereas on other occasions Joseph is counted as two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, in accordance with Jacob's statement to Joseph: "Your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh ... as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine" (Gen. 48:5). When Ephraim and Manasseh are counted as two tribes, the tribe of Levi is omitted from the count, because Levi differed from the other tribes in being delegated to serve God and teach the people and did not receive its own territory (see Levites). In the desert, the tribes were further divided into clans and the clans subdivided into families. The tribes were headed by nesi'im (pl. of Nasi), variously translated as princes or chieftains. The tribes played an important role in the desert---a representative of each tribe helped Moses take the first census (Num. 1, 2, 4) and one man from each tribe was chosen to spy out the land of Canaan (Num. 3:2-15).
Once the tribes conquered Canaan, they occupied their own territories---accounts of the apportionment are found in Joshua 13-21---and evidently formed a loose confederation without a central leader. They were bound together by their common belief in one God. Only with the inauguration of the kingdom under Saul came the first attempt at unification of all the tribes. This continued during David's reign. In what was apparently an attempt to divest the tribes of their clannishness, Solomon divided his kingdom into 12 districts which often cut across tribal lines.
Later, the tribes split into two kingdoms; the southern kingdom of
Twice in the Pentateuch all the tribes are blessed: first (Gen. 49), when Jacob blesses his sons just before his death, second (Deut. 33), when Moses, also before his death, blesses the tribes in the desert.
Certain schools of Bible scholarship have questioned the biblical account of the common origin of the 12 tribes and suggest that they were individual groups thrown together by historical circumstances.
