What are the different names for the Israelites, and what do they mean?

Name given to Jacob after 'a man' had wrestled with him, to whom he clung when he was by him crippled. It signifies 'a prince of God:' and it was said, "as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." It thus indicated the way of blessing with regard to the nation in which God's government in the earth was to be established. The twelve sons of Jacob became the heads of the twelve tribes, and they and their descendants were called the children of Israel, or simply Israel. At the division of the kingdom, the ten tribes were called 'Israel,' and the two tribes 'Judah,' though this distinction is not at all times rigidly adhered to: thus the princes and kings of Judah are called princes of Israel, and kings of Israel. 2 Chr. 12:5-6; 2 Chr. 21:2; 2 Chr. 28:19. So those who returned from exile, though they were in the main of the two tribes, are called people of Israel, or Israel. In the prophets also, though the ten tribes are not called Judah, the two tribes are at times called Israel. The ten tribes in the prophets are often spoken of as EPHRAIM, which was the chief of the ten. Though Israel was reckoned as ten tribes, it is most probable that the portion of Simeon, being situated on the extreme south, was united to Judah, as well as the territory of Dan in the S.W., though the people of Simeon may have scattered themselves among the other tribes, and those of Dan have gone north and joined their tribe there.

The law teachers were boasting in the Galatians who had received circumcision, and so outwardly had become Jews. But this did not make them God's people. In chapter 3, verses 7, 9, and 29, we find much the same thought. "The ones on the principle of faith, these are the sons of Abraham." So now in contrast to the false teachers making false Jews, the Apostle cries in triumph, these are "the Israel of God." These who walk by the rule of the new creation are the true Israelites, not those wearing the badge of circumcision. The people of Israel had three names: Hebrews, Jews and Israelites. Jews were especially those of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, though many others had joined them under this name. "Israel" means "prince of God," and was the name given to Jacob by God Himself, when he wrestled with the angel and prevailed. "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob (means 'cheater'), but Israel (a prince of God): for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." Gen. 32:28. This name includes all the descendants of Jacob, all the twelve tribes, not the two tribes only as the name "Jew" means. It is most interesting to notice that this name Israel, is the name chosen by God's earthly people today, as they once again begin to take possession of their own land. But the true Israelites are those "born again" into God's household.

What was this People? — No ordinary affection had thus moved him, for no ordinary people were they, as he now recounts. They were Israelites, descendants of Jacob, who had received that name from the One who had wrestled with him, and then blessed him by the ford Jabbok, at the spot which the patriarch in consequence named Peniel (Gen. 32:30). He gave a name to the place. God gave a name to him. Peniel, he named the place. Israel, God surnamed him. Israelites, then betokened their descent from him, who as a prince had power with God and with men, and had prevailed. Israelite was no mean name to bear. It told of natural descent from him, to whom, and to his seed the promise of the land for an inheritance was freely, and irrevocably confirmed (Gen. 35:12; 48:4). To them as a nation great and special privileges belonged: viz., "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the promises: whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen" (Rom. 9:4-5). An array of privileges, an accumulation of honours unparalleled. "What nation," Moses had asked, "is there so great, who has God so nigh to them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for?" (Deut. 4:7). What nation has ever been so highly favoured? we may well ask, having the world's history of upwards of forty centuries to look back upon. How the apostle too would emphasise their privileges, putting as he does, the copulative conjunction and between each one of them.

Designation of Abraham and of his descendants. The name is first met with when Lot had been carried away prisoner, one came and told Abram 'the Hebrew.' Gen. 14:13. Hence it is applied to Abraham's descendants through Isaac and Jacob in distinction to the name of Israelites (from the name of Israel given to Jacob), which is their covenant name, the name of promise. It may be remarked how Saul king of Israel had lost the sense of this when he said "Let the Hebrews hear." 1 Sam. 13:3.

It is not very clear why Abraham was called a Hebrew. It is generally supposed to be derived from his ancestor Eber or Heber; but it will be seen from Gen. 11:17-26 that there were five generations between Eber and Abraham, so by this derivation many others might have been called Hebrews. Gen. 10:21 says that Shem was "the father of all the children of Eber." This shows that the Hebrews were Shemites, but many other tribes were 'Shemites' that could not be called Hebrews. In scripture the name is not applied to any except to Abraham and his descendants, and only to those who descended through Isaac and Jacob, to the exclusion of the children of Ishmael and Esau. So that there must be some other reason for the name and for its being thus restricted.

The root of the word is 'to pass over,' as when one passes over a river, or from one region to another. Abraham was bidden to leave his country and his kindred and to go into the land of Canaan, and the word Hebrew is not employed until Abraham had left his country and was in the land of Canaan. Gen. 14:13. When there he was a 'sojourner,' in a strange country, dwelling in tents. Heb. 11:9. The name was therefore characteristic, and the people of the land could go to Abraham the 'sojourner' and tell him that Lot had been taken prisoner. Joseph when in Egypt said he had been stolen from "the land of the Hebrews." Gen. 40:15. The above characteristic was doubtless subsequently lost, and nothing seen in it but the natural descent from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob; the same persons being mostly called Israelites. The descendants of Ishmael and Esau were not sojourners in the promised land, but wandered whither they would. The name Hebrew does not occur in the O.T. after 1 Samuel except in Jer. 34:9, 14 and once in Jonah 1:9.

"The Hebrews." By this name the Philistines and others described the Israelites. ([Gen. 14:13; Gen. 39:14; Ex. 2:11; 1 Sam. 4:6.) But Saul appears to use the word with reference to those Israelites who, from fear or other cause, had taken shelter with the Philistines. Compare 1 Samuel 14:21, where those of the people called Hebrews are distinguished from other Israelites.]

The Lord then first requires Jacob to confess his name by natural birth. But Jacob ("the supplanter") must have his name changed if he is to receive proper blessing from God. Only when the flesh is touched and shriveled does Jacob receive the name Israel ("a prince with God"). By nature he was Jacob, but by the grace of God he becomes Israel.

God said of Jacob that he would be named Israel because he had "struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." It certainly does not mean that he had defeated God in wrestling, for he actually prevailed only when he was crippled and therefore clung dependently to the Lord. This dependence on God would enable him to prevail with men too. This will prove true in the future for the nation Israel also; and the same proves true for every believer today who has been brought down to a place of clinging dependently to the Lord. May we know this place well.

What a change! That old guilty history of his was for ever swept away. He should no more be known as the cheat, double-dealer, intriguer. The meaning of the name Israel is a prince with POWER with God and man. Yet that is the name linked up by the sovereignty of grace with that poor clinging cripple.

His name too is not to be henceforth called Jacob, the supplanter, but Israel, the wrestler or prince of God. The manner is striking. For God speaks of it as if it had been then given, and not merely confirmed, as suited to one who was come back to the land, and not a fugitive from his father's house (though greatly by his own sins, whatever the wickedness of Esau might have been and was). He has like Abraham in Gen. 17 the promise of nations and kings of his line; but nothing here goes beyond the bounds and glory of Israel and the land.

Name given to Israel, probably signifying 'upright ones;' others prefer 'beloved of Jehovah.' Jehovah was the 'God of Jeshurun;' and Moses, 'king in Jeshurun.' Deut. 32:15; Deut. 33:5, 26; Isa. 44:2.