The Tribe of Naphtali () was one of the northernmost of the

twelve tribes of Israel The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( , ) are described in the Hebrew Bible as being the descendants of Jacob, a Patriarchs (Bible), Hebrew patriarch who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Jacob, later known as Israel (name), Israel, ...

. It is one of the

ten lost tribes The Ten Lost Tribes were those from the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE. They were the following ...

Biblical narratives

In the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Kenneth Kitchen, a well-known biblical archeologist, dates this event to slightly after 1200 BCE,Kitchen, Kenneth A. (2003), ''On the Reliability of the Old Testament'' (Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)() whereas other scholars dispute the historicity of the Book of Joshua.“Besides the rejection of the Albrightian ‘conquest' model, the general consensus among OT scholars is that the Book of Joshua has no value in the historical reconstruction. They see the book as an ideological retrojection from a later period — either as early as the reign of Josiah or as late as the Hasmonean period.” ”It behooves us to ask, in spite of the fact that the overwhelming consensus of modern scholarship is that Joshua is a pious fiction composed by the deuteronomistic school, how does and how has the Jewish community dealt with these foundational narratives, saturated as they are with acts of violence against others?" ”Recent decades, for example, have seen a remarkable reevaluation of evidence concerning the conquest of the land of Canaan by Joshua. As more sites have been excavated, there has been a growing consensus that the main story of Joshua, that of a speedy and complete conquest (e.g. Josh. 11.23: 'Thus Joshua conquered the whole country, just as the had promised Moses') is contradicted by the archaeological record, though there are indications of ''some'' destruction and conquest at the appropriate time. Naphtali settled the eastern side of the Galilee (on the immediate west of the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee (, Judeo-Aramaic languages, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ), also called Lake Tiberias, Genezareth Lake or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth ...

), in the areas now known as the Lower Galilee, and Upper Galilee, bordered on the west by

Asher Asher ( ''’Āšēr''), in the Book of Genesis, was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Zilpah, and Jacob's eighth son overall. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Asher. Name The text of the Torah states that the name אָ� ...

, in the north by Dan, in the south by Zebulun, and by the Jordan River on the east. The most significant city was Hazor. Bordering the Sea of Galilee, there was the highly fertile plain of Gennesaret, characterised by Josephus as the ''ambition of nature, an earthly paradise'', and with the southern portion of the region acting as a natural pass between the highlands of Canaan, several major roads (such as those from

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

to Tyre and

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

) ran through it. The prosperity this situation brought is seemingly prophesied in the Blessing of Moses, though textual scholars view this as a postdiction, dating the poem to well after the tribe had been established in the land.

The Naphthalites received the eastern parts, as far as the city of
Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
and the Upper Galilee, unto mount Libanus, and the Fountains of Jordan, which rise out of that mountain; that is, out of that part of it whose limits belong to the neighbouring city of Arce.

From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c. 1050 BC, the Tribe of Naphtali was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges (see the

Book of Judges The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in the ...

). With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet the challenge, and the Tribe of Naphtali joined the new kingdom with

Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late eleventh c ...

as the first king. After the death of Saul, all the tribes other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul, but after the death of Ish-bosheth, Saul's son and successor to the throne of Israel, the Tribe of Naphtali joined the other northern Israelite tribes in making

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

, who was then the king of Judah, king of a re-united Kingdom of Israel. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, David's grandson, in c. 930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. In c. 732 BCE, Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram, threatened

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, and Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

, for help. After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser, Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing AramLester L. Grabbe, ''Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?'' (New York: T&T Clark, 2007): 134 and a large part of Israel, "including all the land of Naphtali." According to 2 Kings 16:9 and 15:29, the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria. Such deportation is also mentioned in the

deuterocanonical The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second Biblical canon, canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be Biblical canon, canonical books of the Old ...

Book of Tobit The Book of Tobit (), also known as the Book of Tobias, is a deuterocanonical pre-Christian work from the 3rd or early 2nd century BC which describes how God tests the faithful, responds to prayers, and protects the pre-covenant community (i.e., ...

, which attributes it to Enemessar. The Kingdom of Israel continued to exist until c. 723 BC, when it was again invaded by

and the rest of the population deported. From that time, the Tribe of Naphtali has been counted as one of the

Ten Lost Tribes The Ten Lost Tribes were those from the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE. They were the following ...

of Israel.

Origin

According to the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

, the tribe consisted of descendants of

Naphtali According to the Book of Genesis, Naphtali (; ) was the sixth son of Jacob, the second of his two sons with Bilhah. He was the founder of the Israelite tribe of Naphtali. Some biblical commentators have suggested that the name ''Naphtali'' ma ...

, a son of

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

and Bilhah, from whom it took its name. However, Arthur Peake views this as a postdiction, an

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

ous

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation.''Peake's Commentary on the Bible''

Family tree

Character

Militarism is featured in Naphtali's history. In the ancient Song of Deborah, Naphtali is commended, along with Zebulun, for risking their lives in the fight against Sisera; in the prose account of the event, which Arthur Peake regards as a much later narrative based on the poem, there is the addition that Barak, the leader of the anti-Sisera forces, hails from the tribe of Naphtali. In the Gideon narrative Naphtali are one of the tribes which join in an attack against Midianite invaders, though Arthur Peake regards the Gideon narrative as being spliced together from at least three earlier texts, the oldest of which describes only personal vengeance by Gideon and 300 men of his own clan, not a battle in which the rest of the northern tribes join him. In the Blessing of Jacob, which textual scholars date to 700-600 BC - and thus a postdiction, Naphtali is compared to a '' hind let loose'', and commended for giving ''goodly words''. The territory allotted to the tribe in Canaan was in the extreme north, and was bordered on the north by the Litani River, on the east by the River Jordan until it was south of the

, on the west by the tribes of

and Zabulon; and on the south by the tribe of

Issachar Issachar () was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fifth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's ninth son), and the founder of the Israelites, Israelite Tribe of Issachar. However, some Biblical criticism, Biblical scholars view this as ...

. The symbol of the tribe is a gazelle-a very quick animal. The people of Naftali is traditionally thought of as swift (swift runners).

Fate

As part of the Kingdom of Israel, during one of the several wars between the Asa of the kingdoms of Judah and Baasha of Israel, the tribe of Naphtali was persecuted by Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram-Damascus, on behalf of Asa, the king of Judah, and desolated. Again, in the reign of Pekah this tribe was among the first to feel the iron hand of Assyria and to suffer the deportation of many captives. In a reference to this incident, the prophet Isaiah anticipates that the same region will see the dawn of the Messianic deliverance. In c. 732 BCE, Naphtali's territory was conquered by the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

and king Tiglath-Pileser III had the entire population deported. The exile led to their further history being lost. One of the famous battles of the Maccabean war was fought near Kedesh-naphtali about B.C. 150, when Jonathan defeated Demetrius, King of Syria; Josephus, "Ant." xiii. 5, § 6).

Descendants

Beginning in the 19th century, Biblical scholarship has largely doubted the historicity of the Twelve Tribes, including the lost tribes."In any case, it is now widely agreed that the so-called 'patriarchal/ancestral period' is a later 'literary' construct, not a period in the actual history of the ancient world. The same is the case for the ‘exodus’ and the 'wilderness period,' and more and more widely for the 'period of the Judges.'" However, there have still been claimants and speculation of the ancestry of these tribes. The speculative descendants of Naphtali include: * Ethiopian Jews, also known as Beta Israel, claim descent from the Tribe of Dan, whose members migrated south along with members of the tribes of Gad,

, and Naphtali, into the Kingdom of Kush, now

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, during the destruction of the First Temple. *The Mountain Jews of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

. *The

Bukharian Jews Bukharan Jews, also known as Bukharian Jews, are the Mizrahi Jews, Mizrahi Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that dwelt predominantly in what is today Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. The group's name is derived from the E ...

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. *''Nordisk Israel'' identify the Tribe of Naphtali with Norway. *Pacific Islanders ( Cook Islands, Samoans, Hawaiians, Tongans,

Fijians Fijians () are a nation and ethnic group Indigenous peoples of Oceania, native to Fiji, who speak Fijian language, Fijian and English language, English and share a common history and culture. Fijians, or ''iTaukei'', are the major indigenous ...

, etc.).

References

External links

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Tribe of Naphtali