Twelve Tribes of Israel

The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Hebrew: שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit. 'Staffs of Israel') are described in the Hebrew Bible as being the descendants of Jacob, a Hebrew patriarch who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Jacob, later known as Israel, had a total of twelve sons, from whom each tribe's ancestry and namesake is derived: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Collectively known as the Israelites, they inhabited a part of Canaan—the Land of Israel—during the Iron Age. Their history, society, culture, and politics feature heavily in the Abrahamic religions, especially Judaism.

In the biblical narrative, after Moses oversaw the Israelites' departure from Egypt, he died and was succeeded by Joshua, who led the conquest of Canaan and subsequently allotted territory for all but the Tribe of Levi, which was instead dedicated 48 cities. This development culminated in the establishment of Israel and Judah, purportedly beginning with a Kingdom of Israel and Judah before splitting into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

Wars with neighbouring Near Eastern powers eventually resulted in the destruction of both Israel and Judah: the Assyrian conquest of Israel resulted in the mass displacement of most of the Israelites, giving rise to the legacy of the Ten Lost Tribes; and the Babylonian conquest of Judah resulted in the mass displacement of much of the remaining Israelites, who belonged to the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin.

In modern scholarship, there is skepticism as to whether the Twelve Tribes of Israel actually existed, with the use of "12" thought more likely to signify a symbolic tradition as part of a national founding myth, although some academics disagree with this view.