A tribe is a group of people who descended from one certain person. Jacob was Abraham's grandson. God later changed Jacob's name to Israel. Jacob had twelve sons. They each had a family. And these twelve different families grew in size and became the twelve tribes of Israel.
The twelve sons of Israel were Reuben, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Their families formed the original twelve tribes.
Later, God divided the land of Canaan among the twelve tribes. God did not give the tribe of Levi any land. This is because God chose Levi’s descendants to become priests. They served in the places where each of the other tribes lived. Joseph’s land was given to the descendants of his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
There are several places in the Bible where the list of the twelve tribes is slightly different. For example, in Revelation 7:5-8, the tribes of Levi and Joseph are included, but the tribes of Dan and Ephraim are left out.
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