Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(who prevails with God). Name given to Jacob (Gen. 32:28; 35:10); became national (Ex. 3:16); narrowed to northern kingdom after the revolt of the ten tribes from Judah (1 Sam. 11:8; 2 Sam. 20:1; 1 Kings 12:16), with Shechem as capital (1 Kings 12:25), and Tirzah as royal residence (1 Kings 14:17); afterward, capital at Samaria (1 Kings 16:24). Kingdom lasted 254 years, with 19 kings, B. C. 975-721, when it fell a prey to the Assyrians. The returned of Israel blended with those of Judah.
“Israel” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
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 Chron. 12:5-6; 2 Chron. 21:2; 2 Chron. 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 KINGDOM OF ISRAEL commenced when Jeroboam was made king, to whom it was promised that his house should be established if he followed the Lord. He, on the contrary, to prevent the people going to Jerusalem, immediately set up the golden calves at Dan and at Bethel. The kingdom was given up to idolatry, and a series of judgments followed. Baasha murdered Jeroboam’s son and successor; and his own son and successor was slain by Zimri; Zimri was killed by Omri, and after a civil war of four years with Tibni, Omri became king and reigned with his successors forty-five years, ending with Jehoram the son of Ahab. He and the survivors of the house of Ahab were slain by Jehu directly or indirectly, and Jehu began the 5th dynasty, B.C. 884. He and his successors reigned, with varying judgments upon them, for a hundred and twelve years. Zachariah was the last, being the fourth successor of Jehu, as God had said, 2 Kings 15:12: he reigned only six months and was murdered by Shallum. During another fifty years the kingdom was spared: but there was no repentance. About B.C. 740 the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan were carried into captivity, and Israel became tributary to Assyria. Hoshea murdered Pekah, and after nine years of anarchy succeeded to the throne. He revolted against Assyria, trusting to Egypt; but Samaria was taken, and Israel carried into captivity. Thus ended the kingdom of Israel (B.C. 721). From about B.C. 784 to 725 Hosea was God’s prophet in Israel. He solemnly pleaded with them, protesting against their evil ways, and was ever ready to help them to turn to God, though his efforts were, alas, in vain (2 Kings 17:13-18; Hos. 13:16; Hos. 14:1-9).
Israel when carried away were placed in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan (in the neighborhood of the river Khabour, an affluent of the river Euphrates), and in the cities of the Medes. As far as is known they never returned, though doubtless individuals found their way back in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in the four hundred years that followed before the Lord appeared. Jews from those districts were present on the day of Pentecost; but as a body they are still commonly regarded as “the Lost Tribes.” God knows where to find them when His set time of blessing arrives. The twelve tribes surely exist, and remnants of them will again come into the land (Ezek. 48:1-29; Matt. 19:28; Acts 26:7; James 1:1; Rev. 7:5-8).
The ten tribes will be dealt with differently from the two, who were in the land when the Lord was presented to them, and who rejected Him, and demanded His crucifixion. The ten tribes will, by a mighty hand and with fury poured out, be brought into the wilderness, and there God will plead with them, cause them to pass under the rod, and bring them into the bond of the covenant; but the rebels will be purged out (Ezek. 20:34-38). The question as to the wounds in the hands of the Lord, which He received in the house of His “friends” is connected with Judah, who will be judged when in the land, and only one third of them after being refined, will be owned as God’s people (Zech. 13:6-9). When God thus purges and restores a remnant of all the tribes, and brings them into full blessing in the land, the name of ISRAEL will embrace them all as it did at the first, and God will be their God forevermore (Ezek. 37:1-28).
“Israel in Egypt” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
The details of the history of Israel in Egypt are few. When Joseph was in power, Jacob and his whole household settled in the land: there they multiplied and became a great nation. In time a king reigned who knew not Joseph, and the people were reduced to cruel bondage. Through God’s intervention and after dire judgments upon the Egyptians, the Israelites were delivered. See EGYPT and JOSEPH.
A question not easily answered is, How long were the Israelites in Egypt? In Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6, the period seems to be stated as four hundred years. Exodus 12:40 says “the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years”; and Galatians 3:17 declares that the law was given four hundred and thirty years after the promise to Abraham. The promise to Abraham was long before Israel went into Egypt, and the law was given after they came out; so that according to this passage their sojourning in Egypt must have been much less than four hundred years. A much shorter period is implied in Genesis 15:16, which says of Israel in Egypt that “in the fourth generation they shall come hither again”; and if we turn to Exodus 6:16-20 we find exactly four generations, thus:
Jacob’s son Levi.
Levi’s son Kohath.
Kohath’s son Amram.
Amram’s son Moses.
Or, if we start with Levi, who entered with Jacob, there was ample time for Moses to have had a son, as he was eighty years old at the Exodus. Now if we reckon that at that time a man had his first son when he was forty years of age, there would have been ten generations in four hundred years. Further, the mother of Moses (Jochebed) was Levi’s daughter, (Num. 26:59), Amram having married his own aunt (Ex. 6:20). Levi lived only a hundred and thirty-seven years in all, and supposing (it can be approximately proved) that he lived in Egypt eighty-eight years, Jochebed was born during those years. If Moses was born when she was forty-seven years of age, and Moses was eighty years old at the Exodus, these sums (88 + 47 + 80 = 215 years) show that Israel may have been in Egypt about two hundred and fifteen years, and this is the period now generally supposed.
If we admit this to be the time of the occupation, we must endeavor to see how it agrees with the four hundred and thirty years of Galatians 3:17.
YEARS
Age of Abraham when Isaac was born 100
Age of Abraham, when the promise was given 75
25
Age of Isaac when Jacob was born 60
Age of Jacob when he stood before Pharaoh 130
Sojourn of Israel in Egypt 215
430
If then this be the correct period, how does it agree with Genesis 15:13 and Exodus 12:40? In Genesis 15:13 and Acts 7:6, nothing is said about Egypt: “Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs.” This was said to Abraham, and may include the whole period from the birth of Isaac to the Exodus, which according to the above was four hundred and five years—thus agreeing with the round number of four hundred years. Exodus 12:40 is worded differently: “The sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.” The Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX add the words “and of their fathers in the land of Canaan”; but these words are not in the Arabic, Syriac, or Vulgate versions; and may therefore have been added to meet the apparent difficulty. It is better to take the four hundred and thirty years as including the sojourn of Abraham (after the promise), and of Isaac, and of Jacob, though strictly speaking Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not “children of Israel.”
The conclusion that the sojourn in Egypt was really for two hundred and fifteen years creates another difficulty in some minds, namely, the great increase of the Israelites during that period. Exodus 12:37 speaks of there being 600,000 men, besides children, at the Exodus. Numbers 1:46 gives the number more exactly as 603,550 from twenty years old and upwards that were able to go to war. This has been calculated to signify a total of about two million men, women, and children, without the descendants of Levi. Is this a greater number than could be the descendants of those who entered Egypt? This may be reckoned in two ways: if we deduct thirteen from the seventy—for the family of Levi and for those who could not be called heads of families at that time (Deut. 10:22), the result gives fifty-seven heads of families; and if each had 14 children,
In one generation there would be 798
In the second 11,172
In the third 156,408
In the fourth 2,189,712
To reckon fourteen children to each may seem a large number, but it must be remembered that there was the plurality of wives, and scripture speaks of their multiplying exceedingly (Ex. 1:7,12,20).
The increase may be reckoned in another manner by the population. If the above fifty-seven are multiplied by 3.3 it gives as the population at the commencement (excluding Levi, and his descendants, as above) 188 persons. Suppose the population doubled itself in fifteen years (as it has been known to do in some places), the number in two hundred and ten years would be over three million. There is therefore no difficulty in the increase of the people.
Israel in Egypt is typical of mankind in the world, under the power of Satan, before being sheltered under the blood of Christ, and redeemed by the power of God.
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Transliteration:
Yisra’el
Meaning:
from 8280 and 410; he will rule as God; Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity: --Israel.
Potts’ Bible Proper Names:
A prince prevailing with God:―symbolic name of Jacob, Gen. 32:28. {Princeps prevalens Deo}