He will rule as God ; Jisraël , a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
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יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael) is Israel — the name given to Jacob at the Jabbok and carried forward to become the name of the covenant nation. Its etymological roots carry the word's permanent theological charge: the name means 'he strives with God' or 'God rules,' depending on whether the first element is read as the Qal of sarah (to contend) or as the divine El acting.
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יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael) is Israel — the name given to Jacob at the Jabbok and carried forward to become the name of the covenant nation. Its etymological roots carry the word's permanent theological charge: the name means 'he strives with God' or 'God rules,' depending on whether the first element is read as the Qal of sarah (to contend) or as the divine El.
The BSB source-word alignment has 2,506 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include of Israel (974), Israel (492), . . . (489), in Israel (76), of the Israelites (48).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 32:28. Its strongest book concentrations include Numbers (237), 1 Kings (203), 2 Chronicles (187), Ezekiel (186).
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael) is Israel — the name given to Jacob at the Jabbok and carried forward to become the name of the covenant nation. Its etymological roots carry the word's permanent theological charge: the name means 'he strives with God' or 'God rules,' depending on whether the first element is read as the Qal of sarah (to contend) or as the divine El acting. Both readings are theologically productive.
Genesis 32:28 is the naming oracle: 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob (Yaakov), but Israel (Yisrael), for you have striven with God (ki-sarita im-Elohim) and with men, and have prevailed.' The Jabbok night-wrestling is the founding event of the name: Jacob/Israel is the man who wrestled with God, was crippled in the struggle, and refused to release his grip until blessed. The name encodes the paradox: prevailing against God meant being wounded by him; being renamed by him was the deepest form of being defeated.
Genesis 35:10 reaffirms the name at Bethel: 'God said to him, Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.' The double-confirmation (Jabbok + Bethel) gives the name permanent covenant status: Israel is not a nickname but the identity given by YHWH at the two great altar-places of the patriarchal narrative.
The prophetic use of the name creates the richest theological texture. Isaiah's distinctive epithet for YHWH is Qedosh Yisrael (Holy One of Israel, קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל) — appearing 25 times in Isaiah against 6 times elsewhere. This epithet binds YHWH's holiness to a specific covenant identity: he is not merely 'the Holy One' in the abstract but the Holy One who has named himself in relation to Israel. Isaiah 40-55 uses it most densely, in the context of YHWH's argument that his covenant faithfulness is the proof of his divine uniqueness: 'Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand' (Isa 41:10). The Qedosh Yisrael speaks both.
Ezekiel uses beit Yisrael (house of Israel, בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל) 83 times — more than any other book — in the context of corporate covenant failure and restoration. Ezekiel 36:22-28 gives the theological summary: 'It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name... I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.' The restoration of Israel is not merited by Israel — it is the vindication of YHWH's name (shem) against the nations who witnessed Israel's exile. The new covenant for beit Yisrael is the heart-transformation that Israel's history could not produce.
For the preacher, יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael) holds the complete covenant story in one name: Jacob the deceiver who wrestled God and was renamed; the nation that bore the name through exodus and conquest and exile and restoration; and the 'Israel of God' (Gal 6:16) that inherits the name's promise in Christ.
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael) appears 2,507 times. Its theological center is the renaming at Jabbok (Gen 32:28: 'you have striven with God and prevailed'), the Qedosh Yisrael (Holy One of Israel) epithet in Isaiah (25x), and the Ezekielian beit Yisrael (house of Israel) in the covenant-failure-and-restoration arc. The name encodes the entire covenant story: the wrestling patriarch, the exodus people, the divided monarchy, the exiled nation, and the promised restoration.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”
The naming oracle at the Jabbok: 'your name is no longer Yaakov but Yisrael, for you have striven with God (sarita im-Elohim) and with men and have prevailed.' The name-change is the theological hinge of the patriarch narrative: Yaakov (Jacob) means 'he grasps the heel' or 'supplanter' (from Gen 25:26 — the Esau-grabbing). Yisrael erases neither the man nor his history but gives the grasping man a wrestling-with-God identity.
The crippling (v. 25 — the touched hip socket that put Jacob's thigh out of joint) and the blessing (v. 29 — 'he blessed him there') are simultaneous: to wrestle with God to the point of prevailing is to be marked by him forever.
Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the Lord. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Qedosh Yisrael (Holy One of Israel) in the servant-comfort oracles: YHWH addresses 'Israel' in its smallness ('worm Jacob') and announces help and redemption from the Qedosh Yisrael. Isaiah 40-55 uses this divine epithet 17 times — it is the signature of YHWH's covenant fidelity in the exile period. The Qedosh Yisrael is both the transcendent Holy One (Isa 6:3 — the triple-holy of the seraphim) and the One who has bound himself to this specific covenant people.
Holiness and covenant-commitment are inseparable in the Isaianic divine title.
Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you went.
YHWH's restoration of beit Yisrael for the sake of his name: 'not for your sake... but for the sake of my holy name.' Ezekiel's beit Yisrael oracle (36:16-38) is the most theologically explicit account of why YHWH acts for Israel in exile: not because Israel has earned restoration but because Israel's exile has caused the nations to say 'these are the people of YHWH, yet they had to go out of his land' (v.
20 — Profaning his name). YHWH's restoration of Israel is the vindication of his own shem among the nations. The new-heart covenant follows (v. 26-27) as the means of the name-vindication.
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
Israel as YHWH's son called out of Egypt: 'ki-naar Yisrael va-ahavehu, u-mi-Mitsrayim qarathi livni (when Israel was a child/youth I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son).' Hosea 11:1's father-son language for the Exodus is the most intimate expression of the Israel-YHWH relationship in the prophets: Israel's exodus was not a geopolitical event but a father calling his son.
Matthew 2:15 quotes Hosea 11:1 ('out of Egypt I called my son') as fulfilled in the return of the infant Jesus from Egypt — the son-of-Israel pattern is recapitulated in the Son of God who undergoes Israel's defining journey.
Peace and mercy to all who walk by this rule, even to the Israel of God.
Paul's 'Israel of God' (Yisrael tou Theou in Greek — the LXX term applied to the covenant community that walks by the cross): the 'Israel of God' in Galatians 6:16 is Paul's final benediction on those who live by the new creation, not circumcision (v. 15). Whether 'the Israel of God' is the believing church as a whole or the believing remnant of ethnic Israel within the church, the phrase connects the Jabbok name to its eschatological heirs: those who, in Christ, have 'striven with God' and found their identity in him.
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Hebrew word. he will rule as God ; Jisraël , a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
Israel.
יִשְׂרָאֵל is built from these roots:
Greek words that correspond to or develop the meaning of this Hebrew word in the New Testament.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael) is the covenant people's name — and it is a wrestling name. Jacob became Israel by refusing to release God in the night struggle at the Jabbok (Gen 32:26: 'I will not let you go unless you bless me'). The name that came out of that night encoded both the wound (the crippled hip) and the blessing in a single identity. Israel is not the name of a people who obeyed God perfectly but the name of a people who would not let go of God, even when he wounded them.
The prophetic tradition builds on this etymology: Isaiah's Qedosh Yisrael (25x) says that YHWH's holiness is not general but covenant-specific — he is the Holy One precisely of this wrestling people. Ezekiel's beit Yisrael oracle (36:22) says that YHWH's restoration of his people is the vindication of his own name against the nations who concluded that Israel's exile meant YHWH was impotent.
The preacher can trace a single line from Jabbok (Gen 32:28) to the exile-restoration oracles to Galatians 6:16: the 'Israel of God' that Paul blesses at the close of Galatians are those who have, in Christ, inherited the Jabbok identity — those who have wrestled with God, been marked by him, and received the blessing that comes only through the wound.
Gen.32.28
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael, H3478) is composed of יִשְׂרָ (from שָׂרָה, sarah, H8280 — to contend/persist/strive) + אֵל (El, H410 — God). The exact parsing of the first element is debated in BDB and other lexicons: it may be a Qal imperfect (yi-sarah = 'he strives') or a Hiphil ('he causes to rule'). Both etymological readings have theological support in the narrative.
The key compound phrases: בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל (bnei Yisrael — sons/children of Israel, the standard designation of the covenant people from Exodus through the Psalms); בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל (beit Yisrael — house of Israel, Ezekiel's preferred term: 83x); קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל (Qedosh Yisrael — Holy One of Israel, Isaiah's signature divine title: 25x in Isaiah). In the NT, Ἰσραήλ (Israel) appears 68 times; the 'Israel of God' formula (Gal 6:16) and 'not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel' (Rom 9:6) are the two key Pauline reframings of the name's scope.
Matthew 2:15 quotes Hosea 11:1 ('out of Egypt I called my son') as fulfilled in the return of Jesus from Egypt: the son-of-Israel narrative is recapitulated in the Son of God. Romans 9-11 is the fullest NT theological treatment of 'Israel': Paul's anguish for his 'kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites' (Rom 9:4) is grounded in the reality that the oracles, covenants, law, worship, patriarchs, and the Messiah himself came through this people (v.
4-5). Romans 9:6 introduces the intra-Israel distinction: 'not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel' — the elect remnant is the 'true Israel' (see Isa 10:20-22 on the remnant). Galatians 6:16's 'Israel of God' extends the name to all who walk by the new-creation rule. Revelation 7:4-8 and 21:12 use the twelve-tribe imagery of Israel for the sealed and the city — the covenant-people identity is carried forward in eschatological completion.
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