What was the biblical trickster Jacob's name changed to?

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What was the biblical trickster Jacob's name changed to? His name was changed to Israel.

According to Genesis 32, Jacob wrestled through the night with a mysterious man, traditionally understood in Jewish and Christian interpretation as an angel or a manifestation of God. After Jacob refused to let go without receiving a blessing, he was told that he had struggled with God and with people and had prevailed. His new name, Israel, commemorated that encounter.

Jacob did not disappear from the biblical story after the renaming. Genesis continues to use both Jacob and Israel, depending on the passage and context. Israel later became the name of Jacob's descendants—the twelve tribes of Israel—so the personal name developed into the national name of the Israelites.

A common mix-up is confusing Jacob's renaming with Abram's change to Abraham. Those are separate events involving different patriarchs. Jacob was the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham, and the father of the twelve sons who became the traditional ancestors of Israel's tribes.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026

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