Where are the twelve tribes of Israel listed in the Bible?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

Numbers 2 is a good place to find all the tribes. This chapter details the camping arrangement of the tribes while they travelled in the wilderness:

• On the east: Judah, Issachar and Zebulun (v3-7)
• On the south: Reuben, Simeon and Gad (v10-14)
• On the west: Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin (v18-22)
• On the north: Dan, Asher and Naphtali (v25-29)

These camped in a rectangle around the tabernacle. The tribe of Levi encamped in a smaller rectangle between the other 12 tribes and the tabernacle.

If you do your counting, you will find that there are actually 13 tribes listed. This is for two reasons:

1. Joseph was given firstborn status and as such had a double portion. Instead of a single tribe of Joseph, his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh were made tribes. In Gen 48:5 Jacob claims his grandsons as his own.
2. The Levites were not given tribal land and were instead dispersed throughout Israel. God says that the Levites were dedicated to him in place of all the firstborn sons of Israel which were saved during the last plague on Egypt (Num 3:40-41)

In other places the tribes are listed differently. When Jacob's blesses his sons (Gen 49) 12 are listed but Joseph is listed on his own instead of Ephraim and Manasseh.

In Revelation 7:1-8 where 144,000 faithful (12,000 from each tribe), Levi, Ephraim and Manasseh are all present, but Dan is omitted from the 12. It is important to remember that Revelation is highly symbolic. In Jacob's 'blessings' Dan is represented as a "serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path" (Gen 49:17). The snake is a symbol of sin throughout The Bible. It may be that this symbolism is used in this list, excluding the tribe representing sin as it is the righteous who are being sealed.

Answer 2

There are traditionally twelve Hebrew tribes recognised, representing each of the sons of Jacob or Israel. However, the names of the tribes vary somewhat through the Old Testament narrative, suggesting a more fluid tribal history than generally recognised. Either there were at different times more than twelve tribes, or biblical tradition was unsure of just what tribes existed in the earliest times of Hebrew history.

Genesis 49 lists twelve tribes:

• Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, Asher and Simeon.
  

Numbers 2 lists thirteen tribes while they travelled in the wilderness:

• Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Simeon, Ephraim and Manasseh.
  

Deuteronomy 33 lists eleven tribes:

• Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph (with both Ephraim and Manasseh named), Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, and Asher.
  Simeon is not listed and, with Ephraim and Manasseh replacing Joseph, would make thirteen tribes.
  

The Song of Deborah (Judges 5:2-31), which honours those tribes of Israel that joined in battle against a Canaanite coalition and castigates those that held back, names ten tribes as:

• Reuben, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulon, Issachar, Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Gilead,
  to which we should add Levi. This list notably omits Judah, as well as Simeon and Gad, but has Gilead.