How Many?

How many tribes of Israel are identified in the Bible?

Answer: Between 10 and 14

We tend to think of the “12 tribes of Israel” as a fixed formula in the Bible. The most basic expression of this is the list of Jacob’s 12 sons in Genesis, who are understood to be the eponymous ancestors of the tribes (see, e.g., 35:22–26): Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.

The problem, however, is that throughout the canon, as the list of tribes is repeated more than 20 times in various contexts, both the number and the identities of the tribes vary. In Numbers 1:5–15, for example, Levi is omitted from the list—but the number 12 is maintained because Joseph is split into two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Elsewhere, the number increases, such as in Joshua 21:4–7, where Levi, Ephraim, and Manasseh are all included, and Manasseh is split further into two half-tribes, one in the land of Israel and one across the Jordan River in Bashan—a total of 14 groups.

At times the number decreases as well. In the Song of Deborah in Judges 5, for instance, a total of ten tribes is mentioned: the list omits Judah, Simeon, Levi, Gad, and Manasseh, but includes Ephraim as well as two other groups, Machir and Gilead.

In antiquity, the number 12 held special significance and represented wholeness or completeness—think, for instance, of Jesus’s 12 disciples. This likely explains the staying power of the notion of the “12 tribes,” even when that number was not precisely followed in every instance in the Bible.