ISSACHAR. — The ninth son of Jacob, fifth by Leah, whose name *Jiššāḵār* in the perpetual *qere* corresponds to “hired man” or “there is hire,” while in the *ketiv* it means “He [God] procures the hire,” a third-person singular of the verb *škr* in the *šaphʿēl* form, an ancient Canaanite or Hebrew usage attested in Ugaritic texts.
The name is explained by the mother: “The Lord has given me my hire (*šekār*),” which presupposes the biblical nuance of the *ketiv* (Gen. 30:18; cf. V. 16). With his sons Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron (Gen. 46:13; Num. 26:23; 1 Chron. 7:1), he went down to Egypt with Jacob, where the tribe’s descendants multiplied so greatly that at the time of the Exodus it numbered 54,400 warriors in the first census (Num. 1:28–29) and 64,300 in the second (Num. 26:25). Issachar was represented by Igal in the exploration of Canaan (Num. 13:7) and by Paltiel in the commission for land division (Num. 34:26).
The boundaries of the Issacharite canton (Josh. 19:17–23) can be approximately traced by the enumeration of assigned cities: from En-gannim (= Jenin) at the southeastern edge of the Jezreel plain, through Jezreel (= Zerʿin) and Shunem (= Shunem), the line met Mount Tabor, the sacred mountain, bordering the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, and proceeded eastward to the Jordan. Thus it included the eastern part of the fertile Jezreel plain and the Valley of Jezreel, good and pleasant land. As foretold by Jacob (Gen. 49:14–15) and Moses (Deut. 33:18), the tribe, encamped in the valleys adjacent to Tabor and Nebi Dāyūd, did not benefit from the soil’s richness except at the cost of its independence and “like a sturdy donkey crouching between its saddlebags, he bowed his back to the burden,” serving in the caravans of powerful Canaanites. Yet the tribe joined the war proclaimed by Deborah against Sisera (Judg. 5:15), produced the judges Tola (Judg. 10:1) and the king Baasha (1 Kgs. 15:27), and with 87,000 warriors (1 Chron. 7:5) supported David’s accession to the throne of Israel (1 Chron. 12:32).