NEPHTHALI (Hebr. Naphtalī). - Second-born son of Giacobbe, born of Bala, Rachele’s slave.
His name is interpreted in Gen. 30, 8 as “contest,” an allusion to the distress of Rachele, long barren in comparison with her sister Lia; from the root pṭlmiṭhī' al), Set-
NEPHTHALI. — NEPOTISM
Septuagint Νεφθελ[ε]ι[μ]. N. is the progenitor of the tribe of the same name. He is mentioned only with his four sons in the list of Jacob’s sons who migrated to Egypt (Gen. 46, 24) and in his father’s prophetic farewell, in tenth place (Gen. 49, 21).
The tribe of N. was among the northern tribes. In the allotment by lot of the land of Canaan, after the conquest under Joshua, it received the territory west of Lake Merom (el-Hüleh, with its northern boundary approximately at the level of the city of Cades, which belonged to it) and of Lake Genesareth (cf. Deut. 33, 23, where the fertility of the region is also alluded to), between Dan to the north, Aser to the north-east, Zabulon to the west, and Issachar to the south. It was important Judges (v.), when, together with Zabulon (Iudc. 4, 6; 5, 18; cf. Is. 8, 23; Ps. 68, 28), it carried out the enterprise morally directed by Debora and Barac (v.) against Iabin and Sisara (Iudc. 4), and celebrated in the famous canticle (Iudc. 5; cf. already Gen. 49, 21). N. and Zabulon are also recalled as participants in Gedeon’s campaign against the Madianites (Iudc. 7, 23). The Nephtalites subsequently shared the common fate of the northern tribes, first separated into the “Kingdom of Israel,” then ruined by deportation to Assyria (cf. I Par. 5, 26). Giovanni Rinaldi