Ismaelites. See Ismael.
Isiuai'ah (1 Chron. xii, 4). See Isiimaiah, 1.
Is'pah (Heb. Yishpah', nsd^ \^roh.hald; Septuag. 'E(T0nx V. r. 'Ifd^fi), one of the " sons" of Beriah, a chief Benjamite (originally from the neighborhood of Aija- lon) resident at Jerusalem (1 Chron. viii, 16). B.C. ante 588.
Is'rael [not /2?wZ] (YLeb.Yisrael',\))<'y3^; Sept. and N. T. '\apar\\), the name of the founder of the Jew- ish nation, and of the nation itself, specially of the king- dom comprising the ten northern tribes after the schism.
The name was originally conferred by the angel-Je- hovah upon Jacob after the memorable prayer-struggle at Peniel (Gen. xxxii, 28) ; and the reason tliere assign- ed is that the patriarch " as a prince had power (H'^lb) with God and man, and prevailed" (comp. Gen. xxxv.
10; IIos. xii, 4). The etymology is therefore clearly from the root il"li!5, with the frequent adjunct PN, God. The verb itself occurs nowhere else than in the above passages, where it evidently means to sti-ive or contend as in battle ; but derivatives are fomid, e. g. iTlb, a princess, and hence applied to Abraham's wife in ex- change for her former name Sarai. The signification thus appears to be that of a "successful ici-estler -with God," a sense with which all the lexicographers sub- stantially coincide ; e. g. Gesenius {Ileh. Lex. s. v., and Thesaur. p. Voo^),pugnator, i. e. miles Dei ; Winer (Ihb. Lex. p. 1026), luctator, i. e. pugnator Dei; Fiirst {Ileb. Woiierb. s. v.), Gott-Beherrscher.
1. Jacob, whose history will be found under that name. Although, as applied to Jacob personally, Israel is an honorable or poetical appellation, it is the common prose name of his descendants, while, on the contrarj'-, the title Jacob is given to them only in poetry. In the latter division of Isaiah (after the 39th chapter), many instances occur of the two names used side by side, to subserve the parallelism of Hebrew poetry, as in ch. xl, 27; xii, 8, 14,20,21; xlii,24; xliii, 1, 22, 28, etc.; so, in- deed, in xiv, 1. The modern Jews, at least in the East, are fond of being named Israeli in preference to Yahudi, as more honorable. — Kitto. See Jacob.
2. The Israelites, i. e. the whole people of Israel, the twelve tribes; often called the chikh-en of Israel (Josh, iii, 17 ; vii, 25 ; Judg. viii, 27 ; Jer. iii, 21) ; and the house of Israel (Exod. xvi, 31 ; xl, 38) ; so also in Is- rael (1 Sam. ix, 9) ; and land of Israel, i. e. Palestine (I Sam. xiii, 19 ; 2 Kings vi, ,23). Sometimes the whole people is represented as one person : " Israel is my son" (Exod. iv, 22; Numb, xx, 14; Isa.xli,8; xlii,24; xliii, 1, 15 ; xliv, 1, 5). Israel is sometimes put emphatically ibr the true Israelites, the faithful, those distinguished for piety and virtue, and worth v of the name (Psa. Ixxiii, 1 ; Isa. xiv, 17 ; xlix, 3 ; John i, 47 ; Rom. ix, 6 ; xi, 26). Israelites was the usual name of the twelve tribes, from their leaving Egypt until after the death of Saul. But in consequence of the dissensions between the ten tribes and Judah from the death of Saul onward, these ten tribes, among whom Ephraim took the lead, arrogated to themselves this honorable name of the whole nation (2 Sam. ii, 9, 10, 17, 28 ; iii, 10, 17 ; xix, 40-43 ; 1 Kings xii, 1) ; and on their separation, after the death of Solo- mon, into an independent kingdom, founded by Jero- boam, this name was adopted for the kingdom, so that thenceforth the kings of the ten tribes were called kings of Israel, and the descendants of David, who ruled over Judah and Benjamin, were called kings of Judah. So in the prophets of that period Judah and Israel are put in opposition (IIos. iv, 15; v, 3, 5; vi, 10; vii, 1 ; viii, 2, 3,6,8; ix,l,7; Amos i, 1 ; ii,6; iii, 14; Mic.i,5; Isa.v, 7). Yet the kingdom of Judah could still be reckoned as a part of Israel, as in Isa. viii, 14, the two kingdoms are called the two houses of Israel; and hence, after the de- struction of the kingdom of Israel at Samaria, the name Israel began again to be applied to the whole surviving people. — Gesenius. See Hebrew ; Israelite ; etc.
3. It is used in a naiTower sense, excluding Judah, in 1 Sam. xi, 8. It is so used in the famous cry of the rebels against David (2 Sam. xx, 1) and against his grandson (1 Kings xii, 16). Thenceforth it was assumed and accepted as the name of the northern kingdom, in which the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, Dan, and Simeon had no share.— Smith. See Israel, Kingdom
OF.
4. After the Babylonian captivity, the returned ex- iles, although they were mainly of the kingdom of Ju- dah, resumed the name Israel as the designation of their nation, but as individuals they are almost always de- scribed as Jews in the Apocrypha and N. T. Instances occur in the books of Chronicles of the application of the name Israel to Judah (e. g. 2 Chron. xi, 3 ; xii, 6), and in Esther of the name Jews to the whole people. The name Israel is also used to denote laymen as dis-