Jacob was the younger of twins. His older brother was Esau. Jacob was a farmer and herdsman and Esau was a hunter.

Jacob was sitting home one day when his brother came home very tired from an unsuccessful hunt. Esau saw that Jacob had made some soup, and asked Jacob for a bowl.

Jacob asked Esau what he would be willing to give for a bowl of such good soup, and Esau was prepared to sell his birthright, (as firstborn), for that bowl of soup. Esau was punished for thinking so little of such a great honor and inheritance.

When Jacob received his father Isaac's blessing as the firstborn, Jacob was afraid that Esau would kill him, so he ran away to the land where his grandfather Abraham had come from.

There he met and fell in love with Rachel, but wound up marrying her older sister Leah first, and then he married Rachel. (This is no longer allowed according to the Torah).

Rachel and Leah and Bilhah and Zilpah gave birth to twelve sons and at least one daughter. For more information, see VaYetze.

He and his sons went to Egypt at the invitation of Joseph, and he died there at the age of 147. His body was taken to Hebron, where he was interred in the Cave of Machpelah.