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There is a song by Damian Marley that refers to "The sleeping sons of Jacob".

I looked up 'Sons of Jacob' on Wikipedia and now understand them to represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

I am also curious to know what the significance of "Sleeping" may mean, if anything. For the sake of clarity, I have only heard "sleeping" sons of Jacob in the Damian Marley song. (Is there a passage that uses the phrase "The sleeping sons of Jacob" in the Bible?)

Here's an example of the "sons of Jacob" that might refer to a larger group than just Jews:

You who fear the Lord, praise Him!
All you offspring of Jacob, honor Him!
Be in dread of Him, all you offspring of Israel!—Psalm 22:24 (NJPS)

Is it possible to read "offspring of Jacob" as "spiritual offspring"?

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Welcome to Biblical Hermeneutics. Just so you know, we are open to questions from people of all religious persuasion, so you are good there. However, we do come at the Bible from a rather academic angle and we really want the focus of the question to be on the Bible itself, so I'm going to edit this question a bit, if you don't mind. (If you do mind, I think it would be best to delete the question since you got the answer you were looking for.) – Jon Ericson♦ Jan 23 '12 at 17:11

1 Answer

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Addressing the question in the title:

The Hebrew phrase b'nei Yisrael refers to Jews (the sons of Jacob and all their descendants -- plus converts even though they technically aren't sons of Jacob). You usually see it in this form -- Israel, not Jacob. The only Tanakh uses of b'nei Yaakov (Jacob) I can think of are either referring to his sons specifically (genealogy) or poetic pairings with Yisrael (in Psalms, particularly; example in the edited question).

I suppose b'nei Yisrael would also refer to Jews who converted out (e.g. to Christianity or Islam). It wouldn't refer to gentile members of those religions, since they are not descendants of this family.

From what I've been taught, poetic repetitions aren't meant to describe exclusive sets; "chidren of Jacob" does not describe a completely different group than "children of Israel". The recasting/repetition is done for poetic effect or to bring some more-nuanced meaning. Another example of this is in Deut 32:1 at the beginning of Moshe's final song, where it says "give ear...listen". I don't know a lot about biblical-poetic constructs, so I can't elaborate more on this. (That might be a good separate question.)

As for what the English phrase in a song lyric could mean, I don't think this site will be able to help.

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Thank you Monica Cellio! – Matthew Patrick Cashatt Jan 23 '12 at 14:03
I edited the question to be more appropriate for the site. I think your answer still applies, however. The question of converts is interesting, but I think my questions on the subject would fit better on J.SE. ;-) – Jon Ericson♦ Jan 23 '12 at 17:18
@JonEricson, thanks for that clarification. I've added a little more to this answer (and left a new question dangling :-) ). I invite you to ask your conversion questions on J.SE, but on one foot: a convert is said to be ben/bat Avraham & Sarah, not Yaakov & (Rivka or Leah). So technically converts are cousins, I guess, but for all practical purposes they're included in b'nei Yisrael regardless. Converts don't get a lighter mitzvah load just because it doesn't say "command b'nei Avraham to...". – Monica Cellio Jan 23 '12 at 17:57
@Monica I think we are close on this one. Sons of Jacob refers to the sons in the flesh, or literal sons, Sons of Israel are the spiritual sons, those who adopt the faith. – Bob Jones Jul 6 '12 at 1:23

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