[See Jacob's Family Tree]
Overview
Levi (Son of Jacob) is the third son of Jacob. His mother is Leah. The meaning of his name is union. He became one of the twelve tribes of Israel, and his tribe served as priests for generations.
Life
Jacob (Son of Isaac) always loved Rachel, so Leah longed for her husband's love. God heard Leah's plea and poured out many blessings of children upon her, and Levi was the third of them. In Genesis 34, his sister Dinah went to a village where the Hivites lived and was raped. This incident led him and his brother Simeon to attack the village and kill all the men. Because of this, his father Jacob gave Levi a blessing that was almost a curse just before his death.
Priestly Family
God chose Levi's descendants to become a priestly family. He entrusted them with the union between God and humanity. Levi had three sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And the three siblings Moses, Aaron, and Miriam were the children of Amram, a descendant of Kohath.
Later, during the Conquest of Canaan, even though land was distributed to the twelve tribes, the tribe of Levi was not given a separate territory but was sustained by the offerings brought by each tribe.