ISSACHAR (">3ti⅜', “there is a hire, or reward”; Ισσαχάρ), Jacob’s ninth son, his fifth by Leah. Slightly differing explanations of the reference in the name are given in Gen. xxx. 16 and xxx. 18. The territory of the tribe (Josh, xix, 17-23) included the whole of the great plain of Esdraelon, and the hills to the east of it, the boundary in that direction extending from Tabor to the Jordan, apparently along the deep gorge of Wady Bîreh. Of the sixteen cities enumerated, the greater number has been successfully identified. (See Conder, Handbook to the Bible, p. 266, 1879, and De Saulcy in Bull, de la Soc. Geogr. de Paris, i. 209 sq., 1879.) In the rich territory of Issachar, traversed by the great commercial highway from the Mediterranean to Bethshean, were several important Canaanitish towns which had preserved their independence; and, although the tribe is mentioned as having taken some part in the war of freedom under Deborah (Judg. v. 15), it is impossible to misunderstand the reference to its tributary condition in the blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 14, 15), or the fact that the name of this tribe is omitted from the list given in Judg. i. of those who bestirred themselves against the earlier inhabitants of the country. In the “blessing upon Zebulun and Issachar” in Deut, xxxiii. 18, 19, reference is made to Carmel, their sacred mountain, and to the trading and other advantages afforded by their seaboard.

the fifth son of Jacob and Leah, Gen. xxx, 14–18. He had four sons, Tola, Phovah, Job, and Shimron. We know nothing particular of his life. The tribe of Issachar had its portion in one of the best parts of the land of Canaan, along the great plain or valley of Jezreel, with the half tribe of Manasseh to the south, that of Zebulun to the north, the Mediterranean to the west, and Jordan, with the extremity of the sea of Tiberias, to the east.