How to read this biblical Abraham family tree
Read the chart from the top down. A figure of scripture has no years, so each plate gives the name alone.
A picture is a likeness
A detail of an old woodcut or painting, or a silhouette where no old picture names the person.
A solid line is a marriage
Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob with Leah and Rachel.
A dashed line is a partner
Bilhah and Zilpah, the maids given to Jacob.
A slash is a parting
Abraham sent Hagar away.
Terah, his sons and the cousin marriages
“Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran,” and Haran was the father of Lot.1 Abram married Sarai, and Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of Haran.1 Terah took Abram, Sarai and Lot out of Ur of the Chaldees towards Canaan.1
Genesis does not name Sarah’s parents in its list. Later, Abraham says of her, “she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother,” which makes her his half-sister.3 Rashi reads it otherwise. He identifies her with Iscah, the daughter of Haran named in Genesis 11:29, which would make her Abraham’s niece.15 The chart draws her link to Terah as uncertain for that reason.
Nahor’s line comes back into Abraham’s family tree two generations later. Milcah bore him eight sons, the last of them Bethuel, and Bethuel was the father of Rebekah.5 Her brother Laban was the father of Leah and Rachel.69 Isaac therefore married the granddaughter of his father’s brother, and Jacob married two daughters of his mother’s brother.
Abraham’s sons, Ishmael and Isaac
Sarai had no children, and she gave her Egyptian handmaid Hagar to Abram “to be his wife.”2 Hagar bore Ishmael.2 Sarah later bore Isaac in Abraham’s old age, and at Sarah’s demand Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness of Beersheba.4 An angel told Hagar that her son would become a great nation, and Ishmael became the father of twelve princes.47
Abraham then took another wife, Keturah, who bore six sons, among them Midian.7 When Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael buried him together in the cave of Machpelah.7
Jewish and Christian readers take this part of Abraham’s family tree in different ways. Rashi, after Genesis Rabbah, says that Keturah was Hagar under another name.16 Paul reads the two women as an allegory of two covenants, the bondwoman and the freewoman, and calls Christians “children of promise” as Isaac was.14
Esau, Jacob and the twelve sons
Rebekah bore twins. Esau came out first, red and hairy, and Jacob followed with his hand on his brother’s heel.7 Isaac later sent Jacob to Padanaram, to Laban, “the brother of Rebekah.”8 Jacob married Leah, the elder daughter, and Rachel, the younger, and each gave him her maid as well.910 After he wrestled at Peniel he was named Israel.11
Genesis 35 sums up the twelve sons by their mothers, and Genesis 49:28 calls them the twelve tribes of Israel.1213 Reuben was the firstborn, and Dinah, Leah’s daughter, is the one daughter named.1210 Rachel died on the way to Ephrath as Benjamin was born, and called him Benoni before Jacob named him.12
| Mother | Children | Verses |
|---|---|---|
 Leah | Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah | Genesis 29:32-35 |
| BBilhah, Rachel’s maid | Dan, Naphtali | Genesis 30:4-8 |
| ZZilpah, Leah’s maid | Gad, Asher | Genesis 30:9-13 |
| Leah | Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah | Genesis 30:17-21 |
 Rachel | Joseph, then Benjamin | Genesis 30:24, 35:18 |
Every person on the biblical Abraham family tree
Each person has a row with the verse that names the parents.
| Portrait | Person | In the sources | On the chart |
|---|---|---|---|
 | TerahFather of Abraham | Led the family out of Ur. Sources1 | |
 | NahorBrother of Abraham | Husband of Milcah. | |
 | AbrahamSon of Terah | Born Abram. Father of Ishmael and Isaac. | |
 | SarahWife of Abraham | His half-sister in Genesis 20:12. | |
 | HagarSarah’s Egyptian handmaid | Mother of Ishmael. Sources2 | |
 | IshmaelSon of Abraham | Father of twelve princes. | |
| B | BethuelSon of Nahor | Father of Rebekah and Laban. | |
 | IsaacSon of Abraham and Sarah | Father of Esau and Jacob. | |
 | RebekahWife of Isaac | Daughter of Bethuel. Sources6 | |
| L | LabanBrother of Rebekah | Father of Leah and Rachel. | |
 | EsauElder twin | Born first, Genesis 25:25. Sources7 | |
 | JacobYounger twin | Named Israel at Peniel. | |
| LeahWife of Jacob | Elder daughter of Laban. Sources9 | |
| RachelWife of Jacob | Younger daughter of Laban. | |
| B | BilhahRachel’s handmaid | Given to Jacob, Genesis 30:4. Sources10 | |
| Z | ZilpahLeah’s maid | Given to Jacob, Genesis 30:9. Sources10 | |
 | ReubenSon of Leah | Jacob’s firstborn. | |
 | SimeonSon of Leah | Genesis 29:33. Sources9 | |
 | LeviSon of Leah | Genesis 29:34. Sources9 | |
 | JudahSon of Leah | Genesis 29:35. Sources9 | |
 | IssacharSon of Leah | Genesis 30:18. Sources10 | |
 | ZebulunSon of Leah | Genesis 30:20. Sources10 | |
| D | DinahDaughter of Leah | Genesis 30:21. Sources10 | |
 | DanSon of Bilhah | Named by Rachel, Genesis 30:6. Sources10 | |
 | NaphtaliSon of Bilhah | Genesis 30:8. Sources10 | |
 | GadSon of Zilpah | Named by Leah, Genesis 30:11. Sources10 | |
 | AsherSon of Zilpah | Genesis 30:13. Sources10 | |
 | JosephSon of Rachel | Genesis 30:24. Sources10 | |
 | BenjaminSon of Rachel | Born as Rachel died, Genesis 35:18. Sources12 |
Questions about the biblical Abraham family tree
How Abraham and Sarah were related
Abraham calls Sarah the daughter of his father but not of his mother in Genesis 20:12. Rashi identifies her instead with Iscah, the daughter of Abraham’s brother Haran.
How many sons Abraham had
Genesis names eight, Ishmael by Hagar, Isaac by Sarah, and six by Keturah. Rashi takes Keturah to be Hagar.
Who the twelve tribes of Israel descend from
From the twelve sons of Jacob by Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah. Genesis 49:28 calls them “the twelve tribes of Israel.”
People and sources
A page of its own lists the 16 numbered sources this article cites. It also gives the credits of the portraits and this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.