Promise of Zebulun

It’s no wonder that the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the region of Galilee, was considered a place of darkness. Towns had been sold to the Gentile Hiram, and apparently pronounced worthless (1 Kings 9). This region was the first to go into exile (2 Kings 15:29), and the Assyrians resettled Gentiles in the land (2 Kings 17). Galilee was not a thoroughly Gentile region, but it was considered a borderland, not quite fully Gentile but not quite fully Jewish either.

Yet the name “Zebulun” contained a promise of restoration. Like all the names of Jacob’s sons, “Zebulun” is a pun. When Leah bore a sixth son to Jacob, she said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell ( zabal ) with me, because I have born him six sons.”

Matthew records the fulfillment of this hope, for Jesus withdraws from Judea to Galilee to “dwell” in Capernaum (Matthew 4:13). Zebulun becomes truly Zebulun, the place of dwelling for the divine husband of Israel.