ZEBULUN

one of the 12 tribes of Israel that in biblical times constituted the people of Israel who later became the Jewish people. The tribe was named for the sixth son born of Jacob and his first wife, Leah. After the Israelites took possession of the Promised Land, Joshua divided the territory among the 12 tribes, assigning to the tribe of Zebulun a fertile section of land roughly northeast of the Plain of Jezreel. After the death of King Solomon (922 BC), the Israelites separated into the northern Kingdom of Israel (representing 10 tribes) and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 721 BC, and its tribes dispersed. Jewish legends thus consider the tribe of Zebulun as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.