Jacob's limp

Abstract

This study describes in modern medical terms a traumatic hip injury suffered by the Biblical patriarch Jacob approximately 3,500 years ago. The case history is based on the original Hebrew text found in the Bible book of Genesis (Chapter 32:25-33) as interpreted by traditional Jewish commentaries on the Bible. Jacob sustained a hip injury in hand-to-hand combat with an adversary or through an intense physiological reaction to a prophetic vision of such a battle. He appears to have sustained neurological injury to his sciatic nerve as well as musculoskeletal damage to his hip. These injuries caused a temporary limping gait. Jacob probably sustained a neurapraxia of the sciatic nerve. The differential diagnosis of his musculoskeletal hip injury includes hip dislocation, fracture, soft tissue trauma, and articular pathology.