Hebrews, Jews, and Israelites

Bereishit - Genesis - Chapter 12
1 And the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will aggrandize your name, and [you shall] be a blessing.
3 And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you."
4 And Abram went, as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy five years old when he left Haran.
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.
6 And Abram passed through the land, until the place of Shechem, until the plain of Moreh, and the Canaanites were then in the land.
7 And the Lord appeared to Abram, and He said, "To your seed I will give this land," and there he built an altar to the Lord, Who had appeared to him.

Gen. 12-25
With Abraham the story of the Hebrews begins, and it is clearly stated that Hebrew origins lay outside Canaan. The summons to leave his ancestral home and journey to Canaan is accompanied by a promise (Gen. 12:2) that becomes a submotif in patriarchal accounts, re-appearing again and again (cf. Gen. 13:14 f., 15:5 f., 18:10, 22:17, 26:24, 28:13 f., 32:12 f., 35:9 ff., 48:16), finally taking covenantal form (Gen. 17:14 ff.).

The promise has two parts: nationhood and divine blessing or protection. The precise location of the nation-to-be is not specified but was, of course, known to those hearing or reading the account. The promise of blessing signified the unique and particularistic bond between Hashem and his followers, so that the enemies of Abraham or the nation were enemies of Hashem, and those befriending Abraham and/or the nation would be blessed. With this assurance, Abraham journeyed to Canaan, Egypt, the Negeb, Hebron, Gezer, Beer-sheba and back to Hebron where he and his wife Sarah died.

Generally speaking, the terms Hebrews, Jews, and Israelites all refer to the same people- the nation which sprang from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, a nation promised and chosen by God in the Torah (Genesis 12:1-3). Each term emphasizes some aspect of this people's origin or background.

The term Hebrew is first used in the scriptures to refer to Abraham (Genesis 14:13). Then it is used of Joseph (Genesis 39:14,17) and the other descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 40:15; 43:32). It is uncertain why Abraham is called ~'the Hebrew." Some have suggested that the word Hebrew comes from a word meaning 'on the other side" or "to cross over" and alludes to Abraham leaving Ur and crossing the Euphrates River. Furthermore, no special reason is given in the scriptures for calling the nation that came from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, Hebrews. The term does, however, identify the nation as descendants of Abraham. The name of Jacob, the son of Isaac (Genesis 25:26) who was the promised son of Abraham (Genesis 17:19), was changed to Israel when he wrestled with a man of God (Genesis 32:28). Hence, the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob (Israel) made up the nation of Israel and were sometimes called Israelites (Exodus 9:7). When the nation divided, the ten northern tribes arrogated to themselves the name Israel, and the two southern tribes became known as Judah. Both nations were taken captive; Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians and Judah was later taken captive by the Babylonians. When the Babylonian captivity ended, exiles of both nations- Israel and Judah- returned to their homeland and were again united under the designation of Israel. The term Jews was first used to describe the inhabitants of Judah, the name taken by the two southern tribes of the nation of Israel during the division (2 Kings 6:6;25:25). After the Babylonian captivity, the meaning was extended to embrace all of Israel. It is suggested by some that this name may have been given to all Israel at this time because the larger portion of people were from Judah. Judean, Yehuda, or Jew. Jew ultimately originates in the Biblical Hebrew word Yehudi meaning "from the Tribe of Judah", "from the Kingdom of Judah", or "Jew". The Jewish ethnonym in Hebrew is יהודים, Yehudim (plural of יהודי, Yehudi)