The land of Naphtali lay in the north of Israel, named after the tribe of Naphtali, which descended from Naphtali, the son of Jacob by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid (Genesis 30:7-8). Its territory ran from the Lebanon mountains in the north to the Sea of Galilee in the south, bordered the Jordan River on the east, and adjoined the tribes of Asher and Zebulun to the west. Nineteen cities with their villages lay within its borders.
Barak, son of Abinoam, came from Kedesh-naphtali and led ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun to Mount Tabor, where they defeated Sisera, captain of the Canaanite army of Jabin (Judges 4:6-15). The region is named in Isaiah’s prophecy, quoted by Nephi, of a land first afflicted that would later see a great light (2 Nephi 19:1). Matthew applies the prophecy to the ministry of Jesus, who left Nazareth and dwelt in Capernaum, on the border of Zebulun and Naphtali (Matthew 4:13-16). The tribe’s lands were conquered and its people carried into exile by the Assyrians.