A tribe — but the word's plain meaning is a STAFF, a rod, a branch (from natah, 'to stretch out, extend'). Israel's tribes are 'staffs': shoots off the one stock of Jacob, each a branch of the family tree, and each led by a man holding a chief's staff. Numbers prefers matteh where Genesis often used shevet (also 'rod/tribe'); the picture is the same — a people that is one tree with twelve branches. → first discussed at Num 1:4