Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

and

Rachel Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...

, and Jacob's twelfth and youngest son overall in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was also considered the progenitor of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin. Unlike Rachel's first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in Canaan according to biblical narrative. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, Benjamin's name appears as "" (

Samaritan Hebrew Samaritan Hebrew () is a reading tradition used liturgically by the Samaritans for reading the Biblical Hebrew, Ancient Hebrew language of the Samaritan Pentateuch. For the Samaritans, Ancient Hebrew ceased to be a spoken everyday language. It ...

: , "son of days"). In the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, Benjamin is referred to as a righteous young child, who remained with Jacob when the older brothers plotted against Joseph. Later rabbinic traditions name him as one of four ancient Israelites who died without sin, the other three being

Chileab Chileab (, ''Ḵīləʾāḇ'') also known as Daniel, was the second son of David, King of Israel, according to the Bible. He was David's son with his second wife Abigail, widow of Nabal the Carmelite, and is mentioned in , and . Unlike the o ...

, Jesse and

Amram In the Book of Exodus, Amram (; ) is the husband of Jochebed and father of Aaron, Moses and Miriam. In the Holy Scriptures In addition to being married to Jochebed, Amram is also described in the Bible as having been related to Jochebed ...

Name

The name is first mentioned in letters from King

Sîn-kāšid Sîn-kāšid (inscribed in : EN.ZU''-kà-ši-id'') was the Amorites, Amorite king of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk during the 18th century BC. No date lists are known nor any year names so his regnal length is uncertain, but it is likely ...

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

(1801–1771 BC), who called himself “King of Amnanum” and was a member of the Amorite tribal group the “Binu-Jamina” (single name “Binjamin”; Akkadian ). Dietz Otto Edzard: ''Die Nomaden in der altbabylonischen Zeit'' In: Elena Cassin, Jean Bottéro, Jean Vercoutter: ''Die Altorientalischen Reiche I - Vom Paläolithikum bis zur Mitte des 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr. -'', Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1965 (gleichnamige limitierte Sonderausgabe 2003), S. 170. The name means "Sons/Son of the South" and is linguistically related as a forerunner to the Old Testament name "Benjamin". According to the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Jahwist and the other being the Elohist. Unusual for one of the 12 tribes of Israel, the Bible does not explain the

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of Benjamin's name. Medieval commentator

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

gives two different explanations, based on

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

ic sources. "Son of the south", with south derived from the word for the right hand side, referring to the birth of Benjamin in Canaan, as compared with the birth of all the other sons of Jacob in Aram.''Jewish Encyclopedia'' Modern scholars have proposed that "son of the south" / "right" is a reference to the tribe being subordinate to the more dominant tribe of Ephraim. Alternatively, Rashi suggests it means "son of days", meaning a son born in Jacob's old age. The Samaritan Pentateuch consistently spells his name "בנימים", with a terminal mem, ("Binyamim"), which could be translated literally as "spirit man" but is in line with the interpretation that the name was a reference to the advanced age of Jacob when Benjamin was born. According to classical rabbinical sources, Benjamin was only born after

had fasted for a long time, as a religious devotion with the hope of a new child as a reward. By then

had become over 100 years old. Benjamin is treated as a young child in most of the Biblical narrative, but at one point is abruptly described as the father of ten sons. Textual scholars believe that this is the result of the genealogical passage, in which his children are named, being from a much later source than the Jahwist and Elohist narratives, which make up most of the Joseph narrative, and which consistently describe Benjamin as a child. By allusion to the biblical Benjamin, in French, Polish and Spanish, "Benjamin" (/ /, respectively) is a common noun meaning the youngest child of a family, especially a particularly favoured one (with a similar connotation to "baby of the family").

Israelites in Egypt

The Torah's Joseph narrative, at a stage when Joseph is unrecognised by his brothers, describes Joseph as testing whether his brothers have reformed by secretly planting a silver cup in Benjamin's bag. Then, publicly searching the bags for it, and after ''finding'' it in Benjamin's possession, demanding that Benjamin become his

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

as a punishment. The narrative goes on to state that when Judah (on behalf of the other brothers) begged Joseph not to enslave Benjamin and instead enslave him, since enslavement of Benjamin would break Jacob's heart. This caused Joseph to recant and reveal his identity. The midrashic book of Jasher argues that prior to revealing his identity, Joseph asked Benjamin to find his missing brother (i.e. Joseph) via

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

, using an astrolabe-like tool. It continues by stating that Benjamin divined that the ''man on the throne'' was Joseph, so Joseph identified himself to Benjamin (but not the other brothers), and revealed his scheme (as in the Torah) to test how fraternal the other brothers were. Some classical rabbinical sources argue that Joseph identified himself for other reasons. In these sources, Benjamin swore an oath, on the memory of Joseph, that he was innocent of theft, and, when challenged about how believable the oath would be, explained that remembering Joseph was so important to him that he had named his sons in Joseph's honour. These sources go on to state that Benjamin's oath touched Joseph so deeply that Joseph was no longer able to pretend to be a stranger. Morgan-bible-fl06

In the narrative, just prior to this test, when Joseph had first met all of his brothers (but not identified himself to them), he had held a feast for them; the narrative heavily implies that Benjamin was Joseph's favorite brother, since he is overcome with tears when he first meets Benjamin in particular, and he gives Benjamin five times as much food as he apportions to the others. According to textual scholars, this is really the Jahwist's account of the reunion after Joseph identifies himself, and the account of the threat to enslave Benjamin is just the Elohist's version of the same event, with the Elohist being more terse about Joseph's emotions towards Benjamin, merely mentioning that Benjamin was given five times as many gifts as the others.

Jacob's blessing

Upon his death, the patriarch Jacob blesses his youngest son: "Benjamin is a ravenous

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

; In the morning he consumes the foe, And in the evening he divides the spoil" (Genesis 49:27). This wolf symbolism has been interpreted to refer to several elements of the Tribe of Benjamin, including its heroic members like

King Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late elevent ...

and Mordecai, the tribe's often warlike nature, and the tribe's jurisdiction over the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...

in which sacrifices were 'devoured' by flame.

Origin

Biblical scholars believe, due to their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages, that Ephraim and Manasseh were originally considered one tribe, that of ''Joseph''.''Jewish Encyclopedia'', ''Ephraim'' According to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of this single tribe, but the biblical account of Joseph as his father became lost.'' Peake's Commentary on the Bible'' The description of Benjamin being born after the arrival in Canaan is thought by some scholars to refer to the tribe of Benjamin coming into existence by branching from the Joseph group after the tribe had settled in Canaan. A number of biblical scholars suspect that the distinction of the ''Joseph tribes'' (including Benjamin) is that they were the only Israelites which went to

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and returned, while the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaanites and had remained in Canaan throughout. According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit to Laban to obtain a wife originated as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

for this migration, with the property and family which were gained from Laban representing the gains of the Joseph tribes by the time they returned from Egypt. According to textual scholars, the Jahwist version of the Laban narrative only mentions the Joseph tribes and Rachel, and does not mention the other tribal matriarchs whatsoever.

Benjamin's sons

According to Genesis 46:21, Benjamin had ten sons: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. The name of his wife/wives are not given, but the Book of Jubilees calls his wife Ijasaka and the Book of Jasher mentions two wives, Mechalia the daughter of Aram and Aribath the daughter of Shomron. The classical rabbinical tradition adds that each son's name honors Joseph: *''Belah'' (meaning ''swallow''), in reference to Joseph disappearing (''being swallowed up'') *''Becher'' (meaning ''first born''), in reference to Joseph being the first child of Rachel *''Ashbel'' (meaning ''capture''), in reference to Joseph having suffered captivity *''Gera'' (meaning ''grain''), in reference to Joseph living in a ''foreign'' land (Egypt) *''Naaman'' (meaning ''grace''), in reference to Joseph having graceful speech *''Ehi'' (meaning ''my brother''), in reference to Joseph being Benjamin's only full-brother (as opposed to half-brothers) *'' Rosh'' (meaning ''elder''), in reference to Joseph being older than Benjamin *''Muppim'' (meaning ''double mouth''), in reference to Joseph passing on what he had been taught by Jacob *''Huppim'' (meaning '' marriage canopies''), in reference to Joseph being married in Egypt, while Benjamin was not there *''Ard'' (meaning ''wanderer''/''fugitive''), in reference to Joseph being like a rose There is a disparity between the list given in Genesis 46 and that in Numbers 26, where the sons of Benjamin are listed along with the tribes they are the progenitors of. *''Belah'', progenitor of the Belaites, is in both lists *''Ashbel'', progenitor of the Ashbelites, is in both lists *''Ahiram'', progenitor of the Ahiramites, appears in this list but not the first *''Shupham'', progenitor of the Shuphamites, corresponds to Muppim from the first list *''Hupham'', progenitor of the Huphamites, corresponds to Huppim from the first list Becher, Gera, Ehi, and Rosh are omitted from the second list. Ard and Naaman, who are the sons of Benjamin according to Numbers 26, are listed as the sons of Belah and are the progenitors of the Ardites and the Naamites respectively.

In Islam

Though not named in the

, Benjamin ( Binyāmīn) is referred to as the righteous youngest son of

, in the narrative of Joseph in Islamic tradition. Apart from that, however, Islamic tradition does not provide much detail regarding Benjamin's life, and refers to him as being born from Jacob's wife

. As with Jewish tradition, it also further links a connection between the names of Benjamin's children and Joseph.

Citations

External links

*
"Benjamin"
'' The Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1908: Material on the tribe, its territory, Rabbinical tradition and Islam. {{Authority control Children of Jacob Founders of biblical tribes Book of Jubilees Tribe of Benjamin