According to the
Hebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic...
, the
Tribe of Benjamin was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.
Following the completion of the conquest of
CanaanCanaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt...
by the
IsraeliteIn the Bible, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
tribes after about 1200 BCE,
JoshuaJoshua , according to the Hebrew Bible, was an Israelite leader who succeeded Moses. His story is told chiefly in the books Exodus, Numbers and Joshua. He was one of the twelve spies sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan...
allocated the land among the twelve tribes. To Benjamin he assigned the territory between that of
EphraimAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh together with Ephraim also formed the House of Joseph....
to the north and
JudahAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
to the south, with the
Jordan RiverThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
as the eastern border, and included many historically important cities, such as
BethelBethel was a border city described in the Old Testament as being located between Benjamin and Ephraim...
,
GibeahGibeah – could be a variation of the Hebrew word meaning “hill,” other names include Gibeah of Benjamin and Gibeah of Saul. The site is believed to be identical to Tell el-Ful meaning “mound of beans” in Arabic, a hill next to the modern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Pisgat Ze'ev.It is located along...
, and encroached on the northern hills of
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
. However, even by the time of the prophetess
DeborahDeborah or was a prophetess and the fourth, and the only female, Judge of pre-monarchic Israel in the Old Testament . Her story is told twice, in chapters 4 and 5 of Judges.Judges 5 gives this same story in poetic form...
, Bethel is described as being in the land of the
Tribe of EphraimAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh together with Ephraim also formed the House of Joseph....
. Some twenty years after the breakup of the
United MonarchyThe united Kingdom of Israel was a kingdom in the Land of Israel according to the Bible, a period referred to by scholars as the United Monarchy.-Background:...
,
AbijahAbijah or Abiah or Abia is a Biblical unisex name meaning "My father is Yahweh" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament the name Abijah was borne by several characters:# A son of Becher, the son of Benjamin....
, the second king of
Kingdom of JudahThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
, defeated
JeroboamJeroboam was a member of the Tribe of Ephraim and the first king of the Northern...
of Israel and took back the towns of
BethelBethel was a border city described in the Old Testament as being located between Benjamin and Ephraim...
, Jeshanah and
EphronEphron is the surname of a family of American writers:* Henry Ephron * Phoebe Ephron * Amy Ephron * Delia Ephron * Hallie Ephron , sometimes writes under G. H. Ephron* Nora Ephron...
, with their surrounding villages. Ephron is believed to be the
OphrahOphrah is a name in the Hebrew Bible meaning "a fawn", given to:* A city of Benjamin ; probably identical with Ephron and Ephraim . The modern Israeli settlement of Ofra is close to the site....
that was also allocated to the Tribe of Benjamin by Joshua.
Its situation, between the leading tribe of the
Kingdom of IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel ) was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It existed roughly from the 930s BC until about the 720s BC, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
(Ephraim), and the leading tribe of the
Kingdom of JudahThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
(Judah), is seemingly prophesied in the
Blessing of MosesThe Blessing of Moses is the name sometimes given to a poem that appears in Deuteronomy . The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the Blessing of Jacob, which has the same theme...
, where it is described as
dwelling between YHWH's shoulders.
Textual scholarsTextual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
view this as a
postdictionAccording to critics of paranormal beliefs, postdiction is an effect of hindsight bias that explains claimed predictions of significant events, such as plane crashes and natural disasters...
- maintining that the poem was written long after the tribe had settled there.
From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first
Kingdom of IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel ) was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It existed roughly from the 930s BC until about the 720s BC, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
in c. 1050 BCE, the Tribe of Benjamin was a part of a loose
confederationA confederation is an association of sovereign member states, that by treaty have delegated certain of their competences to common institutions, in order to coordinate their policies in a number of areas, without however constituting a new state on top of the member states...
of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by
ad hocAd hoc is a Latin phrase which means "for this [purpose]". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and which cannot be adapted to other purposes....
leaders known as
JudgesBiblical judges were leaders of the Israelite Tribes during the period of the Israelite confederacy, commencing with the conquest by the Israelites of Canaan in c. 1200 BCE until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c. 1050 BCE...
. (see the
Book of JudgesThe Book of Judges is a book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew. It appears in the Tanakh and in the Christian Old Testament...
) With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet the challenge. The first king of this new entity was
Saul-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
, who came from the Tribe of Benjamin, which at the time was the smallest of the tribes.
After the death of Saul, all the tribes other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul, but after the death of
Ish-boshethIsh-bosheth also called Eshbaal , Ashbaal or Ishbaal, appears in the Hebrew Bible. He was born in c. 1047 BCE and was one of the four sons of King Saul with Ahinoam, daughter of Ahimaaz...
, Saul's son and successor to the throne of Israel, the Tribe of Benjamin joined the northern Israelite tribes in making
DavidDavid was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Bible. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet .The biblical chronology sets his life c.1037–970 BCE, his reign over Judah c.1007–1000 BCE,...
, who was then the king of Judah, king of a re-united Kingdom of Israel. However, on the accession of
RehoboamAccording to the Hebrew Bible, Rehoboam was a king of ancient Israel and later king of the Kingdom of Judah after the ten northern tribes of Israel rebelled in 932/931 BC to form the independent Kingdom of Israel....
, David's grandson, in c. 930 BCE the northern tribes split from the
House of DavidThe Davidic line refers to the tracing of lineage to the King David referred to in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the New Testament...
to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. However, this time the Tribe of Benjamin remained loyal to the House of David, and remained a part of the Kingdom of Judah, in which it remained until Judah was conquered by
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
in c. 586 BCE and the population deported.
When the Jews returned from Babylonian exile, residual tribal affiliations were abandoned, probably because of the impossibility of reestablishing previous tribal land holdings. However, the special religious roles decreed for the
LeviLevi was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third son of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite tribe of Levi .-Biblical account:...
s and
KohanimA Kohen is a Jew who is in direct patrilineal descent from the Biblical Aaron, older brother of Moses, with an honored status in Judaism...
were preserved, and the general population was called Israel. These designations are still followed today.
Origin
According to the
TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
, the tribe consisted of descendants of
BenjaminBenjamin in the Book of Genesis, is a son of Jacob, the second son of Rachel, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin; in the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son – Joseph, the father of Ephraim and Manasseh – Benjamin was born after Jacob and Rachel arrived in Canaan...
, the youngest son of
JacobJacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarch and ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel, named after ten of his twelve sons, as well as the two sons of his son Joseph.The Bible says...
with
RachelAccording to the Hebrew Bible, Rachel is a prophet and the favorite wife of Jacob, one of the three Biblical Patriarchs, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife...
, who was born after Jacob returned to Canaan.
The
etymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages, and texts about the languages, to gather knowledge about how words were used at earlier stages, and...
of the name
Benjamin is a matter of dispute, though most agree that it is composed of two parts -
ben and
jamin - the former meaning
son of. The literal translation of
Benjamin is
son of right (as opposed to
left), generally interpreted as meaning
son of my right hand, though sometimes interpreted as
son of the right side; being associated with the right hand side was traditionally a reference to strength and virtue (cf
sinisterSinister means the following:1. Threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous: a sinister remark2. Bad, evil, base, or wicked; fell: his sinister purposes3. Unfortunate; disastrous; unfavorable: a sinister accident...
, which derives from the
latinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
for
left). This is, however, not the only literal translation, as the root for
right is identical to that for
south, hence
Benjamin also literally translates as
son of the south; this meaning is advocated by several classical rabbinical sources, which argue that it refers to the birth of Benjamin in Canaan, as compared with the birth of all the other sons of Jacob in
AramAram may refer to:In the Bible:* Aram, son of Shem , according to the 'Table of Nations' in Genesis 10* Aram-Naharaim , the land in which the city of Haran lay...
. Modern scholars have instead proposed that, with the eponymous Benjamin being just a metaphor,
son of the south/
son of the right are references to the tribe coming into existence in a geographic situation respect to the more dominant tribe of Ephraim. In the
Samaritan PentateuchThe Samaritan Torah or Samaritan Pentateuch is a version of the Torah or Pentateuch that is used by the Samaritans....
, the name is consistently written with a terminal
memMem is the thirteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic...
, making it
Benjamim, and would literally translate as
son of days; some classical rabbinical literature argues that this was the original form of the name and was a reference to the old age of Jacob when Benjamin was born.
Character
In the
Blessing of JacobThe Blessing of Jacob is a poem that appears in Genesis at .The poem presents an opinion of the merits and attributes of each of the Tribes of Israel, and so can be compared with the Blessing of Moses, which has the same theme...
, Benjamin is referred to as a ravenous wolf; traditional interpretations often considered this to refer to the
mightMight may refer to:* Might, an English auxiliary verb, a verb whose function it is to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb which follows it...
of a specific member of the tribe, either the champion
EhudEhud ben‑Gera Ehud ben‑Gera Ehud ben‑Gera was the judge who fought against the Moabites, which were ruled by King Eglon. Ehud had made a short double-edged sword about a foot and a half long...
, king
Saul-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
, or
MordecaiMordecai or Mordechai - the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin, is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible.-His life and deeds:...
of
the Esther narrativeThe Book of Esther is one of the books of the Ketuvim of the Tanakh and of the Historical Books of the Old Testament. The Book of Esther or the Megillah is the basis for the Jewish celebration of Purim...
, or in Christian circles, the apostle
PaulPaul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, Paul of Tarsus, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul, or Saint Paul, ...
. The
Temple in JerusalemThe Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to a series of structures located on the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem. Historically, two temples were built at this location, and a future Temple features in Jewish eschatology. According to classical Jewish belief, the Temple acts as...
was traditionally said to be partly in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin (but mostly in that of Judah), and some traditional interpretations of the Blessing consider the
ravenous wolf to refer to the Temple's altar, as
simileA simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as". Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes allow the two ideas to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things without...
in regard to the heavy presence there of
biblical sacrificesKorban , in Judaism, is the term for a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah. Such sacrifices were offered in a variety of settings by the ancient Israelites, and later by the Jewish priesthood, the Kohanim, at the Temple in Jerusalem...
. Some scholars believe that it instead originates from the tribe having the figure of a wolf in its standard.
The Battle of Gibeah
The tribe of Benjamin is initially described in the Bible as being very
pugnaciousMilitarism is the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
, for example in the Song of Deborah, and in descriptions where they are described as being taught to fight left handed, so as to be able to wrong foot their enemies and where they are portrayed as being brave and skilled
archersArchery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...
.
However, an abrupt change of character to one of placidity occurs in the text after a traumatic incident for the tribe. The
Book of JudgesThe Book of Judges is a book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew. It appears in the Tanakh and in the Christian Old Testament...
recounts that an incident of gross inhospitality by part of the tribe resulted in a
Battle at GibeahBattle of Gibeah was a biblical battle which could be considered as the only Israelite Civil War . The battle was triggered in response to an incident of gross inhospitality on part of the Tribe of Benjamin, in which a concubine belonging to a man from the Tribe of Levi was raped to death by a...
, in which the other tribes of Israel sought vengeance, and after which the surviving members of Benjamin were
systematically slaughteredGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
, including women and children; when Benjamin was nearly extinguished, it was decided that the tribe should be allowed to survive, and the 600 surviving men of Benjamin were married off to wives from other tribes.
According to textual scholars, the biblical text describing the battle and the events surrounding it is considerably late in date, originating close to the time of the
deuteronomistThe Deuteronomist is one of the sources of the Torah postulated by the Documentary Hypothesis that treats the texts of Scripture as products of human intellect, working in time. Martin Noth argued that there was an underlying unity in language and cultural content of the books from Deuteronomy to...
's compilation of Judges from its source material, and possibly has several exaggerations of both numbers and of modes of warfare, and additionally, the inhospitality which triggered the Battle is reminiscent of the Torah's account of
Sodom and GomorrahSodom and Gomorrah , Arabic: عمورة ʿAmūrah, Greek Γόμορρα) were two cities in the Bible which were destroyed by God....
. Many Biblical scholars concluded that the account was a piece of political spin, which had been intended to disguise atrocities carried out by the
tribe of JudahAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
against
Benjamin, probably in the time of King David as an act of revenge or spite by David against the associates of King Saul, by casting them further back in time, and adding a more justifiable motive; more recently, scholars have suggested that it is more likely for the narrative to be based on a kernel of truth, particularly since it accounts for the stark contrast in the biblical narrative between the character of the tribe before the incident, and its character afterwards.
Fate
After the dissolution of the united
Kingdom of IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel ) was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It existed roughly from the 930s BC until about the 720s BC, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
in c. 930 BCE, Benjamin joined the
Tribe of JudahAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
as a junior partner in the
Kingdom of JudahThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
, or Southern Kingdom. The Davidic dynasty, which had roots in Judah, continued to reign in Judah. As part of the kingdom of Judah, Benjamin survived the
destruction of Israel by the AssyriansThe Northern Kingdom of Israel was extorted, invaded, conquered, and taken captive primarily by the Neo-Assyrian monarchs, Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V. The later Assyrian rulers Sargon II and his son and successor, Sennacherib, were responsible for finishing the twenty year demise of...
, but instead was subjected to the
Babylonian captivityAlthough the term Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile typically refers to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC, in fact the exile started with the first deportation in 597 BC...
; when the captivity ended, the distinction between Benjamin and Judah was lost in favour of a common identity as
Israel.