BENJAMIN

benjamin, a tribe of israel, named after the youngest son of jacob and rachel. as distinct from the others benjamin was born not beyond the jordan but in palestine, between bethel and ephrath. his mother, dying in childbed, gave him the name ben-oni, "son of my sorrow," which was changed by his father to ben-jamin, meaning probably "son of the right hand" (i.e. "of prosperity," or, perhaps, "son of the south"; gen. xxxv. 16-18). of his personal history little is recorded. he was the favourite of his father and brothers (with which contrast the spirit of the stories in judg. xix.-xxi.), and the reputation of fierceness ascribed to him in the blessing of jacob ("benjamin is a wolf that teareth," gen. xlix. 27) agrees with what is told of the tribe's warriors (see ehud,