Lives of Scripture

Benjamin was born near Bethlehem as Jacob's family traveled through Canaan; his mother Rachel, dying in labor, named him Ben-oni ("son of my sorrow"), but Jacob renamed him Benjamin ("son of my right hand"), the only one of Jacob's twelve sons born in the promised land itself (Genesis 35:16-19). As Rachel's second son and Joseph's only full brother, Benjamin became especially precious to Jacob after Joseph was presumed dead, and Jacob refused for years to let him travel to Egypt during the famine (Genesis 42:4, 38). When Joseph, now Egypt's vizier, demanded to see Benjamin, Jacob relented only after Judah personally guaranteed his safety (43:8-14). Joseph wept at seeing his full brother again (43:29-30) and then tested the older brothers by planting his silver cup in Benjamin's sack and threatening to enslave him -- forcing the moment Judah, once willing to sell Joseph, instead offered himself as a substitute slave to spare their father further grief (44:1-34). That offer proved the brothers' repentance and triggered Joseph's tearful revelation of himself (45:1-4). Jacob's final blessing described Benjamin's tribe as "a ravenous wolf" (49:27), and Benjamin's descendants later produced Israel's first king, Saul, Queen Esther's ancestor Kish, and the apostle Paul (Philippians 3:5).