Death: Genesis 50:26 after living 110 yrs.
Fathers: Jacob
Mother: Rachel
Sister: Dinah
Brothers: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph
Spouse: (not stated)
Sons: Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard
Noteworthy descendants (see below): king Saul, Esther
Benjamin's mother, Rachel, died after giving birth to him - Genesis 35:15-18
15. Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.
16. Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty.
17. And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son."
18. As she breathed her last--for she was dying--she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.
After his older brother, Joseph, was sold him into slavery and taken to Egypt, Benjamin's other brothers staged his death so Jacob thought Joseph was dead. When a famine threatened the entire region, the brothers (except Benjamin) journeyed to Egypt to acquire food -
Genesis 42:4. Joseph recognized his brothers; but, they didn't recognize him. He asked that
his younger brother, Benjamin, be brought to him when they returned. Jacob panicked since he favored Rachel's sons over Leah's and he didn't want to lose both of them - Genesis 42:36. The brothers traveled back to Egypt and Joseph set up a banquet
to celebrate seeing Benjamin again. He received 5 times the portions of food and gifts that the other brothers did -
Genesis 43. Joseph tricked his brothers into making Benjamin stay while they brought back his father Jacob - Genesis 44. Jacob's family was reunited after Joseph revealed his identity -
Genesis 45. Jacob brought his entire family to Egypt to endure the famine in Goshen at age 130 - Genesis 46; 47.
Genesis 46:19-21:
19. The sons of Jacob's wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
20. In Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.
21. The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.
When he was about to die & bless his sons, Jacob mentions Benjamin - Genesis 49:27
Exodus 1:1-7:
1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:
2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;
3. Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;
4. Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
5. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,
7. but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
1 Chronicles 2:2 reiterated Jacob's sons including Benjamin.
By this point, Benjamin and his brothers had already passed away. Their descendants were traveling with Moses during the Exodus from Egypt.
Most references after this were to the Benjamites (tribe of Benjamin) or the territory assigned to them.
Moses led the Israelites (Jacob's family) out of Egypt, headed for Canaan. The head of the Benjamites was stated as "Abidan son of Gideoni" in
Numbers 1:11 & 2:22. Abidan was mentioned again in
Numbers 7:60 & 10:24. When in Kadesh Barnea, Moses sent
spies to Canaan to survey the land. Numbers 13:9 named the spy from the tribe of Benjamin as "Palti son of Raphu".
Numbers 26:38-41:
38. The descendants of Benjamin by their clans were: through Bela, the Belaite clan; through Ashbel, the Ashbelite clan; through Ahiram, the Ahiramite clan;
39. through Shupham, the Shuphamite clan; through Hupham, the Huphamite clan.
40. The descendants of Bela through Ard and Naaman were: through Ard, the Ardite clan; through Naaman, the Naamite clan.
41. These were the clans of Benjamin; those numbered were 45,600.
When allocating the lands taken by the Canaanites, Moses appointed leaders from each tribe. Numbers 34:21 named the Benjamite leader as "Elidad son of Kislon".
Deuteronomy 27:12:
12. When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin.
Moses blessed the tribes before he died. He addressed the Benjamites in Deuteronomy 33:12.
After Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan, the portion allocated for tribe of Benjamin was described in detail in
Joshua 18:11-28 incuding the following reference:
21. The tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, had the following cities: Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,
22. Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,
23. Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,
24. Kephar Ammoni, Ophni and Geba--twelve towns and their villages.
25. Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,
26. Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah,
27. Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,
28. Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath--fourteen towns and their villages. This was the inheritance of Benjamin for its clans.
The Levites (priests) complained that they were also promised towns and land.
Joshua 21:1-45 described what the different families of priests received. The following were the shares from the Benjamites:
3. So, as the LORD had commanded, the Israelites gave the Levites the following towns and pasturelands out of their own inheritance:
4. The first lot came out for the Kohathites, clan by clan. The Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest were allotted thirteen towns from the tribes of Judah, Simeon and Benjamin.
...
17. And from the tribe of Benjamin they gave them Gibeon, Geba,
18. Anathoth and Almon, together with their pasturelands--four towns.
As you might have noticed from Joshua 18:28, Jerusalem, a former city of the Jebusites,
was mentioned. Judges 1:1 (King James version) stated:
1. And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.
Another town named Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin has several mentions including Judges 5:14; 10:9; 19:14, then again in 1 Samuel 13 and 14:16.
There was an incident in Judges 19 where a Levite and his concubine were traveling and stopped near Jerusalem for the night. His concubine was raped repeatedly overnight so badly that she didn't survive the night. Since the Benjamites had been given Jerusalem, the Israelites declared war on the Benjamites because they had become as wicked as the people of Sodom in the time of Lot. As Judges 20 stated, the Israelites met in Gibeah to determine their war plan. The Benjamites encountered heavy losses. Their towns were burned and their families were killed. After the Benjamites had surrendered in Judges 21, the Israelites took pity on them and tried to replace their spouses so the tribe of Benjamin wasn't lost to history.
Eli and his sons died when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant. In 1 Samuel 4:12, a Benjamite ran to Shiloh to inform the Israelites about the attack & loss of the Ark. Samuel assumed duty as the high priest since Eli had died.
1 Chronicles 8 and 9 listed many of Benjamin's descendants.
According to 1 Chronicles 8:29-33, Saul's lineage: Jeiel > Gibeon > Kish > Saul
When the Israelites demanded a king, Samuel ordained Saul, a Benjamite, as king - 1 Samuel 9. Saul reluctantly assumed the role of king in 1 Samuel 10. His jealousy of David became evident in 1 Samuel 22:7.
Clashes between Saul & David escalated. Benjamites sided with Saul while David was appointed king in
2 Samuel 2. After an accusation by Saul's son, Ish-Bosheth, against Saul's army commander, Abner was prepared to stop serving the house of Saul. He was in the process of defecting when Joab, one of David's soldiers killed him in
2 Samuel 3. 2 Samuel 4:2 mentioned 2 sons who were Benjamites that conducted raids for Saul's supporters. Shimei, a Benjamite, and 1,000 Benjamites met with king David to
seek peace while he mourned the death of his son, Absalom, who tried to take the throne while David was still alive - 2 Samuel 19.
2 Samuel 21:14: They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul's father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.
The last reference to Benjamin in 2 Samuel made tribute to David's best fighters including "Ithai son of Ribai from Gibeah in Benjamin" in 2 Samuel 23:29 who were also mentioned in
1 Chronicles 11:31.
1 Chronicles 12 showed the divide between alliances with the houses of David and Saul.
1 Chronicles 12:1-2:
1. These were the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was banished from the presence of Saul son of Kish (they were among the warriors who helped him in battle;
2. they were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed; they were kinsmen of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin):
...
1 Chronicles 12:23-29:
23. These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul's kingdom over to him, as the LORD had said:
24. men of Judah, carrying shield and spear--6,800 armed for battle;
25. men of Simeon, warriors ready for battle--7,100;
26. men of Levi--4,600,
27. including Jehoiada, leader of the family of Aaron, with 3,700 men,
28. and Zadok, a brave young warrior, with 22 officers from his family;
29. men of Benjamin, Saul's kinsmen--3,000, most of whom had remained loyal to Saul's house until then;
This set the stage for 1 Kings 12:21-24 and
2 Chronicles 11 when it said Benjamites wound up fighting for David's grandson, Rehoboam.
21. When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin--a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men--to make war against the house of Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22. But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:
23. "Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,
24. `This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.'" So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.
There was a minor reference to Benjamin in 1 Kings 4:18 as well as a statement that King Asa tasked the entire population to fortify "Geba in Benjamin, and also Mizpah" in
1 Kings 15:22.
1 Chronicles 21:6 said the Levites and Benjamites were omitted from the (first) Census. 1 Chronicles 27:21 called Iddo son of Zechariah an officer over the tribe of Benjamin.
2 Chronicles 25:5 took place in the Southern kingdom of Judah:
5. Amaziah called the people of Judah together and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He then mustered those twenty years old or more and found that there were
three hundred thousand men ready for military service, able to handle the spear and shield.
During the reign of the next king of Judah, 2 Chronicles 31:1 stated:
1. When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh.
After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.
Three kings later in Judah, 2 Chronicles 34 made a couple more references to the tribe of Benjamin.
9. They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the temple of God, which the Levites who were the doorkeepers had collected from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel and from all the
people of Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
32. Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
Three of the four references to Benjamin in Ezra related to the exiles who returned from Babylon and were preparing to rebuild the Temple: Ezra 1:5; 4:1; and 10:9. The fourth reference was actually to another person named Benjamin from the descendants of Harim according to Ezra 10:31-32.
Since Joseph's brother, Benjamin, was already dead, Nehemiah 3:23 and 12:34 more than likely mentioned Harim's descendant. Of the references in Nehemiah 11, verses 3-4 mentioned the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, verse 36 referred to the territory of Benjamin and verses 7-8 are unclear as to which person Benjamin referred to.
Esther 2 identified both Mordecai and Esther as Jews the tribe of Benjamin through Kish's son Shimei.
As you may recall, Kish was king Saul's father. Verse 7 gave both names for Esther.
Kish > Shimei > Jair > Mordecai - verses 5-6
Kish > Shimei > Abihail > Hadassah (aka Esther) - verses 15
