Ben (Hab. id. "2, son; Sept. omits; Vulg. Ben), a Levite "of the second degree," one of the porters ap- pointed by David to the service of the ark, apparently as an assistant musician (1 Chr. xv, 18). B.C. 1043.
Ben- (""3, son of) is often found as the first ele- ment of Scriptural proper names (see those following), in which case the word which follows it is always to be considered dependent on it, in the relation of our genitive. The word which follows Ben- may either be of itself a proper name, or be an appellative or ab- stract, the principle of the connection being essential- ly the same in both cases. Comp. Ab-. As to the first class, the Syro-Arabian nations being all particu- larly addicted to genealogy, and possessing no sur- names, nor family names in our sense, they have no means of attaching a definite designation to a person except by adding some accessory specification to his distinctive, or, as we would term it, Christian name. This explains why so man}' persons, both in the Old and New Testaments, are distinguished by the addi- tion of the names of their father. The same usage is especially frequent among the Arabs ; but they have improved its definiteness by adding the name of the person's child, in case he has one. In doing this, they always observe this arrangement — the name of the child, the person's own name, and the name of his fa- ther. Thus the designation of the patriarch Isaac would in Arabic run thus: Father of Jacob, Isaac, son of Abraham (Abu Ja'qub, Ishaq, ben Ibrahim). As to the latter class, there is an easy transition from this strict use of son to its employment in a figurative sense, to denote a peculiar dependence of derivation. The principle of such a connection not only explains such proper names as Bcn-Chosed (son of mercy), but ap- plies to many striking metaphors in other classes of words, as sous of the bow, a son of seventeen years (the usual mode of denoting age), a hill, the son of oil (Isa. v, 2), and many others, in which our translation effaces the Oriental type of the expression. All prop- er names which begin with Ben belong to one or tho other of these classes. Ben-Aminadab, Ben-Gaber,
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and Ben-Chesed (1 Kings iv, 10, 11), illustrate all the I possibilities of combination noticed above. In these names " Ben" would, perhaps, be better not trans- lated, as it is in our version ; although the Vulgate has preserved it, as the Sept. also appears to have once done in ver. 8, to judge by the reading there.— Kitto.
These remarks apply also in part to Bar- (q. v.), the Aramaic synonyme of Ben-, as in the name Bar-Abbas.
The following arc instances in -which our transla- tors have doubted whether the prefix Ben- should not be transcribed, and have therefore placed it in the margin, gi\ ing "« »" in the text: Ben-Hur, Ben-De- kar. Ben-Hesed, Ben-Abinadab, Ben-Geber (1 Kings iv. 8 13) [for each of these, see the latter part of the name]. Of the following the reverse is true: Ben- Hanan, Ben-Zoheth (1 Chron. iv, 20; Ben-o (1 Chron. xxi v. 26, 27) : Ben-jamite (Psa. vii, title ; Judg. ii, 15 ; xix, 1G ; 1 Sam. ix, 1, 4 ; 2 Sam. xx, 1 ; Esth. ii, 5).
Ben-Abinadab. See Ben-.
Benai'ah (Ileb. Benayah', !T32, built [i. e. made or sustained] by Jehovah, 2 Sam. xx, 23; 1 Chron. iv, 36; xi, 22, 31; xxvii, 14; 2 Chron. xx, 14; Ezra x, 25, 30, 35, 43 ; Ezek. xi, 23 ; elsewhere and oftener in the prolonged form, IJVOa, Benayahu; Sept. gener- ally [also Josephus, Ant. vii, 11, 8] Bavaiac, in Chron. occasionally v. r. Bavaia, and in Ezra Bavata, rarely anj- other v. r., e. g. Bavaiac, Bavai), the name of a large number of men in the 0. T.
1. The son of Jehoiada the chief-priest (1 Chron. xxvii, 5), and therefore of the tribe of Levi, though a native of Kabzeel (2 Sam. xxiii. 20 ; 1 Chron. xi, 22), in the south of Judah ; set by David (1 Chron. xi, 24) over his body-guard of Cherethites and Pelethites (2 Sam. viii, 18; 1 Kings i, 38 ; 1 Chron. xviii, 17; 2 Sam. xx, 23), and occupying a middle rank between the first three of the Gibborim, or " mighty men," and the thirty " valiant men of the armies" (2 Sam. xxiii. 22, 30; 1 Chron. xi, 24; xxvii, G ; and see Kennieott, Diss. p. 177). The exploits which gave him this rank are narrated in 2 Sam. xxiii, 20, 21; 1 Chron. xi, 22: he overcame two Moabitish champions ("lions of God"), slew an Egyptian 'giant with his own spear, and went down into an exhausted cistern and destroj'- ed a lion which had fallen into it when covered with snow, lie was captain of the host for the third month (1 Chron. xxvii, 5). B.C. 104G. Benaiah remained faithful to Solomon during Adonijah's attempt on the crown ( 1 Kings i, 8, 10, 26), a matter in which he took part in his official capacity as commander of the king's body-guard (1 Kings i, 32, 36, 38, 44); and after Ado- nijah and Joab had both been put to death by his hand ( 2 Kings ii, 25, 29, 30, 34), as well as Shimei (2 Kings ii. Ii. i. he was raised by Solomon into the place of Joab a- commander-in-chief of the whole armv (ii, 35; iv, 4). B.C. 1015. See David.