Ben-ha'il (Heb. Ben-Cha'yil, ^"3, son of strength, i. e. warrior; Sept. translates o\ viol rwv Sv- var&v), one of the "princes" of the people sent by Je- hoshaphat to teach the inhabitants of Judah, and car- ry out the reformation begun by him (2 Chron. xvii, 7). B.C. 910.
Ben-ha'nan (Heb. Ben-Chanan, "Jin- *jS, son of one gracious; Sept. v'wq 'Avdv v. r. <t>ai'a), the third named of the four "sons" of Shimon (? Shammai), of the tribe of Judah (1 Chron. iv, 20). B.C. prob. post 1612. Perhaps the name ought to be translated "son ofllanan." See Ben-.
Ben-Hesed, Ben-Hur. See Bex-. Ben'inu (Heb. Beninu', ^"3, our son; Sept. con- founds with Bani preceding, and translates both viol Bavovat v. r. Bavovaiai), one of the Levites who seal- ed the covenant on the return from Babylon (Neh. x, 13). B.C. 410.
Benitier, the French name for the vessel for hold- ing the so-called holy water, placed at the entrance of Romanist places of worship. See Holy Water.
Ben'jamin (Heb. Bvnyamin', "pallia, i. q. Felix [see below] ; Sept., Joseph., and New Test. B&viaplv), the name of three men.
1. The youngest son of Jacob by Rachel (Cen.xxxv, 18), and the only one of the thirteen (if indeed there were not more; comp. "all his daughters," Gen. xxxvii, 35; xlvi, 7) who was born in Palestine. His birth took place on the road between Bethel and Beth- lehem, a short distance — "a length of earth" — from the latter. B.C. 1880. His mother died immediately after he was born, and with her last breath named him "1iiS,"*|3, Ben-Oni ("son of my pain"), which the fa- ther changed into Benjamin, a word of nearly the same sound, but portending comfort and consolation, "son o/* my right hcrno7," probably alluding to the sup- port and protection he promised himself from this, his last child, in his old ape. See Jamix. This supposi- tion is strengthened when we reflect on the reluctance with which he consented to part with him in very try- ing circumstances, yielding only to the pressure of
famine and the most urgent necessity (Gen. xlii). This interpretation is inserted in the text of the Vulgate and the margin of the A.V., and has the support of Gese- nius (Thes. p. 219). On the other hand, the Samaritan Codex gives the name in an altered form as 0^33, "son of days," i. e. "son of my old age" (comp. Gen. xliv, 20), which is adopted by Philo, Aben-ezra, and others. Both these interpretations are of compara- tively late date, and it is notorious that such explana- tory glosses arc not only often invented long subse- quently to the original record, but are as often at va- riance with the real meaning of that record. The meaning given by Josephus (ha tj)v t7r' avr(ij ytvo- fjtiv7]v 6Svvt}v t?j juryrpi, Ant. i, 21, 3) has reference only to the name Ben-Oni. However, the name is net so pointed as to agree with the usual signification, "son of," being "23, and not ~'3. But the first vow- el has here probably supervened (for ~33) merely be- cause of the perfect coalescence of the two elements into a single word. Moreover, in the adjectival forms of the word the first syllable is generally suppressed, as "0i?0i-i;3 or ^jPa*1!-!, i. e. "sons of Yemini'" for sons of Benjamin; ^a? d^X, "man of Yemini" for man of Benjamin (1 Sam. ix, 1; Esth. ii, 5); laiffi ""]X, " land of Yemini" for land of Benjamin (1 Sam. ix, 4) ; as if the patriarch's name had been originally "pa^, Yamin (comp. Gen. xlvi, 10), and that of the tribe Yeminites. These adjectival forms are carefully pre- served in the Sept. The prefix Ben seems to be mere- ly omitted in them for brevity, as being immaterial to the reference. Usually, however, the posterity of Benjamin are called Benjamites (Gen. xxxv, 18; xlix, 27 ; Deut. xxxiii, 12 ; Josh, xviii, 21-28 ; 1 Kings xii, 16-24 ; Judg. iii, 15 ; xix, 16, etc.). — Smith, s. v. See Ben-; Jemini.
Until the journeys of Jacob's son« and of Jacob him- self into Egypt wo hear nothin ,- of Benjamin, and, so far as he is concerned, those well-known narratives disclose nothing beyond the very strong affection en- tertained toward him by his father and his whole-broth- er Joseph, and the relation of fond endearment in which he stood, as if a mere darling child (comp. Gen. xliv, 20), to the whole of his family. Even the harsh na- tures of the elder patriarchs relaxed toward him.
In Gen. lvi, 21 sq., the immediate descendants of Benjamin are given to the number of ten, whereas In Num. xxvi, 38-40, only seven are enumerated, and some even under different names. This difference may probably be owing to the circumstance that some of the direct descendants of Benjamin had died either at an early period or at least childless. Considerable difficulty occurs in the several Biblical lists of the sons and grandsons of Benjamin (Gen. xlvi, 21 ; Num. xxvi, 38-40 ; 1 Chron. vii, 6-12 ; viii, 1-7), which may be removed by the following explanations. As Ben- j jamin was quite a youth at the time of the migration I to Canaan (Gen. xliv, 20. 22), the list in Gen. xlvi cannot be merely of Jacob's descendants at that time, since it contains Benjamin's children (comp. the chil- dren of Pharez, ver. 12, who was at that time a mere child, see ch. xxxviii, 1), but rather at the period of his death, seventeen years later (ch. xlvii, 28). See Jacob. Yet the list could not have been made up to a much later period, since it does not contain the grand- children of Benjamin subsequently born (1 Chron. viii, 3 sq.). The sons of Benjamin are expressly given in 1 Chron. viii, 1, 2, as being five, in the following or- der: Bela (the same in the other accounts), Ashbel (otherwise perhaps Jediael), Aharah (evidently the same with Ahiran of Num., and probably the Aher of 1 Chron. vii, 12, since this name and Ir are given ap- parently in addition to the three of ver. 6, and prob- ably also the Ehi of Gen.), Nohah (who is therefore possibly the same with Becher, and probably also with Ir, since Shupham [Shuppim or Muppim of the other]