Benjamin in the Bible

Meaning: son of the right hand

Exact Match

The men of Benjamin, however, did not conquer the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. The Jebusites live with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this very day.

Verse ConceptsJerusalem, History OfZion, As A PlacePowerlessnessNot Driving Them OutUnable To ExpelWhere People Live To This Day

But when the Israelis cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up Gera's son Ehud, a left-handed descendant of Benjamin, as a deliverer for them. The Israelis paid tribute through him to king Eglon of Moab.

Verse ConceptsHandsTaxationTributesAnswered PrayerLeft Handed

They came from Ephraim, who uprooted Amalek, they follow after you, Benjamin, with your soldiers. From Makir leaders came down, from Zebulun came the ones who march carrying an officer's staff.

Verse ConceptsCaptainsRankRootsStaff

The Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight with Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel suffered greatly.

Verse Conceptsenemies, of Israel and JudahAttacking

So they traveled on, and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin.

And behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at evening, who was also from Mount Ephraim. And he lived in Gibeah, but the men of the place were of Benjamin.

Verse ConceptsEveningMen Working

(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?

The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up, "I and my concubine stopped in Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin to spend the night.

Verse ConceptsStaying Temporarily

We will take ten of every group of a hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (and a hundred of every group of a thousand, and a thousand of every group of ten thousand) to get supplies for the army. When they arrive in Gibeah of Benjamin they will punish them for the atrocity which they committed in Israel."

Verse ConceptsA Tenth Of PeoplePeople Providing Food

The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "How could such a wicked thing take place?

Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:

Verse ConceptsPurity, Moral And SpiritualHanding Over PeopleDeath Penalty For Sexual Sin

But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

Verse ConceptsCivil War

And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

Verse ConceptsSeven To Nine HundredTwenty Thousand And Up

The men of Israel (not counting Benjamin) had mustered four hundred thousand sword-wielding soldiers, every one an experienced warrior.

Verse ConceptsSwordsThree To Nine Hundred Thousand

And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

Verse Conceptsenquiring of GodFirst To FightFighting EnemiesPeople Of Judah

The men of Israel marched out to fight Benjamin; they arranged their battle lines against Gibeah.

Verse ConceptsConfrontationFighting One Another

And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

Verse ConceptsTwenty Thousand And UpKilling Within IsraelDefeat Of God's People

(And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)

Verse ConceptsAction Until Evening

And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

Verse ConceptsFighting One Another

And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

Verse ConceptsConfrontationEleven To Nineteen ThousandKilling Within IsraelDefeat Of God's People

And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

Verse ConceptsThose God Gave Into Their Hands

And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

Verse ConceptsDoing Repeatedly

And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

Verse ConceptsThirtyBringing People Out Of Other PlacesKilling Within Israel

And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.

Verse ConceptsWarfare, Strategies InIsrael Fleeing

When ten thousand choice men from all Israel came against Gibeah, the battle became fierce; but Benjamin did not know that disaster was close to them.

Verse ConceptsTens Of Thousands

Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated. The Israelites retreated before Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah.

Verse ConceptsUnreliabilityTrusting Other People

And the appointment of the men of Israel with the layers in wait to run upon Benjamin with the sword, was when they should make the smoke rise up out of the city.

Verse ConceptsSmokeBurning Cities

the Israelites counterattacked. Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; they struck down about thirty men. They said, "There's no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle."

Verse ConceptsThirtyKilling Within Israel

But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, Benjamin looked behind them, and the whole city was going up in smoke.

Verse ConceptsLooking Back

And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them.

They surrounded Benjamin, pursued them without rest and trod them down opposite Gibeah toward the east.

Then Benjamin turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and Israel killed 5,000 men on the highways. They overtook them at Gidom and struck 2,000 more dead.

Verse ConceptsTwo ThousandFive ThousandOvertaking

So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.

Verse ConceptsTwenty Thousand And Up

And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

Verse ConceptsBurning CitiesBoth Men And Animals Killed

Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.

Verse ConceptsdaughtersWives For BenjaminPeople Bound By Oaths

The Israelites regretted what had happened to their brother Benjamin. They said, "Today we cut off an entire tribe from Israel!

Verse ConceptsUnhappinessBereavementNo One To Be Found

And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.

And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.

Verse ConceptsShortage Other Than Food

The people regretted what had happened to Benjamin because the Lord had weakened the Israelite tribes.

Verse ConceptsRegretting

Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?

Verse Conceptselders, as community leadersWives For Benjamin

Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.

Verse ConceptsCursing The Ungodly

Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;

Verse ConceptsHiding From People

and keep your eyes open. When you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the celebration, jump out from the vineyards. Each one of you, catch yourself a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh and then go home to the land of Benjamin.

Verse ConceptsWives For Benjamin

It shall come about, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we shall say to them, ‘Give them to us voluntarily, because we did not take for each man of Benjamin a wife in battle, nor did you give them to them, else you would now be guilty.’”

Verse ConceptsComplaints

And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.

Verse ConceptsGroups going home

Thematic Bible



But when he was at the Benjamin Gate, an officer of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, and he apprehended Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans.”

So Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the Lord’s temple.

But Ebed-melech, a Cushite court official employed in the king’s palace, heard Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate,

All the land from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem will be changed into a plain. But Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain on its site from the Benjamin Gate to the place of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.


They were archers who could use either the right or left hand, both to sling stones and shoot arrows from a bow. They were Saul’s relatives from Benjamin:

Ulam’s sons were warriors and archers. They had many sons and grandsons—150 of them.
All these were among Benjamin’s sons.

Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjaminite, as a deliverer for them. The Israelites sent him to Eglon king of Moab with tribute money.

There were 700 choice men who were left-handed among all these people; all could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.


Benjamin's descendants by their clans: the Belaite clan from Bela; the Ashbelite clan from Ashbel; the Ahiramite clan from Ahiram; the Shuphamite clan from Shupham; the Huphamite clan from Hupham. Bela's descendants [from] Ard and Naaman: the Ardite clan [from] Ard; the Naamite clan from Naaman.

Three of Benjamin's [sons]: Bela, Becher, and Jediael. Bela's sons: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri-five. They were warriors and heads of their ancestral houses; 22,034 were listed in their genealogies. Becher's sons: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth; all these were Becher's sons. read more.
Their genealogies were recorded according to the heads of their ancestral houses-20,200 warriors. Jediael's son: Bilhan. Bilhan's sons: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar. All these sons of Jediael listed by heads of families were warriors; there were 17,200 who could serve in the army. Shuppim and Huppim were sons of Ir, and the Hushim were the sons of Aher.


He made him king over Gilead, Asher, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin—over all Israel.

So they got up and were counted off—12 for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth son of Saul, and 12 from David’s soldiers.

but they had killed 360 of the Benjaminites and Abner’s men.

From the Benjaminites, the relatives of Saul: 3,000 (up to that time the majority of the Benjaminites maintained their allegiance to the house of Saul).


Benjamin’s sons: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

Benjamin's descendants by their clans: the Belaite clan from Bela; the Ashbelite clan from Ashbel; the Ahiramite clan from Ahiram; the Shuphamite clan from Shupham; the Huphamite clan from Hupham. Bela's descendants [from] Ard and Naaman: the Ardite clan [from] Ard; the Naamite clan from Naaman. read more.
These were the Benjaminite clans numbered by their registered men: 45,600.


There was an influential man of Benjamin named Kish son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, son of a Benjaminite.

When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, “Here is the man I told you about; he will rule over My people.”

Samuel had all the tribes of Israel come forward, and the tribe of Benjamin was selected. Then he had the tribe of Benjamin come forward by its clans, and the Matrite clan was selected. Finally, Saul son of Kish was selected. But when they searched for him, they could not find him.


When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized 180,000 choice warriors from the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin—180,000 choice warriors—to fight against Israel to restore the reign to Rehoboam.


Abner also informed the Benjaminites and went to Hebron to inform David about all that was agreed on by Israel and the whole house of Benjamin.

Shimei son of Gera, a Benjaminite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David. There were 1,000 men from Benjamin with him. Ziba, an attendant from the house of Saul, with his 15 sons and 20 servants also rushed down to the Jordan ahead of the king.


With her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni, but his father called him Benjamin.

Rachel’s sons were
Joseph and Benjamin.

The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.



I ask, then, has God rejected His people? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee;


The following were the men who came to David at Ziklag while he was still banned from the presence of Saul son of Kish. They were among the warriors who helped him in battle. They were archers who, using either their right or left hand, could [throw] stones [with a sling] or [shoot] arrows with a bow. They were Saul's relatives from Benjamin:

Other Benjaminites and men from Judah also went to David at the stronghold.


The lot came up for the tribe of Benjamin's descendants by their clans, and their allotted territory lay between Judah's descendants and Joseph's descendants. Their border on the north side began at the Jordan, ascended to the slope of Jericho on the north, through the hill country westward, and ended at the wilderness of Beth-aven. From there the border went toward Luz, to the southern slope of Luz (that is, Bethel); it then went down by Ataroth-addar, over the hill south of Lower Beth-horon. read more.
On the west side, from the hill facing Beth-horon on the south, the border curved, turning southward, and ended at Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a city of the descendants of Judah. This was the west side [of their border]. The south side began at the edge of Kiriath-jearim, and the border extended westward; it went to the spring at the Waters of Nephtoah. The border descended to the foot of the hill that faces the Valley of Hinnom at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim. It ran down the Valley of Hinnom toward the south Jebusite slope and downward to En-rogel. It curved northward and went to En-shemesh and on to Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, and continued down to the Stone of Bohan, Reuben's son. Then it went north to the slope opposite the Jordan Valleyand proceeded into the valley. The border continued to the north slope of Beth-hoglah and ended at the northern bay of the Dead Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. This was the southern border. The Jordan formed the border on the east side. This was the inheritance of Benjamin's descendants, by their clans, according to its surrounding borders. These were the cities of the tribe of Benjamin's descendants by their clans: Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz, Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba-12 cities, with their villages; Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, Zela, Haeleph, Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath-14 cities, with their villages. This was the inheritance for Benjamin's descendants by their clans.


Ephraim’s military divisions will camp on the west side under their banner. The leader of the Ephraimites is Elishama son of Ammihud.

The tribe of Benjamin will be next. The leader of the Benjaminites is Abidan son of Gideoni.



“As for the rest of the tribes:

From the east side to the west, will be Benjamin—one portion.


from Benjamin, Eliada, a brave warrior, and 200,000 with him armed with bow and shield;


Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah;


Benjamin is a wolf; he tears his prey.
In the morning he devours the prey,
and in the evening he divides the plunder.”


But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the count because the king’s command was detestable to him.


Saul responded, “Am I not a Benjaminite from the smallest of Israel’s tribes and isn’t my clan the least important of all the clans of the Benjaminite tribe? So why have you said something like this to me?”


The Lord alone led him,
with no help from a foreign god.


Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 from Benjamin bearing regular shields and drawing the bow. All these were brave warriors.


These were the Benjaminite clans numbered by their registered men: 45,600.


Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah,


Jediael’s son: Bilhan.
Bilhan’s sons: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar.


After them Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs opposite their house. Beside them Azariah son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, made repairs beside his house.


So the family leaders of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone God had motivated—prepared to go up and rebuild the Lord’s house in Jerusalem.


The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim. Israel was greatly oppressed,


Those with their roots in Amalek came from Ephraim;
Benjamin came with your people after you.
The leaders came down from Machir,
and those who carry a marshal’s staff came from Zebulun.


At the same time the Benjaminites did not drive out the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem. The Jebusites have lived among the Benjaminites in Jerusalem to this day.


“Run for cover, Benjaminites,
out of Jerusalem!
Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa;
raise a smoke signal over Beth-haccherem,
for disaster threatens from the north,
even great destruction.


those registered for the tribe of Benjamin numbered 35,400.


12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 sealed from the tribe of Benjamin.


Benjamin is a wolf; he tears his prey.
In the morning he devours the prey,
and in the evening he divides the plunder.”


Rachel’s sons were
Joseph and Benjamin.

They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult. During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for this is another son for you." With her last breath-for she was dying-she named him Ben-oni, but his father called him Benjamin.


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