Person · 2206–2316 AM · 1555 BCE — 1445 BCE

Benjamin בנימין

Yaakov's youngest son, the only one born in the Land of Israel

Binyamin is the only one of Yaakov's twelve sons born not in Charan but in the land of Canaan, on the road from Beit-El to Bethlehem. The birth cost Rachel her life; dying, she called him Ben-Oni, "son of my sorrow", but his father renamed him Binyamin, "son of the right hand".

After Yosef's disappearance he is Yaakov's only remaining memory of Rachel, and his father will not let him go to Egypt. When famine forces it, the planted goblet is found in Binyamin's sack—the final test, in which Yehuda offers himself in his brother's place and Yosef reveals himself.

The sages count Binyamin among the few who died only because of Adam's decree, not for any sin of their own. Jerusalem and the Temple Mount fell within his tribal portion. From his tribe came King Shaul, and later Mordechai and Esther.

On the timeline

2206 · 1555 BCEDinah and Shechem, the Return to Bethel and the Death of Rachel 2216 · 1545 BCEThe Selling of Joseph 2229 · 1532 BCEJoseph Becomes Ruler of Egypt 2238 · 1523 BCEThe Famine and Jacob's Descent to Egypt 2255 · 1506 BCEThe Blessings of the Tribes and the Death of Jacob 2503 · 1258 BCEThe Division of the Land among the Tribes

Places

Jerusalem

Jacob Rachel Joseph Judah King Saul Mordecai

Sources

Tanakh

Bereishit 35; 42–45; 49:27 — the birth on the road, the goblet in the sack, the blessing

Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar

Bereishit Rabbah 82 — the names given by Rachel and by Yaakov
Shabbat 55b — among those who died without sin
Sotah 36b — the first to enter the sea at the splitting — according to one view

Basis: stated in the Tanakh.