Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Uri Hurwitz:

You wrote:  “Now consider the location of Binyamin in the northern kingdom of 
Israel -- this tribe is the southern most.”

I can’t quite tell from your post if you are asserting the following.  The 
author of chapter 35 of Genesis lived long after the tribes in the northern 
kingdom of Israel had established their geographical positions.  Working his 
way backward, he decided to create a story in the Patriarchal narratives that 
would call Israel’s youngest son “Son of the South”, meaning that this 
fictional son of Jacob would fictionally be the namesake of the southernmost 
tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel.  The fact that the story has 
Benjamin born in the “west”, as opposed to Jacob’s other 11 sons being born 
in the “east”, is not relevant.  The fact that YMYN means “right hand”, and 
Jacob’s “right hand”/YMYN is portrayed in chapter 47 of Genesis as being 
critical in giving Joseph’s younger son Ephraim a greater inheritance than 
Manasseh, is not relevant.  The fact that YMYN is never used in the 
Patriarchal narratives to mean “south” is not relevant.

Is that what you are asserting?

Contrast my view, where an early Hebrew author is portraying Jacob as naming 
Rachel’s second-born son “Son of the Right Hand”, meaning “My Heir Apparent”, 
with Benjamin being born right after Jacob’s loss of both Joseph [Rachel’s 
firstborn son, who had just now disappeared, as told later as a flashback in 
chapter 37 of Genesis] and Rachel, with Rachel being Jacob’s favorite wife.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois