Kejadian 35:18

35:18 With her dying breath, ¹  she named him Ben-Oni. ²  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ³ 

Kejadian 35:1

The Return to Bethel

35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once ⁴  to Bethel ⁵  and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ⁶ 

[35:18]  ¹ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

[35:18]  ² sn The name Ben-Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.

[35:18]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.

[35:18]  sn His father called him Benjamin. There was a preference for giving children good or positive names in the ancient world, and “son of my suffering” would not do (see the incident in 1 Chr 4:9-10), because it would be a reminder of the death of Rachel (in this connection, see also D. Daube, “The Night of Death,” HTR 61 [1968]: 629-32). So Jacob named him Benjamin, which means “son of the [or “my”] right hand.” The name Benjamin appears in the Mari texts. There have been attempts to connect this name to the resident tribe listed at Mari, “sons of the south” (since the term “right hand” can also mean “south” in Hebrew), but this assumes a different reading of the story. See J. Muilenburg, “The Birth of Benjamin,” JBL 75 (1956): 194-201.

[35:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “arise, go up.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.

[35:1]  ⁵ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[35:1]  ⁶ sn God is calling on Jacob to fulfill his vow he made when he fled from…Esau (see Gen 28:20-22).