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Wolves and Kings: The Story of Benjamin
When reading through the scriptures, one of the most important things we can do is to recognize that we are reading a cohesive story. While the Bible is a library of 66 separate books written by dozens of different authors over several centuries, it is also constructed in such a way that clear themes, concepts, images, and conceits are echoed throughout the entire story (which, incidentally, is one of the strongest arguments for God’s involvement in inspiration). James Bejon, a Biblical scholar from Cambridge, gives an incredible example of this through a paper entitled “The Big Story of Benjamin,” in which he traces the narrative of the tribe of Benjamin as it runs through Genesis, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Esther, and even the New Testament. In doing so, he helps us to see how the Bible has vast, sweeping themes and stories running in broad arcs through the entire Biblical story, and reminds us of the rich treasures awaiting us in deep study of the Word.
The story of Benjamin begins with his parents, Jacob and Rachel. When Jacob first meets Rachel in Genesis 29:11, he “kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept.” While this certainly seems to be a joyous occasion, rabbinic commentators often note that the last person to “lift his voice and weep” was Esau weeping over his birthright (Genesis 27:38) and see a potential connection in Jacob’s grief over his time with Laban and Rachel’s untimely demise. Indeed, Rachel’s story is a tragic one. While she is Jacob’s beloved wife, she is also in constant turmoil with her sister Leah (Genesis 30:1-8) and is noted as an idolater (Genesis 31:19, 32-35; 35:1-4). She threatens Jacob with her own death if he will not provide her children until her quest is finally successful with the birth of Joseph, but she gives no credit to God for opening her womb; instead, she immediately fixates on the idea of “May the Lord give me another son,” (Genesis 30:24). Ironically, the Lord does this very thing with the birth of Benjamin, but it also tragically kills her amidst “suffering severe labor”. Rachel (further revealing her character) names this son Ben-Oni, “son of my sorrow,” which would be the equivalent of naming a child “I killed my mom.” Jacob renames the son Benjamin, meaning “son of my right hand,” and indeed Benjamin is kept at Jacob’s right hand when the rest of his sons head down to Egypt to seek food. Rachel’s story closes with Jacob burying her where she fell rather than making the trip to Machpelah and burying her in the family tomb (Genesis 35:19-21). It is Leah, instead, who is given the honor of being buried next to where Jacob’s body will be entombed (Genesis 49:29-30).
Little is said of Benjamin himself, who appears more in the latter parts of Genesis as a plot object than an actual driver of story. The prophesies of Jacob and Moses, however, give us an insight into the growing story of Benjamin and his tribe: while Jacob refers to him as “a ravenous wolf” (Genesis 49:27), Moses calls him “the beloved of the Lord” who “is sheltered by the Most High,” (Deuteronomy 33:12). Sadly, the first major event associated with the tribe of Benjamin has them much more associated with the former description: the episode of the Levite and his concubine in Judges 19-20. Choosing to enter Gibeah over Ramah (keep that in mind), the ravenous wolves of Benjamin seek to devour the Levite and content themselves with raping his concubine the entire night. Consequently, the 11 tribes of Israel enter a civil war with Benjamin which sees nearly the entire tribe annihilated; the war ends with Israel “lifting up their voices and weeping,” (Judges 21:2). In order to facilitate the continuation of the tribe of Benjamin, the Israelites utterly destroy the town of Jabesh-Gilead (who had not participated in the civil war) and give their virgin daughters to the 600 survivors of Gibeah who had hidden in the Rock of Rimmon. When that is not enough, they kidnap the daughters of Shiloh who are dancing as part of a yearly feast there. Through these dark and violent events, the tribe of Benjamin is kept alive.
The Book of Samuel introduces us to Saul, a Benjamite who give us much pause as we read his story. Like the Benjamite’s of Judges 19-20, he is a warrior of renown from the town of Gibeah (1 Samuel 7). He comes to prominence in association with the town of Jabesh-Gilead, which is being threatened with death by Nahash of Ammon and has caused the people to “lift up their voices and weep,” over their fate (1 Samuel 11:4). Like the Levite of Judges 19 dismembers his concubine to call Israel to war, Saul dismembers a team of oxen to summon all of Israel. While this Gibeahite does actually save Jabesh-Gilead from destruction, and we are potentially encouraged to see Saul as a redeemer of Benjamin rather than a continuation, we see Saul establish himself with 600 men on the outskirts of Migron – which is in the same place as the Rock of Rimmon where the 600 Benjamites had fled from Gibeah (1 Samuel 14:2). The question of the story is a parallel to the Levite’s choice in Judges 19: will Israel choose Ramah (the birthplace of Samuel, God’s chosen prophet and judge) or Gibeah (Saul’s hometown and the birthplace of renowned warriors)? Samuel is the leader that Israel should have longed for; indeed, his mother Hannah notes during his naming that he is named Samuel because “I have asked him of the Lord.” Yet Saul (whose name means “asked for”) is the king that Israel seeks, and his reign is an unmitigated disaster.
Saul’s downfall is marked by his utter rejection of God and His servants. He takes on the role of priest for himself at Ramah when he refuses to wait for Samuel to make a sacrifice in 1 Samuel 13, and aligns himself with the priesthood of Eli through Ahijah despite God’s rejection of Eli’s line in 1 Samuel 2. Saul rejects Samuel as a prophet when he fails to take heed of Samuel’s command to slay Agag; this rebellion is likened to divination, which is ironically the sin Saul will commit at En-Dor (1 Samuel 28). Finally, Saul rejected God’s anointed king David: while Saul refuses to slay Agag when he is imprisoned before him, he chases David across all of Israel until, finally, in 1 Samuel 24:16 it is Saul who “lifts up his voice and weeps” as he realizes how far he has fallen from grace. Saul’s promising life ends with him slain as an enemy of God; he is skewered like Eglon of Moab (ironically killed by Ehud, a Benjamite!) and beheaded like Goliath. His failure as a king sparks long-lasting enmity between his house and the house of David, leading to multiple civil wars and internecine conflicts (Ish-Bosheth in 2 Samuel 2 and Sheba in 2 Samuel 20).
Saul’s fall from power coincides with the rise of David, the lion of Judah. As Saul loses popularity and fame, David gains respect and adoration from Israel. Ironically, David even fulfills some of the themes and prophesies of Benjamin: his defeat of Goliath is with a sling, the distinctive weapon of the Benjamites (Judges 20:16). At the same time that Saul is defeated by an enemy he was supposed to overcome, David “devoured the Amalekites” at dawn and “divides the spoil” among his people at nightfall (1 Samuel 30:17-19) in fulfillment of Jacob’s prophesy of Benjamin (Genesis 49:27). While this might seem unusual, remember that Benjamin was born “on the way to Bethlehem” (Genesis 35:19), which foreshadows how Saul the Benjamite transfers his kingship to David the Bethlehemite. In addition, the promise of Jacob having “kings arising from his loins” takes place in Genesis 35 right before the birth of Benjamin, while the promise of a royal scepter for Judah doesn’t take place until Genesis 49; as such, the rise of a Benjamite king prior to a king of Judah makes sense.
Saul, then, utterly fails to redeem Benjamin from the sins of Gibeah. Redemption will have to arise from somewhere else in the story, and it starts in a book that might seem quite unrelated: Esther. The adversarial figure of Haman the Agagite has an ancestry that traces back to Agag the Amalekite: this is a foe that Saul should have prevented by wiping out the Amalekites. Mordecai, on the other hand, is presented as a “son of Kish, a Benjamite,” and we are immediately reminded of Kish, the father of Saul (1 Samuel 9:1-3; Esther 2:5). Esther’s battle with Haman, then, constitutes a retelling of Saul’s fight with Agag. Esther resembles Saul (literarily) in a number of ways: both are selected for rule based off their physical appearance, both are chosen by lot, both are anointed with oil, and both respond to their ascension with discretion (Saul declines to tell his uncle about his coronation in 1 Samuel 10:16, while Esther declines to disclose her ethnic identity). The similarities end there, however, as Esther uses her power with far more wisdom than Saul. While Saul flies into a rage over the course of two feast days and tries to kill David in 1 Samuel 20, Esther uses two consecutive feast days to turn Ahasuerus’ anger against Haman. Indeed, Haman’s behavior becomes increasingly Saul-like as the story climaxes until he finds himself prostrate on the ground at the feet of a woman he had previously terrorized (notice the parallels with the witch of En-Dor in 1 Samuel 29). Just as Saul falls on his own sword in battle, Haman is impaled on his own stake. While Saul has three sons hung on a wall beside him and is later joined by seven more hung on a tree (2 Samuel 21), Haman has his ten sons impaled on his stake. News of Haman and his sons’ death is sent across the land just as Saul’s had been. Esther, then, succeeds where Saul fails. Benjamin’s story is nearing redemption, but it is not over yet. Esther has redeemed Saul’s failure against Israel’s foes, but there is still enmity between the lines of Judah and Benjamin. For that redemption, we turn to the New Testament and another surprising Benjamite figure: the apostle Paul.
Paul, originally called Saul, has many clear parallels to the Israelite king. Both share the same name, as well as Benjamite lineage (Philippians 3:5), and both men align themselves with a fallen priesthood against Israel’s anointed Messiah. Just as King Saul sets out to kill David and is halted by an extraordinary spiritual experience that leads to prophesy (1 Samuel 19:18-24), Paul sets out to persecute Jesus’ followers only to be stopped by his encounter on the Damascene Road and instead prophesies. The difference between the two men, however, is their starkly different responses: while Saul is only temporarily ameliorated by David’s question “why do you pursue (katadioko) a dead dog like me?” (1 Samuel 24:15), Paul’s hostility is completely halted by Jesus’ question “Saul, why do you persecute (dioko) me?” While Saul rebels against God’s Messiah from Judah, Paul submits to him. So it is that Paul becomes like his ancestor Benjamin and assumes the role of the final son of “the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:7-8). Paul labors for the Messiah because he recognizes what Jesus has done for him: just as Judah put his life on the line for the sake of Benjamin (Genesis 43:9), so the Son of Judah has surrendered his life for the Benjamite Paul (Galatians 2:20). No longer is Paul the “ravenous wolf” that ravages the church (Matthew 7:16; Acts 8:1-3). The disciples have been sent out as lambs amidst the wolves (Luke 10:3), and in response the Benjamite wolf has lain down with the Lamb (Isaiah 11:6). The story of Benjamin concludes then, with the words of Moses ringing true for Paul: “the beloved of the Lord dwells in security by Him, who shields him all the day, and he dwells between His shoulders,” (Deuteronomy 33:12).
What does all of this mean for us? For one, the story of Benjamin is a beautiful example of God at work to bring about repentance, mercy, and grace to His people. We can all identify with the people that appears in Benjamin’s story and the need for God’s transformative power. More importantly, however, the story of Benjamin highlights the incredible story of the Bible – not just a collection of folklore, but a powerfully woven, dramatically told, and painfully vivid look at the relationship between God and Man. It highlights the brilliance of the literary side of the Bible and reminds even the most wizened Biblical student that there are many deep troves of knowledge and wisdom to explore. The Bible is not something one can simply read once and be content with. It is a veritable cornucopia of stories, lessons, wisdom, and learning simply waiting for the reader to unpack. So, if you’re not already reading your Bible, get to exploring!
