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 _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
