The tribe was descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob (later given the name Israel) and his wife Rachel.

The Tribe of Benjamin, located to the north of the Tribe of Judah but to the south of the later Kingdom of Israel, is significant in biblical narratives as a source of various Israelite leaders, including the first Israelite king, Saul, as well as earlier tribal leaders in the period of the Judges.

In the period of the Judges, they feature in an episode in which a civil war results in their near-extinction as a tribe.

After Judah's revolts against Babylon, it was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the early sixth century BCE, and its population deported, Benjamin as an organized tribe faded from history.

Instead, Jacob, his father, preferred to call him Benjamin, which can be read in Hebrew as meaning, "son of my right [hand]" (Genesis 35:16-18).

They decided to allow these 600 men to carry on the tribe of Benjamin, but no one was willing to give their daughter in marriage to them because they had vowed not to.

There were still 200 men who were without a wife, so it was agreed that they could go to an Israelite festival, hide in the vineyards, and wait for the young unmarried women to come out and dance.

Responding to a growing threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes formed a strong, centralised monarchy during the eleventh century BC.

The Kingdom of Judah, that included Benjamin, continued until it was conquered by Babylon in c. 586 BCE and the population deported, and was subjected to the Babylonian captivity.

When the captivity ended, the distinction between Benjamin and Judah was lost in favour of a common identity as Judah, though in the biblical book of Esther, Mordecai is referred to as being of the tribe of Benjamin,[6] and as late as the time of Jesus of Nazareth some (notably Paul the Apostle) still identified their Benjamite ancestry: If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised on the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

In the Blessing of Jacob, Benjamin is referred to as "a ravenous wolf";[9] traditional interpretations often considered this to refer to the might of a specific member of the tribe, either the champion Ehud, King Saul, or Mordecai of the Esther narrative, or in Christian circles, the apostle Paul.

[8]According to the Hebrew Bible, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes.

[11][12][13] The Bible recounts that Joshua assigned to Benjamin the territory between that of the Tribe of Ephraim to the north and Judah to the south, with the Jordan River as the eastern border, and included many historically important cities, such as Bethel and Gibeah, and encroached on the northern hills of Jerusalem.

(Joshua 18:11–28) According to rabbinical sources, only those towns and villages on the northernmost and southernmost territorial boundary lines, or purlieu, are named in the land allocation.

[14] The Babylonian Talmud names three of these cities, all of which were formerly enclosed by a wall, and belonged to the tribe of Benjamin: Lod, Ono (Kafr 'Ana),[15][16] and Gei Ha-ḥarashim.

[17] Marking what is now one of the southernmost butts and bounds of Benjamin's territory is "the spring of the waters of Nephtoah" (Joshua 18:15), a place identified as Kefar Lifta (كفر لفتا), and situated on the left-hand side of the road as one enters Jerusalem.

[18] Although Jerusalem was in the territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:28), it remained under the independent control of the Jebusites.

In any event, Jerusalem remained an independent Jebusite city until it was finally conquered by David[19] in c. 11th century BC and made into the capital of the united Kingdom of Israel.

Then, according to the book of Chronicles, some twenty years after the breakup of the united monarchy, Abijah, the second king of Judah, defeated Jeroboam of Israel and took back the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, with their surrounding villages.

Benjamin was not granted to his parents until after Rachel had prayed and fasted for a second son a long time (Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, l.c.

Benjamin's oath touched Joseph so deeply that he could no longer pretend to be a stranger, and so revealed himself to his brother (Tan., ed.

The "Sefer ha-Yashar" (Miḳḳeẓ 89) narrates that Joseph caused a kind of astrolabe to be brought, and asked Benjamin whether he could not discover by means of the instrument the whereabouts of his lost brother.

His intention was to try them and thus to learn whether they would act in a brotherly manner toward Benjamin if he were in danger of losing his liberty.

and Tan., Wayeḥi, 14; so also in the original text of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs [Benjamin ii]; whereas a Christian interpolation refers it to Paul).

The descendants of Benjamin, it is true, did not always show themselves worthy of their ancestor, especially in connection with the incident at Gibeah (Judges xix.).

21–25); but this was due to God's anger against all Israel because they had attacked all Benjamin on account of the crime of an individual, and at the same time quietly tolerated the idolatry which Micah (Judges xvii.)