Benjamin
Son of my right hand. (1.) The younger son of Jacob by Rachel ( Gen. 35:18 ). His birth took place at Ephrath, on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem, at a short distance from the latter place. His mother died in giving him birth, and with her last breath named him Ben-oni, son of my pain, a name which was changed by his father into Benjamin. His posterity are called Benjamites ( Gen. 49:27 ; Deut. 33:12 ; Josh. 18:21 ). The tribe of Benjamin at the Exodus was the smallest but one ( Num. 1:36 , 37 ; Ps. 68:27 ). During the march its place was along with Manasseh and Ephraim on the west of the tabernacle. At the entrance into Canaan it counted 45,600 warriors. It has been inferred by some from the words of Jacob ( Gen. 49:27 ) that the figure of a wolf was on the tribal standard. This tribe is mentioned in Rom. 11:1 ; Phil. 3:5 . The inheritance of this tribe lay immediately to the south of that of Ephraim, and was about 26 miles in length and 12 in breadth. Its eastern boundary was the Jordan. Dan intervened between it and the Philistines. Its chief towns are named in Josh. 18:21-28 . The history of the tribe contains a sad record of a desolating civil war in which they were engaged with the other eleven tribes. By it they were almost exterminated ( Judg. 20:20 , 21 ; 21:10). (See GIBEAH .) The first king of the Jews was Saul, a Benjamite. A close alliance was formed between this tribe and that of Judah in the time of David ( 2 Sam. 19:16 , 17 ), which continued after his death ( 1 Kings 11:13 ; 12:20 ). After the Exile these two tribes formed the great body of the Jewish nation ( Ezra 1:5 ; 10:9 ). The tribe of Benjamin was famous for its archers ( 1 Sam. 20:20 , 36 ; 2 Sam. 1:22 ; 1 Chr. 8:40 ; 12:2 ) and slingers (Judge. 20:6). The gate of Benjamin, on the north side of Jerusalem ( Jer. 37:13 ; 38:7 ; Zech. 14:10 ), was so called because it led in the direction of the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. It is called by Jeremiah (20:2) “the high gate of Benjamin;” also “the gate of the children of the people” (17:19). (Comp. 2 Kings 14:13 .)
Bethlehem
House of bread. (1.) A city in the “hill country” of Judah. It was originally called Ephrath ( Gen. 35:16 , 19 ; 48:7; Ruth 4:11 ). It was also called Beth-lehem Ephratah ( Micah 5:2 ), Beth-lehem-judah ( 1 Sam. 17:12 ), and “the city of David” ( Luke 2:4 ). It is first noticed in Scripture as the place where Rachel died and was buried “by the wayside,” directly to the north of the city ( Gen. 48:7 ). The valley to the east was the scene of the story of Ruth the Moabitess. There are the fields in which she gleaned, and the path by which she and Naomi returned to the town. Here was David’s birth-place, and here also, in after years, he was anointed as king by Samuel ( 1 Sam. 16:4-13 ); and it was from the well of Bethlehem that three of his heroes brought water for him at the risk of their lives when he was in the cave of Adullam ( 2 Sam. 23:13-17 ). But it was distinguished above every other city as the birth-place of “Him whose goings forth have been of old” ( Matt. 2:6 ; comp. Micah 5:2 ). Afterwards Herod, “when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men,” sent and slew “all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under” ( Matt. 2:16 , 18 ; Jer. 31:15 ). Bethlehem bears the modern name of Beit-Lahm, i.e., “house of flesh.” It is about 5 miles south of Jerusalem, standing at an elevation of about 2,550 feet above the sea, thus 100 feet higher than Jerusalem. There is a church still existing, built by Constantine the Great (A.D. 330), called the “Church of the Nativity,” over a grotto or cave called the “holy crypt,” and said to be the “stable” in which Jesus was born. This is perhaps the oldest existing Christian church in the world. Close to it is another grotto, where Jerome the Latin father is said to have spent thirty years of his life in translating the Scriptures into Latin. (See VERSION .) (2.) A city of Zebulun, mentioned only in Josh. 19:15 . Now Beit-Lahm, a ruined village about 6 miles west-north-west of Nazareth.
Boaz
Alacrity. (1.) The husband of Ruth, a wealthy Bethlehemite. By the “levirate law” the duty devolved on him of marrying Ruth the Moabitess ( Ruth 4:1-13 ). He was a kinsman of Mahlon, her first husband. (2.) The name given (for what reason is unknown) to one of the two (the other was called Jachin) brazen pillars which Solomon erected in the court of the temple ( 1 Kings 7:21 ; 2 Chr. 3:17 ). These pillars were broken up and carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.