Genesis 35:18
And when her soul was departing for pain, and death was now at hand, she called the name of her son Benoni, that is, The son of my pain: but his father called him Benjamin, that is, The son of the right hand.
Open Genesis 35:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Egrediente autem anima præ dolore, et imminente jam morte, vocavit nomen filii sui Benomi, id est, Filius doloris mei : pater vero appellavit eum Benjamin, id est, Filius dextræ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ ἀφιέναι αὐτὴν τὴν ψυχήν, ἀπέθνησκεν γάρ, ἐκάλεσεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Υἱὸς ὀδύνης μου· ὁ δὲ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὸν Βενιαμείν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְהִ֞י בְּצֵ֤את נַפְשָׁהּ֙ כִּ֣י מֵ֔תָה וַתִּקְרָ֥א שְׁמ֖וֹ בֶּן אוֹנִ֑י וְאָבִ֖יו קָֽרָא ל֥וֹ בִנְיָמִֽין
Haydock's commentary
That is. These etymologies are given by St. Jerome. (Du Hamel)
Right hand, (jemini) as he is often styled in Scripture. Jamin has the same meaning; though it may also signify of the south, with respect to Bethel and Sichem; or of days and old age, chap. xliv. 20, 1[21?]. (Calmet) Jacob chooses to give his son a more auspicious name; as the other would have reminded him too sensibly of his loss. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Philemon 1:4-6
And again he has not given the bare name, but uses with it a word that might move him, which is more affectionate than son. He has said, “son,” he has said, “I have begotten” him, so that it was probable he would love him much, because he begot him in his trials. For it is manifest that we are most inflamed with affection for those children, who have been born to us in dangers which we have escaped, as when the Scripture saith, “Woe, Barochabel!” and again when Rachel names Benjamin, “the son of my sorrow.” ( Gen. xxxv. 18 .)
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
10. Then, after distributing money to the poor and her fellow-servants so far as her means allowed, she proceeded to Bethlehem stopping only on the right side of the road to visit Rachel’s tomb. (Here it was that she gave birth to her son destined to be not what his dying mother called him, Benoni, that is the “Son of my pangs” but as his father in the spirit prophetically named him Benjamin, that is “the Son of the right hand).” After this she came to Bethlehem and entered into the cave where the Saviour was born. …