CHAPTER XXVI. The benediction on Benjamin. WE now come to the benediction upon Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob, which has a more extensive application than that pronounced by his venerable ancestor, and gives a much more favourable view of the descendants of this patriarch who, after Joseph, was the favourite son of his father, though both the prophecies were alike realized in the issue. They refer to different periods; there is consequently no discrepancy between them. "And of Benjamin he said The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; The words "beloved of the Lord," have caused much perplexity to the commentators. It appears to me that they have both a primary and secondary application. They are here, as I conceive, first applied to Benjamin personally, the favourite child of his father," beloved of the Lord" no less than of his parent because he was a good and dutiful son. Thus the phrase might have its primary reference to Benjamin personally on account of his filial and other virtues, and its secondary reference to the tribe generally for reasons immediately to be explained. We shall observe, all the way through these benedictions as well as through those of Jacob, that the patriarchs themselves who were the heads of the twelve tribes, are personally distinguished, though the main subjects of the blessings were their several posterities. These heads are brought directly before us at the very moment the future condition of their descendants is being predicted. We are made to look at the one through the other. The one is in fact the type of the many, the other the many so adumbrated. We thus appear to see the former on the bright speculum placed before us by the magic wand of the prophetic bard, through the long vista of the past, at the moment we are looking through the still longer and dimmer vista of the future at their vastly multiplied posterity. The expression which has thus perplexed the commentators will, as I conceive, exhibit its own interpretation, if applied to Benjamin, as I have ventured to suggest, then to the tribe of which he was the head; for not only was he extremely beloved by his natural as well as by his heavenly father, but likewise by Joseph, that good brother, who would hardly have signalized him so greatly above his kindred had he not been at once a son and brother of rare merit. We shall remember that when Joseph entertained his brethren, "Benjamin's mess was five times as much as any of theirs;" → Genesis xliii. 34. and afterwards when he distributed gifts among them, before their departure from Egypt to bring their families down to that country, "to all of them he gave each man changes of raiment : but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver (a large sum in those days) and five changes of raiment."* There is, in my judgment, a most affecting interest excited in identifying the patriarchs individually with their descendants collectively; thus specifically characterizing each by a reference to its original head, that head stamping on each tribe, by a sort of reflex agency, its own peculiar and cognate identity. Great veneration was always entertained by the Jews for those distinguished forefathers who gave names to their several races, and this was certainly as strong in the days of Moses as it has been at any subsequent period. The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him. The latter words of this clause, "shall dwell in safety by him," are supposed to refer particularly to the circumstance of the temple, the habitation of divine holiness, being situated in this tribe, Mount Moriah, upon which that sacred edifice was built, forming part of the portion of their inheritance. The words may likewise refer to the extraordinary valour of this tribe as the prophecy of Jacob had previously done, thus producing a close correspondency between them; inferring that they would * Genesis xlv. 22. protect from desecration the temple, placed in that part of the Holy Land to which they had a prescriptive right of possession, and thus "the beloved of the Lord would dwell in safety by him," that is, by the sanctuary in which the divine presence should rest, being immediately under divine protection; so that Benjamin would defend the sanctuary from violation, and . the sanctuary, being the habitation of God's presence, would protect him. It is certain that the Benjamites were the most warlike of the whole community of Israel, as may be suffi ciently seen in the twentieth chapter of Judges. The clause is generally interpreted as declaring the protection which God would extend to this tribe in future generations. After the schism of Jeroboam in which the Benjamites did not partake, they were associated with Judah and may be said to have merged in that tribe, for politically the two races became one, forming the kingdom of Judah, in contradistinction to that of Israel, united under the ten revolted tribes. The valour of Benjamin's posterity was mainly instrumental in preserving the independence of the former government against the united force of the large majority of their alienated kindred. That unnatural disassociation, caused by the revolt of the son of Nebat, was the proximate cause of all the disasters. which afterwards befel the Hebrew nation, so clearly pointed at in that fine prophetic ode, forming the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy. It was a separation fatal to the future prosperity of Israel. And the Lord shall cover him all the day Jong. 'The temple, being in the portion of Benjamin, he shall have the benefit of the visible presence of God continually near him, the Shechinah or divine glory being perpetually over the propitiatory in the Holy of Holies. Thus shall he be peculiarly favoured in being under the immediate influence of that visible manifestation of Deity which God has condescended to display in the edifice dedicated to his honour and worship. This propinquity to the celestial dwelling-place upon earth, and the consequent protection afforded by it to Benjamin, shall continue all the day long, or so long as the Mosaic dispensation shall last, that is, until it shall be superseded by the christian.' Mount Moriah, in which the temple was afterwards built, formed part of the portion of Benjamin. And he shall dwell between his shoulders; or in his country, as the Targum of Onkelos expounds the words. "It being in the temple and the temple in the tribe of Benjamin, where it stood upon Mount Moriah, as the head of a man doth upon his shoulders, as Dr. Lightfoot glosses in his Temple Service, p. 245, edit. 1." (See Patrick's note.) "It cannot be doubted," observes Durell, "but that Jerusalem belonged originally to this tribe, as may be seen, Joshua xviii. 28; Judges i. 21. And though in process of time it came to be generally considered as one of the cities of Judah, yet it is not improbable that when the |