What Does Numbers 2:22 Mean in the King James?
Then the tribe of Benjamin: and the captain of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Benjamin means “son of the right hand,” and Abidan means “my father is judge,” so this roster makes belonging and leadership speak through names.
THE MEANING
This line holds Benjamin’s shared identity beside its captain’s particular name and named father. Benjamin carries the image of the right hand; Abidan carries judgment in his name. The verse presents a people and its leadership through the names that connect them.
THE ROOT
בִּנְיָמִין
Binyamin
GROWS FROM
ימין
yamin
Right hand or right side; also the south.
“Benjamin” in this verse is Binyamin. Binyamin combines בֵּן (ben, “son”) and יָמִין (yamin, “right hand”): its name is “son of the right hand.” The English name leaves that image quiet, but the tribe enters the verse carrying it.
ALSO GROWS
yamin: Right hand; right side.
יָמִין
This is the second element in Binyamin, giving the tribe’s name its image of the right hand.
yemini: Right-handed; a Benjamite.
יְמִינִי
This related form carries the right-hand element into the identity of Benjamin’s people.
אֲבִידָן
Avīdan
GROWS FROM
דין
din
To judge or render judgment.
Abidan joins אֲבִי (avi, “my father”) with דָּן (dan, “judges”), and is commonly understood as “my father is judge.” The captain’s name carries judgment within it, while Benjamin’s carries the right-hand image.
ALSO GROWS
dan: Judge; judges.
דָּן
This element appears at the end of Abidan, carrying judgment in the captain’s name.
din: Judgment; a case or claim.
דִּין
This related form makes the root’s language of judgment visible beneath Abidan’s name.
THE PATTERN
A people is shown through names that join collective identity to particular lives and roles.
And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.Of Benjamin; Abidan the son of Gideoni.And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:THE THREAD
And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.Genesis records the name changing from בֶּן־אוֹנִי (Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow”) to בִּנְיָמִין (Binyamin, “son of the right hand”). The tribe named here still carries that turn within its name.
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