And [with them shall be] the tribe of Benjamin; and the prince of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni;
Numbers 2:22 is one line in a camp plan drawn up by God Himself. Benjamin takes third place on the west side, under Ephraim's standard, led by a man named Abidan. The short verse carries a name, a position and a leader — and God chose all three.
God fixed Benjamin's place on the west side, near His own dwelling place. One writer explains why that side matters, and why Israel had no say in it:
The group under Ephraim was on the west side, and so it was nearest to the holy place with the cloud of God's presence. This explains why Psalm 80 speaks of God shining forth "before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh." Notice that God commanded the order in which the tribes were to march when they set out, just as He commanded the order of their tents when they rested. The arrangements were not left to their own choice or wishes. If they had disobeyed, thinking they knew a better order, they would have produced only disorder.
A dying mother named him once; his father named him again. One writer sees Christ in both names:
The youngest son of Jacob by his beloved wife Rachel. She died at his birth and named him BEN-ONI, meaning "son of my sorrow," but his father named him BENJAMIN, "son of the right hand." Gen. 35:18, 24. He is a picture of Christ in both names: as exalted at God's right hand (Benjamin), and as rejected — the cause of Israel's suffering in the last days (Ben-oni). Rachel pictures Israel (Micah 5).
Psalm 68 calls the tribe "Benjamin, the least of them." One writer uses the older wording, "little Benjamin," and sets that title beside the name his father gave:
In Psalm 68 the Spirit of the Lord refers to Benjamin as "little Benjamin" (v. 27); this was because he was the smallest tribe. It is important to keep these two names in mind: "Son of my right hand," a place of power, and "little Benjamin," the place of weakness. How can these two opposites be brought together? Both are essential for any servant of the Lord who wants to be faithful in his testimony: he needs a sense of his own weakness, and a sense of the power of God that can work in that weakness.
The leader's name carries a lesson. Set beside the description of Benjamin as a wolf, it corrects what a fighting tribe might assume about itself:
Abidan was the prince of Benjamin, his name meaning "My father is judge." In Genesis 49:27 Benjamin is called "a ravenous wolf." In other words, he was a warrior by nature. But the Lord does not need natural fighters. Peter found that out when he used a sword to cut off the ear of the high priest's servant (John 18:10-11), and the Lord rebuked him and healed the man's ear. "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds" (2 Cor. 10:4). So let us remember the lesson of Abidan, "my father is judge." God as a Father judges according to every person's work (1 Peter 1:17). It is He who judges the value of our warfare, with perfect spiritual discernment.
Benjamin does not head its own camp. God places the fighting tribe under Ephraim, and one writer says that pairing shapes the spirit of its warfare:
Benjamin would also lack the true spirit if it were not found under Ephraim. The spirit of controversy, without an eager desire for fruit for God, would be nothing but the spirit of Ishmael — warfare for its own sake — a spirit to be hated. How different it is when a burning zeal for Christ and for His glory drives a person, and, as we have seen, Abidan is the captain of the army!
Why count people at all? One writer answers from God's own right over Israel:
This was an expression of His rights as Lord of Israel. He had the right to take their number, for they were all His own. If He had no right to them, and no prospects in them, He would not have counted their sum. The same divine right is claimed in another part of His dominions: "He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names." That is the expression of His sovereignty among the heavenly hosts (Psalm 147:4). So the Lord says of His saints, "They shall be Mine … in the day when I make up My treasured possession" (Malachi 3:17). He may make up — that is, number, hide and keep them safe — because they are His own.
- Counted — God numbers Benjamin because Benjamin is His. He counts, hides and keeps safe what belongs to Him.
- Named — "Son of my sorrow" became "son of the right hand" — a picture of Christ rejected and Christ exalted.
- Placed — the west side put Benjamin nearest God's dwelling place. God commanded the spot; Israel did not choose it.
- Led — Abidan, "my father is judge," reminds a fighting tribe that God, not the fighter, weighs the value of the warfare.
- Little — the smallest tribe marches under Ephraim. Weakness needs God's power, and zeal needs fruit.
and his host, even those that were numbered of them, thirty-five thousand four hundred.
This verse closes Benjamin's entry in the wilderness camp with one figure: 35,400 fighting men, placed under Ephraim's standard on the west side. It reads like bare arithmetic. Yet it raises the two questions behind the whole chapter. Why does God count His people at all? And why does He give each tribe its own side of the camp?
This figure belongs to the camp on the west side.
The standard of the camp of Ephraim was on the west side, and with Ephraim were Manasseh and Benjamin (vv. 18-23). The armies of these three totalled 108,100. These followed the Levites in travelling.
That position was not a matter of convenience.
Each tribe had its own standard, and each family its own flag. In the camp the twelve tribes were set three on each side, and one of each three gave its name to that side or camp. So the standard of Judah is called the standard of the camp of Judah, which was on the east. The camp of Reuben was on the south, the camp of Ephraim on the west, and the camp of Dan on the north.
The three tribes on the west all came from Rachel. One writer reads the meaning of their names as one lesson.
Westward, Ephraim is grouped with Manasseh and Benjamin, the children of Rachel. The west, the opposite of the east, is "toward the sea," the place of storm, but also of refreshing showers from it. Here Ephraim, "fruitfulness," has his place... Manasseh, "forgetting"... encourages us to forget the things that are behind and to seek our fruitfulness from the Rock who has redeemed us. Benjamin, "the son of my right hand," tells of the dignity of our position... This is the true spirit of fruitfulness, which can gather out of the very trials of the way material for spiritual increase.
35,400 was one of the lowest totals in the camp — and that smallness did not stay fixed.
In the numbering of Num. 1:37 and Num. 2:22-23, Benjamin was the smallest of the tribes except Manasseh. Ps. 68:27 calls it "little Benjamin." But in the numbering before Israel entered the land, Benjamin was larger than four of the other tribes... In Ps. 80:2, where God is asked to save them, Benjamin is named with Ephraim and Manasseh, the three tribes which followed the ark.
The chapter keeps repeating totals. One writer traces the counting back to ownership.
He was careful in this way to assert His title, and survey His possessions. He would have the number of Israel exactly brought to Him, for they were all His own. He called them by their names, and knew their numbers.
That interest did not stop with this first count.
Later there is a fresh numbering of the men of Israel, in view of going to war. They were now on the borders of the holy land. The same grace of God which took account of every one of His people when they entered the wilderness shows that His love had not lessened, and that His personal interest was the same to the end. There was everything that could have turned Him aside, if that had been possible.
The order of the camp reached down to each single man.
Each had to know his post and keep it — to know his standard and stay by it... The Benjaminite had his post, and the Ephraimite had his. Neither was to interfere with the other, or cross the other's path... Each had his family line, and each had his post. Neither of them was according to their own thoughts; all was of God. He gave the family line, and He assigned the standard. There was no need to compare one man with another, and no ground for jealousy. Each had his place to fill and his work to do, and there was work enough and room enough for all.
Commentators read the name over this camp as pointing forward.
Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob by his beloved wife Rachel. She died at his birth and named him Ben-oni, which means "son of my sorrow," but his father named him Benjamin, "son of the right hand." He is a picture of Christ in both names: as exalted at God's right hand (Benjamin), and, as rejected, as the occasion of Israel's tribulation in the last days (Ben-oni). Rachel is a picture of Israel.
- Counted — God claimed these 35,400 as His own. He knew their names and He knew their number.
- Placed — the count led to a place. Benjamin camped on the west, under Ephraim's standard, in a group of 108,100.
- Posted — the place led to a post. Each man kept his own standard, and no tribe crossed another's path.
- Small — and still counted in full. Later, "little Benjamin" grew larger than four other tribes.
- Named — the name over that small camp means "son of the right hand." Commentators read it as a picture of Christ exalted.