The Son of Sorrow and the Hand of God
The name Ben-oni is not the name of a man who lived out a life of service in the Bible, but rather a final, heartbreaking utterance that captures the extreme anguish of one of the matriarchs of Israel. Ben-oni is the original name given by Rachel to the son she bore just before her death, marking one of the most poignant passages in the Book of Genesis.
The Circumstance of the Name
The brief account of Ben-oni’s naming occurs in the middle of Jacob’s journey, shortly after the divine encounter at Bethel, when he was traveling toward Ephrath (which is Bethlehem). Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife, went into difficult labor and died immediately after delivering her second son.
The King James Version captures this sorrowful moment in one verse:
“And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.” (Genesis 35:18, KJV)
The Dual Meaning of the Name
The name Ben-oni (Hebrew: Ben-’onî) is a compound word that conveys the depth of Rachel’s suffering:
- Ben- means “son of”.
- -oni (’onî) means “my sorrow,” “my trouble,” or “my pain.”
Thus, Ben-oni means “The Son of My Sorrow” or “The Son of My Affliction.” With her dying breath, Rachel named the child based on the immediate, tragic reality of his birth, linking the new life directly to her own pain and death.
Jacob’s Act of Redemptive Naming
Jacob, facing the devastation of losing the wife he had loved and labored for (Genesis 29:20), refused to let the name of his youngest son be a permanent monument to his sorrow. In an immediate act of spiritual resilience and hope, Jacob intervened and changed the child’s name to Benjamin (Hebrew: BinyamÄ«n).
- Benjamin means “Son of the Right Hand.”
In biblical culture, the right hand was a symbol of strength, honor, favour, and blessing (as seen in Psalm 110:1). By renaming his son, Jacob deliberately pivoted the child’s identity from a token of death and sorrow (Ben-oni) to a symbol of life and strength (Benjamin). Jacob’s choice was a powerful refusal to allow tragedy to define his final son’s destiny, instead affirming a future under divine blessing.
The name Ben-oni, therefore, stands as a tragic footnote—a powerful reminder of the pain that often accompanies God’s greatest blessings—while Benjamin is the name that endured, representing God’s ultimate intention to turn sorrow into strength.