[Avodah] Binyamin's sons

[Zev Sero]

On 15/07/2012 2:43 AM, Liron Kopinsky wrote:
> We know that Binyamin had 10 sons, but when the chumash lists the families of Shevet Binyamin, there are only 5. What happened to his other 5 sons?

Rashi says they were lost in a civil war against the Leviyim.

Malbim suggests that Binyamin only had 8 children, because "Bela
vaVecher" just means Bela was the bechor, and "Echi Varosh" was one
name, referring to Yosef being "my brother and head".  Then, pointing
out that Bela had sons called Ard and Naaman, he suggests that the
original Ard and Naaman died childless, and Bela married their wives
and named sons after them.  That leaves only one missing son, and he
says they must have lost so many people in one of the various plagues
and punishments that the survivors got folded into one of the more
numerous clans.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon