Page "Benjamin" Paragraph 6

According to classical rabbinical sources, Benjamin was only born after Rachel had fasted for a long time, as a religious devotion with the hope of a new child as a reward.

By then Jacob had become over 100 years old.

Benjamin is treated as a young child in most of the Biblical narrative, but at one point is abruptly described as the father of ten sons.

Textual scholars believe that this is the result of the genealogical passage, in which his children are named, being from a much later source than the Jahwist and Elohist narratives, which make up most of the Joseph narrative, and which consistently describe Benjamin as a child.