Becher, Son of Benjamin: A Name Carried by Two Lists

Who Becher Is

Becher is a son of Benjamin, and that is the whole of his standing in Scripture. His name belongs to the era of Egypt and the wilderness, placed at around 1706 BC to 1451 BC (era placed on Ussher's chronology, 1650). He is counted with the tribe of Benjamin, and he appears in exactly three verses: Genesis 46:21, 1 Chronicles 7:6, and 1 Chronicles 7:8. No story is told about him. No word of his is recorded. He is a name in a register, and the register is the point.

The First List: The Sons of Benjamin

The earliest mention places him among his brothers. "The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard" (Genesis 46:21). Ten names, and Becher stands second. That is all the verse gives him: position in a sequence, between Bela and Ashbel.

This is worth sitting with rather than hurrying past. A genealogical list is not a lesser kind of Scripture; it is a different kind. It records that a family existed, that it had shape and order, that its members were counted and not lost. Becher is counted. Whatever he did or failed to do in his years, the text does not say, but it does say he was there and that he was his father's son.

The Second List: A Shorter Count

The same family is taken up again in 1 Chronicles 7:6: "The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, and Jediael, three." Becher again stands second, again after Bela. But the list is shorter, and the difference is visible on the page: Genesis names ten sons of Benjamin, 1 Chronicles names three and says so plainly, "three." A name appears in 1 Chronicles 7:6, Jediael, that Genesis 46:21 does not carry; Genesis carries Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard, whom the count of three does not name here.

The dossier offers no explanation for the difference, and neither do the verses themselves. An honest reader notes it and leaves it standing. What both lists agree on is Becher: he is in the Genesis roll and he is in the 1 Chronicles roll, and in both he is second after Bela. Two separate books keep the same man in the same place.

Nine Sons

The one place where Becher is more than a name in someone else's list is 1 Chronicles 7:8: "The sons of Becher: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher."

Nine sons, and the verse closes by pressing the point a second time, "All these were the sons of Becher." For one verse the direction of the text reverses. Elsewhere Becher is defined by his father; here he is the father, and nine names hang from his. That is the only thing Scripture reports that Becher did: he had sons, and they were counted after him.

Nothing further is said about these nine in the material before us. No occupation, no settlement, no deed. They are names, as their father is a name.

Nothing Recorded Against Him, and Nothing For Him

Here honesty requires a plain statement. The dossier records no failure of Becher, no sin, no act of faith, no obedience, no rebellion. This is not because he was blameless; it is because nothing at all is reported. Scripture is unflinching about the sins of men it chooses to narrate, and it narrates nothing of this man. We may not borrow a virtue for him, and we may not invent a fault.

What We Do Not Know

No scene is told about this person. Every mention is a list, a genealogy or a passing note. We do not know his mother, where he lived, how long he lived, how he died, or anything of his movements. We do not know how his nine sons fared or what became of the line after them. We do not know why the two lists of Benjamin's sons differ. The silence is total, and filling it with guesses would be a worse service to him than leaving it empty.

A Word on Names That Are Only Names

The dossier lists no New Testament references for Becher, and so no line is drawn here from him into the New Testament. What remains is the dignity of being written down. A man who said nothing recorded, did nothing recorded, and left only nine named sons behind him is nevertheless named three times in Scripture, in the same order, in two separate books. His name was kept. For most readers of these lists, that is nearer to our own case than the lives of the men whose deeds fill whole chapters, and it is not a small thing to be among the counted.