If
the usual etymology of BENJAMIN (binyādîm < bēn yāmîn),
“son of the right (hand),” is accepted, and given the fact that Hebrew speakers
used many puns and plays on words (at least in parts of the Old Testament),
then a possible play on words appear in King BENJAMIN’s speech: “Ye
shall be called the children of Christ [the possible underlying words on the
plates, bĕnê ham-māšîaḥ, contains a near homonym to Mosiah’s name], his
sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7); “whosoever doeth this shall be found at
the right hand [and the possible underlying word, bîmîm] of God, for he
shall know the name by which he is called” (Mosiah 5:9); “whosoever shall not .
. . he findeth himself on the left hand of God” (Mosiah 5:10). In Ezekiel 21:22
(21:27 in the Hebrew text), “at his right hand” is bîmînô. However, in
other passages in the Hebrew Bible, “at the right hand” is rendered differently.
In Psalm 109:31, “at the right hand” is written lîmîn, not bîmîn.
And in Zechariah 3:1 “at his right hand” is ‘al-yĕmînô. (“Benjamin,” in Dictionary
of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D.
Ricks, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee [Orem, Utah:
Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2022], 66)
