twelve tribes. But the division was an artificial one; it never at any
time corresponded exactly with historical reality. Levi was not a tribe
in the same sense as the rest of his brethren; no territory was assigned
to him apart from the so-called Levitical cities; and he represented the
priestly order wherever it might be found and from whatever ancestors it
might be derived. Simeon and Dan hardly existed as separate tribes
except in name; their territories were absorbed into that of Judah, and
it was only in the city of Laish in the far north that the memory of Dan
survived. The tribe of Joseph was split into two halves, Ephraim and
Manasseh, while Judah was a mixture of various elements--of Hebrews who
traced their origin alike to Judah, to Simeon, and to Dan; of Kenites
and Jerahmeelites from the desert of Arabia; and of Kenizzites from
Edom. Benjamin or Ben-Oni was, as a tribe, merely the southern portion
of the house of Joseph, which had settled around the sanctuary of
Beth-On or Beth-el. Benjamin means the "Southerner," and Ben-Oni "the
inhabitant of Beth-On." It is even questionable whether the son of Jacob
from whom the tribe was held to be descended bore the name of Benjamin.
Had the name of Esau not been preserved we should not have known the
true name of the founder of Edom, and it may be that the name of the
tribe of Benjamin has been reflected back upon its ancestor.

In Goshen, at all events, the tribes of Israel would have been
distinguished by the names of their actual forefathers. They would have
been "the sons" of Reuben or Judah, of Simeon or Gad. But they were all
families within a single family. They were all "Israelites" or "sons of
Israel," and in an inscription of the Egyptian king Meneptah they are
accordingly called _Israelu_, "Israelites," without any territorial
adjunct. They lived in Goshen, like the Bedâwin of to-day, and their
social organisation was that of Arabia.