Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

As her soul was in departing - Is not this a proof that there is an immortal spirit in man, which can exist separate from and independent of the body? Of Rachel's death it is said, בצאת נפשה betseth naphshah, in the going away of her soul; her body did not go away, therefore her soul and body must have been distinct. If her breath only had been in tended, נשמה neshamah or רוח ruach would have rather been used, as the first means breath, the latter breath or spirit indifferently. She called his name Ben-oni - בן אני the Son of my sorrow or affliction, because of the hard labor she had in bringing him into the world; but his father called him Benjamin, בנימין the son of my right hand, i.e., the son peculiarly dear to me. So man of the right hand, Psa 80:17, signifies one much loved and regarded of God. The Samaritan has Benyamin, the son of days; i.e., the son of his old age, as Judah calls him, Gen 44:20; and Houbigant contends that this is the true reading, and that the Chaldee termination in for im is a corruption. If it be a corruption, it is as old as the days of St. Jerome, who translated the place Benjamin, id est, filius dextrae; Benjamin, that is, the son of the right hand.