“Ravin” is an archaic form of “raven,” where we get the more common “ravenous”; thus to “ravin as a wolf” would mean to consume greedily and fiercely, as a wild wolf. This translation of טָרַף or taraph (glossed “to tear, rend, pluck”) seems apt enough: Jacob doubtless uses an idiom that, literally, means Benjamin is a wolf (זְאֵב or zeeb) that tears; but the implication is that his descendants will be a violent mob that consumes whatever they can get their hands on.

This well describes the infamous and monstrous behavior, in Judg 19:22-27 and 20:21, 25, that will bring on their decimation in 20:34-48. I will not retell this story, which is one of the darkest in the entire Bible, except in summary: some Benjamites rape the concubine-wife of a Levite to death; he sends her in pieces to the Israelites to call them to do justice; the Benjamites kill tens of thousands of Israelites when they come to mete out justice; and finally the Benjamites are themselves slaughtered and reduced to just 600 men.

As to “at night he shall divide the spoil”, it is a bit shocking, I think, to reflect that this somewhat describes the fate of the Levite’s concubine: she was raped, or bespoiled, to the point of death at night, and in the morning her corpse was divided into twelve parts and sent to the twelve tribes: “And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.” (Judg 19:29)

The aptness of this act as a fulfillment of the prophecy, and the difficulty in explaining the act of dismemberment otherwise, suggests that the Levite bore in mind this prophecy about Benjamin, and that he quite deliberately made the fulfillment of “divide the spoil” literal. This is, of course, just a hypothesis, and I would be curious to know if scholars had discussed it.

“Ravin” is an archaic form of “raven,” where we get the more common “ravenous”; thus to “ravin as a wolf” would mean to consume greedily and fiercely, as a wild wolf. This translation of טָרַף or taraph (glossed “to tear, rend, pluck”) seems apt enough: Jacob doubtless uses an idiom that, literally, means Benjamin is a wolf (זְאֵב or zeeb) that tears; but the implication is that his descendants will be a violent mob that consumes whatever they can get their hands on.

This well describes the infamous and monstrous behavior, in Judg 19:22-27 and 20:21, 25, that will bring on their decimation in 20:34-48. I will not retell this story, which is one of the darkest in the entire Bible, except in summary: some Benjamites rape the concubine-wife of a Levite to death; he sends her in pieces to the Israelites to call them to do justice; the Benjamites kill tens of thousands of Israelites when they come to mete out justice; and finally the Benjamites are themselves slaughtered and reduced to just 600 men.

As to “at night he shall divide the spoil”, it is a bit shocking, I think, to reflect that this somewhat describes the fate of the Levite’s concubine: a mob of Benjamites raped, or despoiled, her to the point of death at night, and in the morning the Levite divided her corpse into twelve parts and sent it to the twelve tribes: “And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.” (Judg 19:29)

The aptness of this act as a fulfillment of the prophecy, and the difficulty in explaining the shocking act of dismemberment otherwise, suggests that the Levite bore in mind this prophecy about Benjamin, and that he quite deliberately made the fulfillment of “divide the spoil” literal. This is, of course, just a hypothesis, and I would be curious to know if scholars had discussed it.