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I assumed that Benjamin was a decimated tribe after the Concubine at Gibeah incident and decided to build a MATLAB simulator to see whether with intermarriage with Judah, Benjamin would disappear (or find an equilibrium). When I looked for a reference point from which to start that has a figure for both Judah and Benjamin, I find Chronicles 2:14:7 in which Judah and Benjamin fields armies of 300K and 280K respectively against the Ethiopians.

Unless one says that Judah had a big draft dodging problem, the tribes appear to be approximately equal in size.

The only possible Biblical explanation is that when Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, he killed or carried off the Benjaminites, but this is not written.

What is the official position on why we assume people aren't Benjaminites?

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    "we assume people aren't Benjaminites" How do you know this?
    – Double AA ♦
    Jul 29 '16 at 0:43
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    @NoachMiFrankfurt Even hundreds of years prior to that the Jewish language is called יהודית (Isaiah 37). I'm not sure how much there is to learn from common language in post Tanakh times anyway.
    – Double AA ♦
    Jul 29 '16 at 2:15
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    If you have a source that we are assumed to be from the tribe of Judah, that would be helpful. I always assumed we were all from the kingdom of Judah
    – Menachem
    Jul 29 '16 at 3:26
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    We could be from any of the tribes, as many of the "lost" tribes returned with Hezekiah and with Josiah. However the majority are from Judah. In addition, I think of the families that came back with Ezra there were more from Judah and a lot of Kohanim which explains why there are so many of them now too.
    – CashCow
    Jul 29 '16 at 9:22
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    the jews of yaman have lineage papers showing which tribe they come from. not all of them come from yahudho or leiwee or beenyonmeen
    – MoriDowidhYa3aqov
    Jul 31 '16 at 21:40
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Actually, contrary to the popular belief in the Jewish world that most Jews are from either the two tribes, it's just all not true. See here for a proof that we are all not just from either two tribes.

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