The Hagrites (also spelled Hagarite or Hagerite, and called Hagarenes, Agarenes, and sons of Agar) were associated with the

Ishmaelites The Ishmaelites ( he, ''Yīšməʿēʾlīm,'' ar, بَنِي إِسْمَاعِيل ''Bani Isma'il''; "sons of Ishmael") were a collection of various Arabian tribes, confederations and small kingdoms described in Islamic tradition as being desc ...

mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

, the inhabitants of the regions of Jetur, Naphish and

Nodab Nodab was a Biblical tribe among the Hagarites mentioned only in 1 Chronicles 5:19. They were mentioned as having been conquered by Reuben, Gad and half-Manessah,''The Illustrated Bible Dictionary'' page 1093 and little else is known of them. See ...

lying east of

Gilead Gilead or Gilad (; he, גִּלְעָד ''Gīləʿāḏ'', ar, جلعاد, Ǧalʻād, Jalaad) is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> Th ...

.For "sons of Agar," see Baruch 3:23, ''Revised Version.'' For ''Agarenes'' see Baruch 3:23, ''King James Bible.'' Their name is understood to be related to that of the biblical

Hagar Hagar, of uncertain origin; ar, هَاجَر, Hājar; grc, Ἁγάρ, Hagár; la, Agar is a biblical woman. According to the Book of Genesis, she was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as ''Sarai''), whom Sarah gave to he ...

. They lived a nomadic, animal-herding lifestyle in sparsely populated land east of the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

. According to

First Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( he, דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third sec ...

5:18-22, the

Reubenites According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Reuben () was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Unlike the majority of the tribes, the land of Reuben, along with that of Gad and half of Manasseh, was on the eastern side of the Jordan and shared a ...

Gadites According to the Bible, the Tribe of Gad () was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel who, after the Exodus from Egypt, settled on the eastern side of the Jordan River. It is one of the ten lost tribes.Tribe still originated from the original Hebr ...

, and the half of the

tribe of Manasseh According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Manasseh (; Hebrew: ''Ševet Mənašše,'' Tiberian: ''Šēḇeṭ Mănašše'') was one of the Tribes of Israel. It is one of the ten lost tribes. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Manasseh also fo ...

in Gilead brought 44,760 to battle with the Hagrites and defeated them. Through the battle, the Reubenites captured the Hagrite land as well as 50,000

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

s, 250,000

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

, 2,000

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

s. Finally, the Reubenites captured 100,000 Hagrites, men, women and children and held them as captives. According to

Theodor Nöldeke Theodor Nöldeke (; born 2 March 1836 – 25 December 1930) was a German orientalist and scholar. His research interests ranged over Old Testament studies, Semitic languages and Arabic, Persian and Syriac literature. Nöldeke translated several ...

, these numbers are "enormously exaggerated".

King David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

of Israel made Jazziz the Hagrite steward of his flocks, but the Hagrites are not mentioned in the historical books as a distinct people after the reign of King David. In Psalms 83:6, the Hagrites are included in a list of ten peoples that form a coalition to attack Israel for the purpose of wiping it off the map. Because the war described in Psalm 83 has not yet occurred historically, it is often designated a prophetic psalm describing future events.

References

External links

Jewish Encyclopedia: ''Hagarenes, Hagarites''
Ancient Israel and Judah Ancient peoples Gilead Hagar {{Hebrew-Bible-stub

See also

References

External links