The Hagrites (also spelled Hagarite or Hagerite, and called Hagarenes, Agarenes, and sons of Agar) were associated with the
Ishmaelites mentioned in the
Hebrew Bible, the inhabitants of the regions of Jetur,
Naphish and
Nodab lying east of
Gilead.
[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. They lived a nomadic, animal-herding lifestyle in sparsely populated land east of the
Israelites.
According to
First Chronicles 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 He ...
, and the half of the
tribe of Manasseh 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, 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, 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.
See also
*Comfort, Philip and Walter Elwell, ''Tyndale Bible Dictionary'', Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001
References
External links
Jewish Encyclopedia: ''Hagarenes, Hagarites''
Ancient Israel and Judah
Ancient peoples
Gilead
Hagar
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