JASHAR, BOOK OF, a Hebrew composition mentioned as though well known in Josh. x. 13 and 2 Sam. i. 18. From these two passages it seems to have been a book of songs relating to important events, but no early collection of the kind is now extant, nor is anything known of it. Various speculations have been put forward as to the name: (I) that it means the book of the upright, i.e. Israel or distinguished Israelites, the root be ing the same as in Jeshurun ; (2) that Jashar is a transposition of shir (song) ; (3) that it should be pointed Yashir (sing), and was so called after its first word. None of these is very convinc ing, though support may be found for them all in the versions. The Septuagint favours (I) by its rendering bri ifIq3Xlov roi) ebOoDs in Samuel (it omits the words in Joshua) ; the Vulgate has in libro justorum in both places ; the Syriac in Samuel has Ashir, which suggests a Hebrew reading ha-shir (the song), and in Joshua it translates "book of praises." The Targum on both passages
has "book of the law," an explanation which is followed by the chief Jewish commentators, making the incidents the fulfilment of passages in the Pentateuch. Since it contained the lament of David (2 Sam. i. 18) it cannot have been completed till after his time. If Wellhausen's restoration of 1 Kings viii. 12 be accepted (from Septuagint, I Kings viii. 53, iv OLOXic. T71s (.Phijs) where the reference is to the building of the Temple, the book must have been growing in the time of Solomon.
In later times when it became customary to compose midrashic works under well-known names, a book of Jashar naturally made its appearance. This has nothing to do with the older book.
(L. E. B.)