HAGARITES (1 Chron. v. TO, 19, 20 ; ; Sept. A-yapnvoi [v. 19], 'A-yupaZot [v.
20, in V. TO deestl, ; Vulg. .4 gctrez): HAGARENES (Psalm lxxxiii. 6 [7 Hcbr. Bib.] ; Sept.
apnvoi [lxxxii. 6] ; Vulg. ilgareni): AGARENES (Baruch iii. 23 ; 01 viol "A.-yap ; Vulg. Fzlii Astir). Such are the three forms in which occurs the de signation of probably the same Arab people who appear at different periods of the sacred history— in hostile relation to the Hebrew nation.
(I.) Our first passage treats of a great war, which in the reign of King Saul was waged between the transjordanic tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Ma nasseh on the one side, and their formidable neigh bours, the Hagarites, aided by the kindred tribest of jetur and Nephish and Nodab,' on the otber. The result of this war was extremely favourable to the Eastern Israelites ; besides the capture of immense booty from the enemy,:t many of whom were taken and many slain in tbe conflict (ver. 21, 22), the victorious two tribes and a half took pos session of the country, and retained it until the captivity (ver. 22). By this conquest, which was still more firmly mtified in the subsequent reign of David, the promise, which was given as early as Abraham's time (Gen. xv. 18) and raisewed to Moses (Deut. i. 7) and to Joshua (i. 4),-hegan to receive that accomplishment, which was consum mated by the glorious Solomon (r Kings iv. 21). The large tract of country which thus accrued to Israel, stretched from the indefinite frontier of the pastoral tribes, to whom were formerly assigned the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, to the Euphrates. A comparison of Chron. v. 9-20 with Gen. xxv. 12-18, seems to shew that this line of country, which (as the history informs us) extended eastward of Gilead and Bashan in the direction of the Euphrates, \vas substantially the same as that which Moses describes as peopled by the sons of Ishmael, whom Hagar bore to Abraham. They dwelt,' says Moses, from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest towards Assyria'—in other words, across the country from the junction of the Euphrates with the Tigris to the isthmus of Suez ; and this is the spacious tract which we assign to the Hagarites or Hagarenes. The booty taken from the Hagarites and their allies proves that much of this territory was well adapted to pastur age, and therefore valuable to the nomadic habits of the conquerors (Num. xxxii. 1). The brilliancy
of the conquest, moreover, exhibits the military prowess of these shepherds. Living amidst races whose love of plunder is still illustrated in the pre. datory Bedouins of Eastern Palestine, they were obliged to erect fortresses for the protection of theil pastures (Michaelis, Laws of Moses, art. xxiii.), a precaution which seems to have been resorted to from the first. The sons of Ishmael are enumerated, Gen. xxv. 16, by their towns and by their cast/es;' and some such defensive erections were, no doubt, meant by the children of Reuben and Gad in Num. xxxii. 16, 17.
(2.) Though these eastern Israelites became lords paramount of this vast tract of country, it is not necessary to suppose that they exclusively occu pied the entire region ; nor that the Hagarites and their kindred, though subdued, were driven out ; for it was probably in the same neighbourhood that the Hagarenes' of our second passage were living, when they joined in the great confederacy against Israel with, among others, Edom and Moab and Ammon and Amalek. When this com bination took place is of little importance here ; Mr. Thrupp (Psalms, vol. ii. pp. 6o, 61) gives ex cellent reasons for assigning it to the reigns of jehoasb and of his son Jeroboam II. The nations, however, which constituted the confederacy witb the IIagarenes, seem to confirm our opinion that these vvere still residing in the district, where in the reign of Saul they had been subjugated by their Israelite neighbours. Rosenmiiller Geog-.
[trans.], iii. 141) and Gesenius (nes., s. v. 41.1i1) suggest that the Hagarenes when vanquished grated to the south-east, because on the coast of the Persian Gulf there was the province of Hagar or Hadjar (..).N.). This is the district which the Arabian geographers have carefully and pro minently described (comp. De Sacy's Chrest. Arabe, ii. 123 ; Abulfeda [by Reinaud], 137, who quotes Jakut's Illoschtarele for some of his infor mation ; and Rommers Commentary on Abul feda, De Prov. Ilagiar, sive Bahkrain, L • pp. 87, SS, S9 ; D'Herbelot, s. v.