• Hagr). We will not deny that this province probably derived its name and early inhabitants from Hagar and her son Ishmael (or, as Rabbi D. Kimchi would prefer, from Hagar, through some son by another father than Abraham) ; but we are not of opinion that these Hagarenes of the Persian Gulf, whose pursuits were so different," were iden tical with the Hagarenes of the Psalm before us, or with the Hagarites of Chron., whom we have identified with them. The fact seems to be that many districts in Arabia were called by the generic appellation of Hagarite or Hagarene, no doubt after Hagar ; as Keturah, another of Abraham's concubines, occasioned the rather vaguely-used name of Ketureans for other tribes of the Arabian peninsula (Forstcr, Geog. ef Arabia, ii. 7). In the very section of Abulfeda which we have above quoted, that geographer (after the author of the Moschtarek) reminds us that the name liadjar (Hagar) is as extensive in meaning in Arabia as Scham (Syria) and Irak, elsewhere ; in like man ner Rommel, within a page or two, describes an Hagar in the remote province of Yemen ; this, although an unquestionably different place (Rei naud, it. 1-137, note), is yet confounded with the maritime Hadjar. In proof of the uncertainty of the situation of places in Ara.bia of like name, we may mention that, while Abulfeda, Edrisi, Giau hari, and Golius distinguish between the Hagarenes of the north-east coast and those of the remote south-west district which we have just mentioned, Nassir Edin, Olugbeig, and Busching confound them as identical." Such being the uncertainty connected with the sites of these Arab tribes, we the less hesitate to place the Hagarenes of the Psalm in the neighbourhood of Edom, Moab and Ammon in the situation, which was in Saul's time occupied by the Hagarites, 'near the main road which led' [or, more correctly, in the belt of country which stretched) from the head of the Red Sea to the Euphrates' (Smith's Dia. of Geog., s. v. Agr(ei ; see also Bochart, Phaleg. [ed. Ville mandy), iv. p. 225). The mention both of Ishmaelites and Hagarenes in this Psalm has led to the opluion that they are separate nations here meant. The verse, however (7th in the Hebrew Bible) is in the midst of a poetic parallelism, in which the clauses are synonymous and not anti thetic (comp. vv. 5-11), so that if 'Edam and the
Ishmaelites' is not absolutely identical in geogra phical signification with Moab and the Hagarenes,' there is at least a poetical identity between these two groups which forbids our separating, them widely from each other in any sense (for the dis persed condition of the Hagarenes, see also Fuller, Misc. &ler., 11. 12).
Combinations marked the unrelenting hostility of their neighbours towards the Jews to a very late period. One of these is mentioned in Maccab. v., as dispersed by Judas Maccabxus. The chil dren of Bean' (vie/ BaIav) of ver. 4 have been by Hitzig conjectured to be the sante as our Hagar enes ; there is, however, no other ground for this opinion than their vicinity to Edom and Ammon, ancl the difficulty of making them fit in with any other tribe as conveniently as with that which is the subject of this article (see J. Olshausen, die Psahnen, p. 345).
(3). In the passage from Baruch iii. 23, we have attributed to ` the Agarenes' qualities of wisdom for which the Arabian nation has been long celebrated, skill in proverbial philosophy (Cf. Freytag, Arab. Prey., tom. iii., prxf.) ; in this accomplishment they have associated with them ` the merchants of Meran and of Theman.' This is not the place to discuss the site of Meran, which some have placed on the Persian Gulf and others on the Red Sea ; it is enough to obsei-ve that their mercantile habits gave them a shrewdness in practical knowledge which rendered them worthy of comparison with the merchants of Theman' or Edom.f The wisdom of these is expressly men tioned in Jer. xlix. 7 and Ohad., ver. 8. ThE Agarenes of this passage we would place amon,c the inhabitants of the shores of the Persiar Gulf, where (see 1) Gesenius and others placec the Hagarites' after their conquest by the trans jordanic Israelites. The clause, that seck wis dom on earth'". [that is, which acquire experiena and intelligence from intercourse with mankindl seems to best fall in with the habits of a seafarin and mercantile race (see Fritzsche, das Buc2 Baruch, p. 192 ; and Havernick, whose words h( quotes : Hagareni terram quasi perlustrante: dicuntur, quippe mercatores longe celeberrirn antiquissimis jamjam temporibus').—P. H.