JAARE OREGIM (n+a-liN Rrovrin small (doubtful 1), according to the Massorah] LXX. 'Apnerrytp.), 2 Sam. xxi. 19 ; a Bethlehemite, father of Elhanan, who in that passage is reported to have slain Goliath the Gittite. In order to re concile this statement with the one contained in r Sam. xvii., according to which it was David who slew the formidable Philistine, the Midrash identifies Elhanan with David 6t..1 'whom God has favozerear--= Hananel, Elhanan, Jalk. to 2 Sam. xxi. 19, etc.), and interprets the Jaare Oregim, which follows, in various fanciful manners, so as to make it agree with the circumstances. Ben 7aare, according to one version (Jalk, ib.), was David's OVV11 name, 'because he was great among the forest [of the] Oregim or Weavers [of the Law] ; i.e., the Sanhedrim, who brought the Halacha (legal deci sions) before him that he might weave it,' as it were. Another version traces the Jaare Oregirn to, or rather founds upon it, the legend that Da vid's mother habitually wove veils for the sanctu ary, which pious occupation procured for her son the epithet of a son of weavers' beams.' A third simply takes the two words as an epithet for David's father Jesse. Jonathan translates 111 rozni Nvipn roz rmInD ,v+ nz And David, the son of Jesse, the weaver of veils for the sanctuary in Bethlehem, killed,' etc. The Vulg. renders 'A deaa'atus filius Saltfis [Jeer= forest] Po ly mitai ius [?David himself a weaver or --=-Polymitarii] llethlehernites ;' Pesh. liCLC1 Arab. V.
= Malaph (?) the weaver.
All these more or less allegorical explanations, however, are unsatisfactory to a degree, and the whole passage has been sharply contested from the days of the early commentators. It would indeed appear as if nothing short of a corrupt read ing, such as Kennicott, after Piscator, has lucidly pointed out, could account for the existence of this most mysterious compound name ; while at the same time, by his suggestion, much is gained for the reconciliation of the two flagrantly contradictory accounts of Goliath's defeat. The pamllel passage
in z Chron. XX. 5 seems to have the correct reading. And Elhanan,' we find there, the son of Jair (Ketib 11r) slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliah the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver's beam n=n).' Some early copyist, after having finished the word n,v, 07), mistook the in 71)?=, which in the manuscript from which lie copied happened to stand exactly underneath, for the one he had just written, and' consequently went on with the word n,:ln)N, which happened to follow in the second line. How this mistake was perpetuated, what efforts were made, by further ad ditions of words or single letters, to render the now obscure passage somewhat more clear and more in accordance with the statements preferred elsewhere —for these and other points in connection with them we must refer to Elhanan (vol. i., p. 762), where also the different speculations and sugges tions of ancient and modern commentators will be found discussed at somewhat greater length.
As a characteristic specimen of late poetical etymology (Jaare, Jair) we will add the Targum to the passage in r Chron. xx. 5, amended in its turn after the one in Samuel : " And David, the son of Jishai,'—this is the pious man who arose (-13.7n,n) from his sleep in the middle of the night to give praise unto God—` slew Lachrni the brother of Goliath on the same day on which he killed Go liath of Gath.' This derivation of 1,1P is founded upon the following beautiful legend, found in Talm. Berach. 3 b., Jer. Ber. Bamidb. Rab. 15, etc. : A harp was hanging above David's bed, and in the middle of the night the north wind came and rustled in its strings so that it sang [played] of itself. And David rose at once and praised God, and studied in the law till the dawn of morning,. As it is written (Ps. lvii. 9 [A. V. SD, Awake up my glory, awake, psaltery and harp ; I will wake the dawn."—E. D.