JETHER (11:1?). Exod. iv. 18 (LXX. 'IoB.6p; Vulg. 7ethro; Arab. ‘1.,i)j.; Pesh. kO3L1....; Targ.
Jon. and Samar. 1'1111), the father-in-law of Moses, generally called Jethro. This abbreviated form is enumerated by the Midrash as the first of the seven (or, according to another version, eight) names by which this Midianite priest was known [viz., Jether or Jethro, because he heaped up own) good deeds, or because he added a Parasha to the Torah ;' Cheber CCM), because he was a friend of the Lord ; Chobeb (=rib because he was beloved by the Lord, or because 'he loved the Torah ;' Reuel, because lie was a companion an) to the Lord ; Petuel, because he freed himself on) from Idolatry]. Indeed, 'ether is considered his original name, to which, when he became a believer and a convert to the faith, an additional letter (1) was affixed ; exactly a.s, in token of the Divine favour and grace, a n was added to Abram's name, which thereby became Abraham ; or a.s Sarai was called Sarah, in consideration of her merits; and Hoshea bin Nun was calted Jehoshuah. On the other hand, we find a letter taken from a name, if its owner proved less worthy. EphrOn, 111Zr, is, after his transaction with Abraham, spelt without fuel, EphrOn ; Jehonadab became after his evil deed jonadab (Beresh. Rab. ; Jalkut, etc., ad lot.) 2. Judg. viii. 2o (LXX. 'IeSip; Vulg. yethe? Arab Uc..) jathar). The eldest of Gideon's seventy-one sons. All we learn of him is, that when asked by his father Gideon to avenge the death of his uncles.at Tabor on the two Midianite kings Zebach and Zalmunah, who had fallen into his hands after a hot pursuit, Jether did not draw the sword, for he was afraid, being still a lad.' According to Judg. ix. 8 he was slain, together with sixty-nine of his brothers—Jonathan alone escaping-4upon one stone ' at Ofrah, by the hands of Abimelech, the son of Gideon's bine, of Sichem.
3. Kings ii. 5, 32 (LXX. 'Iaip; Vulg. "'ether, etc.); the father of Amasa and husband of Abigail, David's sister. In Sam. xvii. 25, however, Amasa is described as the son of a man whose name was yithra, ii1114, the Israelite, who had come to Abigail, daughter of Nahash, the sister of Zerujah, mother of Joab. In the parallel passage, Chron. /7, on the other hand, he is called .%•ther the Ishmaelite.' Many have been the attempts of reconciling these discrepancies. That Jether and jithra were in reality one and the same name was easily recognised, since Jether and Jithro, Tarshish and Tarshisha, Geba and Gibea, and many similar instances, shewed the frequent occurrence of double forms of Hebrew proper names. Less easily disposed of, however, was the difficulty of the contradictory epithets of 'Israelite' in the passage of Sam., and of 4 Ishmaelite' in that of Chron. The Talmud records already two divergent opinions on the subject (Jer. Jebam. 9, c, cf. Babli Jab. 77, a.) According to R. Samuel bar Nachmani, Jether was an Ishmaelite by birth, but became a proselyte : hence the two appellations. Another opinion is, that, a staunch upholder of David's reign, he, when the king's descent through Ruth, a Moabite woman, was made a pretext by some of his antagonists to deprive him of his crown, girded his loins like an Ishmaelite' and threatened to uphold by the sword, if need be, the authority of the Halacha, which had decided that a Moabite 22tall but not a Moabite woman, an Ammonite man but not an Ammonite woman, should be prohibited from entering into the con greg,ation. Similarly we find in the Targ. to
Chron. 17 (Wilkins' Edition—this verse belongs to those wanting in Beck) that the father of Amasa was Jether the Israelite, but that he was called Jether the Ishmaelite because he aided David nsznyn (=iv" rya) before the tribunal [Wilkins, cum Arabibus!!'). Later commentators (Rashi, Abrabanel, David Kimchi) assume that he was an Israelite by birth but dwelt in the land of Ishmael, and was for this reason also called the Ishmaelite ; as Obed Edom is also called the Gittite (2 Sam. vi.), or Hiram's father the Zuri or Tyrian 0 Kings vi.) David Kimchi also adduces a suggestion of his father, to the effect that in the land of Ishmael Jether was called the Israelite from his nationality, and in that of Israel they called him the Ishmaelite on account of his living in the land of Ishmael.' It is the opinion, however, of almost all modern critics (Thenius, Bertheau, etc.), that one reading only is correct, viz., that of Chronicles, that these attempts at explaining the discrepancy are as futile as those of the Vulg. and LXX. at solving the difficulty by substituting in Sam.4Jezreeli' for Israelite,' and that it is also more natural to assume that some ultra-patriotic scribe has altered the ` Ishmaelite' of Chron. into the ` Israelite' of Sam., than that the latter should have been corrupted into the former. It seems remark able enough—and may for this very reason have been recorded—that the sister of the king should have married one who was born a Gentile. Atten tion has, indeed, been drawn of old to the peculiar mode in which Jether's name is introduced in Samuel as that of ` a man,'—` emphat. : a remark able man, a good man' (Kimchi). The Talmud interprets the N2. as denoting that the rightful mar riage between Jether and Abigail only took place at a later period, that is, after he had abjured Idolatry. [ABIGAIL ; AMASA.] 4. I Chron. 32 ; LXX. '49-1p; Vulg. ?ether; a son of Jada, nephew of Shamai, and brother of Jonathan, of the tribe of Judah. He died without issue.
5. Chron. iv. 17 ; LXX. ; Vulg. yether (identified by some—most gratuitously—with Am ram) ; a son of Ezra and brother of Mered, Epher, and Jalon. The verse in which it occurs is evi dently corrupted, and the commentators have tried hard to restore the former to its primitive shape. Miriam, in the second part of the verse—explained by the Targum to be identical with Efrath—is taken by many to be a male name, but this ex pedient no more renders the reading clearer than the transposition of the end of ver. 18 and ver. 17, which was first suggested by Wette. [MiRtAm.] 6. Chron. vii. 38 ; LXX. ; Al. ; Vulg. yether ; one of the heads of the families 26,000 in number—of the tribe of Asher, who were ` choice and mighty men of valour, chiefs of the princes.' He was the father of Jephuneh, Pispah, and Ara. Whether he be identical with the Jithra—spelt in Alex. and one Kenn. TvIS. Jether'—who is mentioned in the preceding verse as one of the sons of Zopha, is very doubtful.
7. Whether the Ithrites, Ira and Gareb ("11-14, Teptrns, Jethrites, Jeth rmus, etc.), mentioned in 2 Sam. xxiii. 38, etc., were natives of an otherwise unknown place called Jether, or of Jathir -OM, one of David's places of refuge (r Sam. xxx. 27), or descendants of one Jether—the least probable suggestion—cannot now be determined.—E. D.