Asher

"Happy." The name of Jacob's eighth son; his mother was Zilpah, Leah's handmaid.1 Of the tribe founded by him nothing is recorded beyond its holding a place in the list of the tribes.2 It increased in numbers twenty-nine percent, during the thirty-eight years 'wanderings. The place of this tribe during the march through the desert was between Dan and Naphtali.3 The boundaries of the inheritance given to it, which contained some of the richest soil in Palestine, and the names of its towns, are recorded in Josh. 19:24- 31; Judg. 1:31, 32. Asher and Simeon were the only tribes west of the Jordan which furnished no hero or judge for the nation. Anna the prophetess was of this tribe.4

❧

References

Notes

  1. Gen. 30:13.
  2. 35:26; 46:17; Ex. 1:4, etc..
  3. Num. 2:27.
  4. Luke 2:36.

Source

  • Easton, M.G. (1897). Easton's Bible Dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.

This article incorporates text from Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897) by M.G. Easton, which is in the public domain.