HAGRITES, HAGARITES, HAGARENES . A tribe of Arabian or Aramæan origin inhabiting territory to the east of Gilead. Twice they were the object of campaigns by the trans-Jordanic Israelite tribes, by whom they were crushingly defeated and expelled from their land ( 1 Chronicles 5:6; 1 Chronicles 5:19-20 ). Because the name appears only in very late passages, Bertheau and others have conjectured that it was a late appellation for Bedouin in general. It has been supposed to mean ‘Descendants of Hagar hence to be synonymous with ‘Ishmaelites.’ But this is unlikely, since the Hagrites are named along with other tribes which, according to this theory, they included. The Hagrites are mentioned among a group of Aramæan tribes in an inscription of Tiglath-pileser iii.
W. M. Nesbit.
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