JASHEN

ja'-shen, jash'-en (yashen, "asleep"(?)): Seemingly the father of some of David s thirty valiant men (2 Samuel 23:32 f). The Massoretic Text reads "Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, Shammah the Hararite, .... " 1 Chronicles 11:33 f has Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan the son of Shagee the Hararite .... " It is clear that "sons of" are a dittography of the last three consonants of the previous word. Septuagint, Lucian in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles has ho Gouni, "the Gunite," for "the Gizonite," perhaps correctly (compare Genesis 46:24; Numbers 26:48 for "Guni," "Gunite"). So 2 Sam 23:32 may be corrected thus: "Eliahba the Shaalbonite, Jashen the Gunite, Jonathan the son of Shammah the Hararite." Jashen then becomes one of the thirty = "Hashem" of 1 Chronicles 11:34.

David Francis Roberts

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.