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Bible Encyclopedias
Jashen
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Heb. Yashen'. יָשֵׁן, sleeping, as in Song of Solomon 7:10, etc.; Septuag. Ι᾿ασέν v.r. Ἀσάν ), a person, several of whose "sons" are named as among David's famous bodyguard (2 Samuel 23:32), called in the parallel passage HASHEM the Gizonite (1 Chronicles 11:34). Other discrepancies also occur between the two passages: the former names three, while the latter makes the first (Jonathan) son of the next, and both (with slight verbal variations) assign special patronymics to the last two. Perhaps the two accounts may best be reconciled by understanding the two braves referred to as being Jonathan BenShammah (or Ben-Shageh), and Ahiam Ben-Sharar (or Ben-Sacar), grandsons of Jashen (or Hashem) of Gizon, in the mountains of Judah hence called Hararites. B.C. considerable ante 1046. This name Kennicott believes (Dissertation, i, 201-3) lies concealed in the word rendered "the Gizonite" in Chronicles, and accordingly proposes to read in both places "Gouni, of the sons of Hashem; Jonathan, the son of Shamha the Hararite "his view being supported by the Alex. copy of the Sept., which reads υἱοὶ Ἀσὰμ ὁ Γωϋνὶ Ι᾿ωνάθαν νίὸς Σαγὴ ὀ Ἀραρί. However, the want of the מ before בְנֵי, and the ה prefixed to the name read by him as Goumni are objections to this view, and Bertheau may probably be right (Chronik. p. 134), that בַנֵי is due to a repetition of the last three letters of the preceding word, "the Shaalbonite" (הִשִׁעִלבֹנַי ), and that we should simply read Hashem the Gizonite. In the list given by Jerome, in his Quaestiones Hebraicae, Jashen and Jonathan are both omitted. (See DAVID).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Jashen'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/j/jashen.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
