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Tribes of Israel
The Tribes Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Manasseh Ephraim Benjamin
Topics Children of Israel Ten Lost Tribes
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The Tribe of Asher (אָשֵׁר "happy", Standard Hebrew Ašer, Tiberian Hebrew ʼĀšēr) was one of the Tribes of Israel. At its height, Asher occupied western Galilee, a region with comparatively low temperature, and much rainfall, making it some of the most fertile land in Canaan, with rich pasture, wooded hills, and orchards; as such Asher was particularly prosperous, and known for its olive oil^[1]. The Blessing of Moses appears to prophecy this, though textual scholars view this as a clear case of postdiction^[2][3].

Despite the connection to this general geographic region, it is difficult to determine from the Torah the exact boundaries of the tribe, to the extent that it is even uncertain whether Asher even had continuous territory^[4]. Sites which according to the bible were allocated to Asher, and whose locations have since been identified, appear to be a scattered distribution of settlements rather than a compact and well-defined tribal region^[5]. Despite appearing to have had good contact with the markets of Phoenicia, Asher appears, throughout its history, to have been fairly disconnected from the other tribes of Israel; additionally it seems to have taken little part in the antagonism portrayed in the Bible between the Canaanites and the other tribes, for example in the war involving Barak and Sisera^[6]. Scholars generally conclude that Asher consisted of certain clans that were affiliated with portions of the Israelite tribal confederation, but were never incorporated into the body politic^[7].

According to the Torah, the tribe was founded by an individual, Asher the eighth son of Jacob, from whom it took its name; however Biblical scholars view this also as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation^[8]. In the Biblical account, Asher is one of the two descendants of Zilpah, a handmaid of Jacob, the other descendant being Gad; scholars see this as indicating that the authors saw Asher and Gad as being not of entirely Israelite origin (hence descendants of handmaids rather than of full wives)^[9]. In common with Gad is the possibility that the tribal name derives from a deity worshipped by the tribe, this being Asshur, the chief Assyrian deity, in the case of Asher, a name with which it is cognate^[10].

A group named Aseru, living in a similar region to Asher in the 14th century BC, are mentioned in Egyptian monuments of the period; though it is probable that the name of Asher derives from these Aseru, this would be inconvenient for a literalist interpretation of the Torah under the traditional Biblical chronology, since it places Asher in Canaan before the Israelites left Egypt^[11]. Nevertheless, an increasing majority of archaeologists believe that the account of an exodus from Egypt is inaccurate, and that the Israelites simply arose as a subculture within Canaanite society^[12], though a number have also proposed that some of the tribes originated as part of the Sea Peoples^[13]. Egyptian accounts of the Sea Peoples mention a group named Uashesh/Ueshesh, referred to as the Weshesh by modern scholars for convenience; this name can be decomposed as Uash-esh, meaning men of Uash in Hebrew, which may be a reference to Asher, one or both of the names having been slightly corrupted^[14].

• Asher
• Sea Peoples

1. ^ This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
2. ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote The Bible
3. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
4. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
5. ^ ibid
6. ^ ibid
7. ^ ibid
8. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
9. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
10. ^ ibid
11. ^ ibid
12. ^ Israel Finkelstein, The Bible Unearthed
13. ^ Yigael Yadin And Dan, Why Did He Remain in Ships
14. ^ SANDARS, N.K. The Sea Peoples. Warriors of the ancient Mediterranean, 1250-1150 BC. Thames & Hudson,1978

• Jewish Virtual Library