The "Hagarites" or "Hagarenes" are generally regarded as descendants of Hagar, and a distinct branch of the Ishmaelites 1 Chronicles 27:30-31; Psalm 83:6. They appear to have been one of the most wealthy 1 Chronicles 5:21 and widely-spread tribes of the Syrian Desert, being found on the side of the Euphrates in contact with the Assyrians, and also in the Hauran, in the neighborhood of Palestine, in contact with the Moabites and Israelites. If identical with the Agraei of the Classical writers, their name may be considered as still surviving in that of the district called Hejer or Hejera in northeastern Arabia, on the borders of the Persian Gulf. A full account of the war is given in 1 Chronicles 5:18-22.

And they dwelt in their tents - The Hagarites were tribes of Nomade, or Scenite, Arabs; people who lived in tents, without any fixed dwellings, and whose property consisted in cattle. The descendants of Reuben extirpated these Hagarites, seized on their property and their tents, and dwelt in their place.

And in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites,.... Not with the Hungarians, as the Targum, a people not then in being; but the Ishmaelites, so called because they descended from Hagar (s), Sarah's maid; the same that are placed by Pliny (t) and Ptolemy (u) in Arabia, near the Batanaeans, or inhabitants of Bashan; with those the Reubenites made war, in conjunction with the Gadites and half tribe of Manasseh, 1 Chronicles 5:18, perhaps this war might be much about the time Saul relieved Jabeshgilead, and beat the Ammonites, 1 Samuel 11:1 by which the tribes on that side Jordan might be encouraged to it:

who fell by their hand; were worsted and conquered by them:

and they dwelt in their tents; in which the Arabians used to dwell, because of their flocks; hence some of them were called Scenites:

throughout all the east land of Gilead; or rather throughout all the land of the Hagarites, which lay to the east of Gilead, as the Vulgate Latin version; or otherwise the land of Gilead itself was their original possession.

(s) So David de Pomis, Lexic. fol. 45. 4. (t) Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. (u) Geograph. l. 5. c. 19.

"In the days of Saul they made war upon the Hagarites, and they fill into their hands, and they dwelt in their tents over the whole east side of Gilead." The subject is not determined, so that the words may be referred either to the whole tribe of Reuben or to the family of Bela (1 Chronicles 5:8). The circumstance that in 1 Chronicles 5:8 and 1 Chronicles 5:9 Bela is spoken of in the singular (יושׁב הוּא and ישׁב), while here the plural is used in reference to the war, is not sufficient to show that the words do not refer to Bela's family, for the narrative has already fallen into the plural in the last clause of 1 Chronicles 5:9. We therefore think it better to refer 1 Chronicles 5:10 to the family of Bela, seeing that the wide spread of this family, which is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 5:9, as far as the desert to the east of the inhabited land, presupposes the driving out of the Hagarites dwelling on the eastern plain of Gilead. The notice of this war, moreover, is clearly inserted here for the purpose of explaining the wide spread of the Belaites even to the Euphrates desert, and there is nothing which can be adduced against that reference. The אחיו in 1 Chronicles 5:7 does not, as Bertheau thinks probable, denote that Bela was a contemporary of Beerah, even if the circumstance that from Bela to Joel only three generations are enumerated, could be reconciled with this supposition. The spread of Bela's family over the whole of the Reubenite Gilead, which has just been narrated, proves decisively that they were not contemporaries. If Bela lived at the time of the invasion of Gilead by Tiglath-pileser, when the prince Beerah was carried away into exile, it is certainly possible that he might have escaped the Assyrians; but he could neither have had at that time a family "which inhabited all the east land," nor could he himself have extended his domain from "Aroer and Nebo towards the wilderness," as the words יושׁב הוּא, 1 Chronicles 5:8, distinctly state. We therefore hold that Bela was much older than Beerah, for he is introduced as a great-grandson of Joel, so that his family might have been as widely distributed as 1 Chronicles 5:8, 1 Chronicles 5:9 state, and have undertaken and carried out the war of conquest against the Hagarites, referred to in 1 Chronicles 5:10, as early as the time of Saul. Thus, too, we can most easily explain the fact that Bela and his brothers Jeiel and Zechariah are not mentioned. As to הגרעים, cf. on 1 Chronicles 5:19.

And in the days of Saul they made war with the {e} Hagarites, who fell by their hand: and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the east land of Gilead.

(e) The Ishmaelites who came from Hagar Abraham's concubine.

5:10 They made war - Thus God did for his people, as he promised them. He cast out the enemy from before them by little and little, and gave them their land as they had occasion for it.

throughout...: Heb. upon all the face of the east

5:1-26 Genealogies. - This chapter gives some account of the two tribes and a half seated on the east side of Jordan. They were made captives by the king of Assyria, because they had forsaken the Lord. Only two things are here recorded concerning these tribes. 1. They all shared in a victory. Happy is that people who live in harmony together, who assist each other against the common enemies of their souls, trusting in the Lord, and calling upon him. 2. They shared in captivity. They would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed. The desire of earthly objects draws to a distance from God's ordinances, and prepares men for destruction.