The site is upon the present Jebel Yarrauk, a hill, the slopes of which still show the marks of old retaining walls, and are covered with the ruins of buildings. The summit is crowned by the founda- tions of a wall, the early acropolis of tlie place. Guciin (Judfe, ii. 371 11'.) states that the ruins lie ' three good hours from Beit Djibrin, the ancient Eleutheropolis, on the road to Jerusalem.' The town will then be identical with the 'hp/joCj or Jermus of the Onomasticon, which Eusebius and Jerome agree in placing 10 miles from Eleutliero- polis on the way to Jerusalem. And the 'la/Seit or Jarimuth of the Onom. may be the same place, repeated with an error in the text (see Gudrin, ad loc). Thougli the site is not within the Shepheloh, it immediately commands it.
2. A city in Issachar, belon";ing to the Gershon- ite Levites (Jos 21^). Probably we should read nr-j Remeth : for(l) in the duplicate list (1 Ch 6") the name is Ramoth, in the tribal li.st of cities (Jos 19") Remeth appears; (2) in Jos 21" the LXX reads 'PtMMofl B, Itp^iiC A ; and in 19" 'P^/x/ias B, ■PoMo» A.
The place has not been identified. Gu6rin (GaliUe, i. 129 H.) conjectures Kaukab elHaoua, a height between Scytliopolis and Tiberias, which the Crusaders named Belvoir. The only reason is that Ramah or Remeth means height ( !). Conder (PEF Mem. 1881, p. 201) suggests Rameh N. of Samaria, near which tradition places Issachar*! grave. A. C. Welch.
JAROAH (niT).— A Gadite chief, 1 Ch 5'*. The text is doubtful (cf. Kittel in SBOT).
JASAELDS CAcrdijXot, AV Jasael), 1 Es 9».— In Ezr 10^ Sheal.
JASHAR, BOOK OF (AV Jasher, np.n -isp ; LXX
2 31'" /3i/}X(ou ToC f uffoCt ; Vulg. libro justortim ; Syr.
Jos 10" 'book of hymns or praises,' |A>'> *"! »L, 2 S 1" 'book of Ashir,' ; • «] ; Targ. Kp-iin-) Kl^ft
jaske:n
JASON
551
'book of the law'). — According to MT, tUui docu- ment was the source of the lines,
* Sun, stand thou etitl upon Gibeon ; And thou, Moon, in the valley of AiJ&Ion. And the sun stood still, and the moun stayed. Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies '
(Jos 10"- '») ;
and of David's Lament over Sanl and Jonathan, 2S 1""''. LXX of Jos omits the reference to the Bk. of Jashar. But probably the original text of 1 K 8"- " stated that the lines,
* J" bath said that he would dwelt in the thick darkneflft. I have surely built thee un house of habitation, A place for thee to dwell in for ever,'
were taken from this lx)ok. LXX makes onr 1 K
8"- " the close of 8", apparently following a some- what dilferent text, and adds ouk Idou aOrT) yiypairrai if /3i/3\fy T^s v'S^s. The last three words represent Tif'Ci Tsp, which is probably a corruption, by the transposition of two letters, of ly'.ri ics.
Nothing further is known of this document. Syr. of Jos and S, and LXX of 1 K 8", suggest that •\0' in Jos and S may bo a corruption of -\'a 'song' ; but this view has met with little if any sup[)ort. The data are too scanty and obscure to determine either the character of the book or the meaning of its title. As the passages quoted are ancient poems on great events, especially battles, probably the book was a collection of such poems. Some other OT jioems may be from this collection. The Targ. ' book of the law ' represents a rabbinical theory that the Bk. of Jashar was the Pentateuch or i>art of it. Donaldson, in his Jashar: fraqmenta arc/ie- typa carminum Hehrair.orutn, ]iublished at London in 1854, attempted a reconstruction of the book, and assigned to it a large number of passages from OT ; but his views met with no acceptance.
The date of the collection is obviously later than the time of David, and [jrobably older than B.C. 800 — the references to Jashar are assigned to J' (Budde, Samuel, etc.).
MT points 11?" as the ordinary ip; ' upright,' and it is so understood by LX.X, V'ulg. etc. If so, it may be taken as ' hero,' or collectively ' heroes,' courage and warlike prowess being the virtues most admired in primitive times ; llgen notices the title JJamasa, 'warlike virtue,' 'valour,' given to a section of an Arabic anthology, containing poems in praise of heroic deeds. Or ' the hero ' may be Israel, whose name is based on a root similar to ir-, and wlio is sometimes called I'lb.' Jcshurun (which see), Dt 32" SS'- ^, Is 44^. Or ib)- may be the initial word of the book, possibly to be read aa yashir 'sang,' as in iv; ix L.\ 15', Nu 21".
There are two rabbinical works with the title ' Book of Ja.sliar,' a moral treatise by R. Shabbatai Carmuz Levita, a.D. 1394, contained in a MS in the Vatican ; and a treatise on the laws of the Jews by R. Thom, d. 1171, first printed in Italy A.D. 1544. There is al.so an anonymous historical narrative, with the same title, containing the Pent., Jg., and Jos with additions ; accepted by some Jews as the Bk. of Jasliar ; probably the work of a Spanish Jew of the 13th cent. It is said to have tirst appeared at Naples, and was lirst printed at Venice in 1625. In 1G74 a German version of this work, with additions, was published at Krankfort-on- Main by R. Jacob. In 1751 a Bristol typefounder published a forgery ijrofe.ssing to be an Kiiglish translation of the lifc. of Jasliar, with a preface by Alcuin. It was reprinted in 1827 with a forged attestation by Wyclif.