ad or semi-nomad life — but " rejoicing" in them ; and it is perhaps not straining a point to observe that he has by this time begun to lose his individuality. He and Zebulun are mentioned together as having part posses- sion in the holy mountain of Tabor, which was near the frontier line of each (Dent, xxxiii, 18, 19). We pass from this to the time of Deborah : the chief struggle in the great victory over Sisera took place on the territory of Issachar, " by Taanach at the waters of Slegiddo" (Judg. V, 19) ; but the allusion to the tribe in the song of triumph is of the most cursory nature, not consistent with its having taken any prominent part in the action. One among the judges of Israel was from Issachar-^, Tola (Judg. X, 1) — but beyond the length of his sway we have only the fact recorded that he resided out of the limits of his own tribe — at Shamir, in Jlount Ephra- im. By Josephus he is omitted entirely (see Ant. v, 7, ()). The census of the tribe taken in the reign of David has already been alluded to. It is contained in 1 Chron. vii, 1-5, and an expression occurs in it which testifies to the nomadic tendencies above noticed. Out of the whole number of the tribe no less than 36,000 were ma- rauding mercenary troops — "bands" (Di'l^"'?)— ^ t^""™ applied to no other tribe in this enumeration, though elsewhere to Gad, and uniformly to the irregular bodies of the Bedouin nations round Israel. This was proba- bly at the close of David's reign. Thirty years before, when two hundred of the head men of the tribe had gone to Hebron to assist in making Da\id king over the entire realm, different qualifications are noted in them — they " had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do . . . and all their brethren were at their commandment," To what this " under- standing of the times" was we have no clew (see Dey- ling, Obsei-v. i, 160 sq.). By the later Jewish interpret- ers it is explained as skill in ascertaining the periods of the sun and moon, the intercalation of months, and dates of solemn feasts, and the interpretation of the signs of the heavens (Targum, ad loc. ; Jerome, Quasi. Ileh.). Josephus {Ant. vii, 2, 2) gives it as "knowing the things that were to happen ;" and he adds that the armed men who came with these leaders were 20,000. One of the wise men of Issachar, according to an old
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Jewish tradition preserved by Jerome (Quwsf. Ileh. on 2 Chron. xvii, 16), was Amasiah, son of Zichri, who, with 200,000 men, offered himself to Jehovah in the service of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xvii, IG) ; but this is very questionable, as the movement appears to have been confined to Judah and Benjamin. The ruler of the tribe at this time was Omri, of the great family of Michael (1 Chron. xxvii, 18 ; compare vii, 3). May he not have been the forefather of the king of Israel of the same name — the founder of the " house of Omri" and of the " house of Ahab," the builder of Samaria, possibly on the same hiU of Shamir on which the Issacharite judge, Tola, had formerly held his court ? But, whether this was so or not, at any rate one dynasty of the Is- raelitish kings was Issacharite. Baasha, the son of Ahi- jah, of the honse of Issachar, a member of the army with which Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibbe- thon, apparently not of any standing in the tribe (com- pare 1 Kings xvi, 2), slew the king, and himself momit- ed the throne (1 Ivings xv, 27, etc.). He was evidently a fierce and warlike man (xvi, 29; 1 Cliron. xvi, 1), and an idolater like Jeroboam. The Issacharite dynasty lasted during the twenty-four years of his reign and the two of his son Elah. At the end of that time it was wrested from him by the same means that his father had acciuired it, and Zimri, the new king, commenced his reign by a massacre of the whole kindred and con- nections of Baasha — he left him '• not even so much as a boy" (xvi, 11).
Distant as Jezreel was from Jerusalem, the inhabi- tants took part in the Passover witli which Hezekiah sanctified the opening of his reign. On that memora- ble occasion a multitude of the people from the north- ern tribes, and among them from Issachar, although so long estranged from the worship of Jehovah as to have forgotten how to make the necessary purifications, j'et by the enlightened piety of Hezekiah were allowed to keep the feast ; and they did keep it seven days with great gladness — with such tumidtuous joy as had not been known since the time of Solomon, when the whole land was one. Nor did they sppnrate till the occasion had been signalized by an immense destruction of idol- atrous altars and symbols, " in Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim and jManasseh," up to the verj'^ confines of Is- sachar's own land — and then " all the children of Israel returned everj' man to his possession into their own cit- ies" (2 Chron. xxxi, 1). Within five 3'ears from this date Shalmaneser, king of Assyri.-?, had invaded the north of Palestine, and after three years' siege had taken Samaria, and, with the rest of Israel, had carried Issa- char away to his distant dominions. The only other scriptural allusion to the tribe is that, with the rest of their brethren of all the tribes of the children of Israel (Dan only excepted), the twelve thousand of the tribe of Issachar shall be sealed in their foreheads (Rev. vii, 7).— Smith.