Asher - Biblical Narrative

Biblical Narrative

Asher played a role in freeing his brother Joseph from slavery.(Gen. 37:23-36) Asher and his four sons and daughter settled in Canaan. On his deathbed, Jacob blesses Asher by saying that "his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties"(Genesis 49:20).

Asher was the eighth son of the patriarch Jacob and the traditional progenitor of the tribe Asher. However, some Biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation.

Asher is represented as the younger brother of Gad; these two being the sons of Zilpah, the handmaid of Leah (Gen. xxx. 10 et seq., xxxv. 26). The Biblical account shows Zilpah's status as a handmaid change to an actual wife of Jacob Genesis 30:9,13. Her handmaid status is regarded by some biblical scholars as indicating that the authors saw the tribe of Asher as being not of entirely Israelite origin; scholars believe that Asher consisted of certain clans affiliated with portions of the Israelite tribal confederation, but which were never incorporated into the body politic.

The Torah states that Asher had four sons and one daughter, who were born in Canaan and migrated with him to Egypt, with their descendants remaining there until the Exodus; this seems to be partly contradicted by Egyptian records (assuming a late Exodus date), according to which a group named Aseru, a name from which Asher is probably derived, were, in the 14th century BC, living in a similar region to Asher's traditional territory, in Canaan. Asher's daughter, Serah (also transliterated as Serach), is the only granddaughter of Jacob mentioned in the Torah (Gen. 46:17). Her mother is not named; according to classical rabbinical literature, Serach's mother was named Hadurah, and was a descendant of Eber, but although Hadurah was a wife of Asher, it was her second marriage, and Serach's father was actually Hadurah's first husband, who had died. In classical rabbinical literature, Hadurah's marriage to Asher was his second marriage as well, his first having been to Adon, who was a descendant of Ishmael; the Book of Jubilees contradicts this, arguing instead that Asher's wife was named Lyon (which probably means dove).

Asher's sons were: Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui, and Beriah.