The Person: Eighth son of Jacob and second by Zilpah, Leah's maidservant. His name is derived from the Hebrew word 'ashar, 'happiness,' 'blessedness' (Gen 30:13).
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The tribe descended from him occupied some of the richest lands west of the Jordon, along the sea all the way from Carmel in the south to Tyre in the north, and bordering on the territories of the Sidonians. Deborah pined that Asher "sat still at the coast of the sea, settling down by his landings," when the nation needed them badly in the war against Jabin and Sisera (Judg 5:17), though they seemed to have responded to Gideon's call for help against the Midianites (Judg 6:35; 7:23). A similar complaint against Asher's indifference to the national life is seen in the Chronicler who observed that "only a few from Asher" (and Manasseh and Zebulun as well) "humbled themselves" to attend the great celebration of the Passover called by Hezekiah in Jerusalem (2 Chron 30:11). No distinguished individual from the tribe is recorded in the Old Testament, though one of her daughters, Anna the prophet, lived to see the infant Saviour Jesus;
Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem" (Lk 2:36).
Asher was one of the first tribes to be subdued and, together with the other northern tribes, taken into permanent exile under the Assyrians in the 8th Cent BC.
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