and made him king over Gilead and
over the Asherite and over Jezreel and over Ephraim and over Benjamin and over
Israel altogether. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York:
W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:313)
Asherite. The Masoretic
Text reads “Ashurite,” which would be, implausibly, a non-Israelite people.
Some critics emend to “Geshurite,” but that is a Canaanite group, and so the
emendation perpetuates the problem. It is simplest to read this word as a
reference to the northern tribe of Asher. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible,
3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:313)
