AGAREI or AGARENI (Hebr. Hagri'im; Septuagint: 'Ἀγαπάτω ο Ἀγαπητοί'). — An Arab tribe devoted to pastoralism, against which the trans-Jordanian tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh fought.
From the order of the enumeration of enemies in Ps. 82 (83), 7, it seems to follow that the A. were settled in Transjordan east of Gilead, between Moab and Ammon. Some have supposed the A. to be descendants of Hagar, from whom they would derive their name; indeed, the three tribes confederated with the A. against the Israelites, Jethur (Itureans), Naphis, and Mo-dob, correspond very well with the descendants of Ishmael: Jethur, Naphis, and Kedma (Gen. 25, 12-15); but the aforementioned psalm distinguishes the A. from the Ishmaelites. More probable is the identification of the A. with the Agraei ('Ἀγαπάτω') mentioned by Strabo (XVI, 4, 2), Ptolemy (V, 18), and Pliny (VI, 28). In the time of Saul the A. were driven out by the Reubenites, who settled in their region (1 Chron. 5, 10); shortly afterward the trans-Jordanian Israelites definitively defeated the A., taking all their rich livestock (50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, 2,000 donkeys; ibid. 5, 18-21). From then on the A. lived subject to the Israelites until the deportation (ibid. 5, 22). At an unspecified time, perhaps under King Jehoshaphat, when the Moabites and Ammonites allied against the king of Judah, the A. joined the coalition (2 Chron. 20, 1 ff.; Ps. 82 [83], 7; Flavius Josephus, Ant. Jud., IX, 7). An Agarenian was chief shepherd of King David’s flocks (1 Chron. 27, 31).