AGAREI OR AGARENES (Hebrew Hagrî'îm; Septuagint: Ἀγαραῖοι ὁ Ἀγαρηνοί). - An Arab tribe, devoted to pastoralism, against whom the Transjordanian tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh fought.
From the order in which the enemies are enumerated in Ps. 82 (83):7, it seems to follow that the A. were settled in Transjordan east of Gilead, between Moab and Ammon. Some supposed the A. to be descendants of Hagar, from whom they would take their name; indeed the three tribes allied with the A. against the Israelites, Jethur (Itureans), Naphis and Modob, correspond quite well to the descendants of Ishmael: Jethur, Naphis and Kedmah (Gen. 25:12-15); but the aforementioned psalm distinguishes the A. from the Ishmaelites. More probable is the identification of the A. with the Agrei (Ἀγραῖοι) mentioned by Strabo (XVI, 4, 2), Ptolemy (V, 18) and Pliny (VI, 28). In the time of Saul the A. were routed by the Reubenites, who settled in their region (1 Chron. 5:10); shortly afterwards the Transjordanian Israelites definitively subdued the A., taking from them 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 transmigration" (ibid. 5:22). At an uncertain period, perhaps under King Jehoshaphat, when the Moabites and Ammonites joined together against the king of Judah, the A. entered the coalition (2 Chron. 20:1 ff.; Ps. 82 [83]:7; Flavius Josephus, Ant. Jud., IX, 7). An Agarite was chief shepherd of King David's flocks (1 Chron. 27:31).