Jetur

Jetur is one of the twelve sons of Ishmael, named in the Ishmaelite genealogies and reappearing in Chronicles as a tribal opponent of Transjordanian Israel.

Son of Ishmael

The Genesis register lists him near the end of the twelve: "Hadad, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah" (Ge 25:15). The Chronicler closes Ishmael's line with the same three names: "Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael" (1Ch 1:31). The two lists fix him as a clan-head among the descendants of Ishmael.

The Jetur Tribe in War

By the time of the Transjordanian settlement his name has become a tribal name. The Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh are recorded as fighting an alliance that includes his descendants: "And they made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab" (1Ch 5:19). The notice shows the line of Jetur surviving as a desert people on Israel's eastern border, paired again with Naphish as in the genealogies.