ja'-shen, jash'-en (yashen, "asleep"(?)): Seemingly the father of some of David s thirty valiant men (2Sa 23:32f). The Massoretic Text reads "Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, Shammah the Hararite,.... "1Ch 11:33f has Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan the son of Shagee the Hararite.... " It is clear that "sons of" are a dittography of the last three consonants of the previous word. Septuagint, Lucian in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles has ho Gouni, "the Gunite," for "the Gizonite," perhaps correctly (compareGe 46:24;Nu 26:48for "Guni," "Gunite"). So2Sa 23:32may be corrected thus: "Eliahba the Shaalbonite, Jashen the Gunite, Jonathan the son of Shammah the Hararite." Jashen then becomes one of the thirty = "Hashem" of1Ch 11:34.
David Francis Roberts