Genesis 25:15 names him as the eleventh son of Yishma-El, one of the twelve who appear to reflect the zodiac.
1 Chronicles 5:19 identifies him with the Hagarites (Hagariy'im - הגריאים), which appears to be his mother's name, but the spelling is actually a little different - see my notes below.
The same verse also identifies him with Yitur (יטור) and Nodav (נודב), against whom war was made by the Beney Re'u-Ven, Beney Gad and the half-tribe of Menasheh in the time of Yotam (יוֹתָם) king of Yehudah and Yerav-Am (יָרָבְעָם - Jeroboam) king of Yisra-El. All three tribes occupied the east bank of the river Yarden (Jordan), south of the Sea of Galilee, so (see Itureans below) we can treat this war as an attempted expansion northwards by Beney Ya'akov tribes against their Beney Yishma-El "cousins".
The spelling of Hagarim as Hagariy'im (הגריאים) is of some import here. Yishma-El's mother was Hagar (הגר), but here an Aleph (א) has been added, and in a part of the root which is not the one we recognise as the customary difference between Yehudit and Aramaic. Is it the same tribe? Gesenius reckons the Hagarites came from as far east as Bahrain, though this is unlikely. If correct, it would place Hagar in southern Syria or western Jordan (by today's geography), and not in Egypt. It would also suggest that the Beney Yishma-El may have been northern Edomites, and the tribe of Esav southern Edomites. Given the tales of Ha'ajar and Ismail in the Arab and Moslem worlds (the two are not automatically the same thing), which place them in the heart of Arabia, and eventually in Mecca, this is entirely plausible.
Yitur (יטור) is the Ituraeans, who inhabited the foot of Mount Chermon on the east side of the river Yarden (Jordan), and along the eastern shore of the sea of Galilee - a great deal further north than we normally associate the Beney Yishma-El tribes.
Nodav (נודב) means "nobility" or "generosity".
In Syriac the word Naphish (נפיש) means "refreshment"; the nearest Yehudit word seems to be Nephesh (נפש) = "spirit" or "soul", for which there is no used Hit-Pa'el (reflexive) verb; but if there were, it would be LEHITNAPESH , which would be wonderful as a connection to Utnapishtim in the Gilgamesh legend, and extraordinary to consider in the connections between that legend and the Biblical one of No'ach, whose name also means "rest". Where does this fit into the zodiac?
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