Jeshurun
Jesh'urun (Heb. Yeshurun', ישֻׁרוּן), a poetical appellation of the people of Israel, used in token of affection and tenderness, occurring four times (De 32:15, Sept. Ι᾿ακώβ,Vulg. dilectus; De 33:5,26, and Isa 44:2 [A. Vers. in this latter passage "Jesurun"]; Sept. ἠγαπημένος, Vulgate rectissimus). The term is (according to Mercer in Pagnini, Thes. 1, p. 1105; Mich. in Suppl., and others) a diminutive (after the form of Zebulun, Jeduthun, etc.) from יָשׁוּר i.q. יָשָׁר (compare שָׁלוּם and שָׁלֵם), q.d. rectulus, a 'rightling," i.e. the dear upright people. Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion have in Isaiah εὐθύς, elsewhere εύθύτατος; Kimchi says, "Israel is so called as being just among the nations;" so also Aben-Ezra and Saadias (in the Pent.) interpret. Others, as Grotius, understand the word as a diminutive from "Israel" itself, and so apparently the Chald., Syriac, and Saadias (in Isaiah), but against the analogy of derivation. Ilgen (D)e imnbre lapideo, p. 25, and in Paulus, Memoreabil. 6, p. 157) gives a far fetched derivation from the Arabic, and other fanciful explanations may be seen in Jo. Olpius's Diss. de ישרון (praeside Theod. Hasaeo, Breme, 1730). The passages where it is employed seem to express the idea that in the character of righteous Jehovah recognized his people in consideration of their covenant relation to him, whereby, while they observed the terms of that covenant, they stood legally justified before him and clean in his sight. It is in this sense that the pious kings are said to have done הִיָּשָׁר, "that which was right" in the eyes of Jehovah, i.e. what God approved (1Ki 11:34, etc.).
