Jeshurun

A poetical name for the people of Israel, used in token of affection, meaning, "the dear upright people" (Deut. 32:15; 33:5, 26; Isa. 44:2).

a name given to the collective political body of Israelites. Some derive the word from ישר, _just_ or _righteous_, and so make it to signify a righteous people. Montanus renders it _rectitudo_, and so does the Samaritan version. But it seems a considerable objection against this sense, that Israel is called Jeshurun at the very time that they are upbraided with their sins and their rebellion: “Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked,” &c, Deut. xxxii, 15. It is replied, Jeshurun is the diminutive of ישר, (for _nomen auctum in fine est nomen diminutivum_,) and so imports, that though, in general and on the whole, they were a righteous people, yet they were not without great faults. Perhaps Cocceius has given as probable an interpretation as any. He derives the word from שור, which signifies _to see_, _behold_, _or discover_; from whence, in the future tense, plural, comes ישורו, which, with the addition of nun _paragogicum_, makes Jeshurun; that is, “the people who had the vision of God.” This makes the name of Jeshurun to be properly applied to Israel, not only when Moses is called their king, but when they are upbraided with their rebellion against God; since the peculiar manifestation which God had made of himself to them was a great aggravation of their ingratitude and rebellion.