Jair (Son of Manasseh)

Biblical Account

Jair appears in the account of Israel's division of the land east of the Jordan River. According to Numbers 32, Moses gave the land of Gilead to the descendants of Machir the son of Manasseh, and at that time "Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the small towns thereof, and called them Havothjair" (Numbers 32:41). In the same passage, a man named Nobah also took Kenath and gave it his own name (Numbers 32:42).

Deuteronomy 3:14 records the event in somewhat more detail. Jair took all the region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites. Argob was part of the territory ruled by Og, king of Bashan. Jair named this land of Bashan Havoth-jair after himself, and the text adds that the name has continued "unto this day." The Hebrew name Havoth-jair is generally rendered "the villages of Jair" or "the tent villages of Jair."

Later books also mention this place name. In describing the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua 13:30 lists "all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, threescore cities." According to 1 Kings 4:13, in the time of Solomon, Ben-geber, the officer in Ramoth-gilead, was in charge of "the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead." This shows that Jair's name survived as a place name into the period of the monarchy.

1 Chronicles 2:21–23 gives Jair's genealogy. Hezron, a descendant of Judah, married the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, and she bore him Segub; Segub in turn fathered Jair. Jair possessed twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead. Later, however, Geshur and Aram took the towns of Jair, along with Kenath and its surrounding towns, sixty places in all.

Significance Within the Bible

The account of Jair is one episode in the settlement of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh east of the Jordan River. His name was remembered chiefly as a place name rather than for any personal achievement. The story of Jair is set within records that explain the allotment of land among the twelve tribes of Israel and the origins of place names. He is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretive Issues

• The meaning of "son of Manasseh": According to the genealogy in 1 Chronicles, Jair's father was Segub, and his Manassite lineage came through his mother (the daughter of Machir). For this reason, "son of Manasseh" is generally understood to mean "descendant of Manasseh."
• The number of cities: The texts give differing numbers, such as twenty-three cities (1 Chronicles 2:22) and sixty cities (Joshua 13:30; 1 Chronicles 2:23). Some interpreters hold that the cities Jair personally possessed and the surrounding region as a whole were counted differently, while others hold that the extent of the territory changed over time.
• Relationship to Jair the judge: Judges 10:3–5 mentions "Jair, a Gileadite," who was a judge of Israel for twenty-two years. His thirty cities were also called Havoth-jair. Interpreters differ on whether the two are different people with the same name, whether Jair the judge was a descendant of this Jair who inherited the place name, or whether these are two traditions concerning the origin of the place name. The text does not directly state the relationship between the two.
• It is uncertain whether "Ira also the Jairite" in 2 Samuel 20:26 refers to a descendant of this Jair or to someone from Havoth-jair. The Jair of 1 Chronicles 20:5 (the father of Elhanan) and the Jair of Esther 2:5 (the father of Mordecai) are different individuals.