HAVVOTH-JAIR

(Hav·voth-jaʹir) [tent villages of Jair].

Villages located in Manasseh’s territory E of the Jordan. Since “Gilead” at times also denotes all of Israel’s land E of the Jordan (Josh. 22:9), this may explain why the Havvoth-jair are spoken of as being in Gilead (Num. 32:40, 41), although other texts locate the villages in Bashan.—Deut. 3:14; Josh. 13:29, 30.

Jair (a descendant of Judah through Hezron, but also reckoned as a descendant of Manasseh), a contemporary of Moses, is credited with capturing these “tent villages,” evidently twenty-three in number, and naming them after himself, Havvoth-jair. (Num. 32:39-41; Deut. 3:14; 1 Chron. 2:3, 21-23; see JAIR No. 1.) Years later, thirty cities in the possession of Judge Jair’s thirty sons were known as Havvoth-jair. Some critics view this as a contradictory explanation about the origin of the name “Havvoth-jair.” However, the Judges account does not state that the name “Havvoth-jair” was first used in this later period. It simply indicates that at the time of writing the name still was in use and was applied to these thirty cities.—Judg. 10:3, 4.

During the reign of Solomon the tent villages of Jair were included in one of the districts placed under a deputy. (1 Ki. 4:7, 13) As indicated by the context, the sixty cities mentioned in 1 Kings 4:13 and other texts (Josh. 13:30; 1 Chron. 2:23) were fortified cities of the Argob region in Bashan and apparently did not include the numerous rural towns. (Compare Deuteronomy 3:4, 5.) Hence, the “tent villages” of Jair should likely be regarded as distinct from these sixty cities.

At an unspecified time in Israel’s history, Geshur and Syria captured the Havvoth-jair.—1 Chron. 2:23.