Havoth-Jair

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Again, it is said that Jair "took all the tract of Argob," and called it Bashanhavoth-jair ( Deuteronomy 3:14 ). (See also  Joshua 13:30;  1 Kings 4:13;  1 Chronicles 2:22,23 .)

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Havoth-Jair'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/h/havoth-jair.html. 1897.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Havoth-Jair ( Hâ'Voth-Jâ'Ir ), Villages Of Jair. A title applied to certain villages east of the Jordan which Jair captured and held.  Numbers 32:41;  Judges 10:4. The towns of Jair are included with the 60 cities given to Manasseh,  Joshua 13:30;  1 Chronicles 2:23; but the word rendered "villages"usually means a small collection of hovels in a country place. These towns were a part of one of the revenue districts of Solomon.  1 Kings 4:13.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Numbers 32:41 Deuteronomy 3:14  Joshua 13:30 1 Kings 4:13 Judges 10:3-4  1 Chronicles 2:18-23  1 Chronicles 2:23

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

The villages of Jair, so called from being in the lot of Jair the son of Manasseh. ( Numbers 32:41)

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Chavvoth' Yair' חִוֹּת יָאַיר Hamlets Of Air [i.e. the Enlightener]; Sept. Ἐπαύλεις and Κῶμαι Ι᾿Α ‹ Ρ , Θανώθ , etc.; Vulg. Vicus, or Viculus, or Havoth Jair, etc.), the name of a settlement or district east of the Jordan. The word Chavvah, which occurs in the Bible in this connection only, is perhaps best explained by the similar term in modern Arabic, which denotes a small collection of huts or hovels in a country place (see the citations in Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 451; and Stanley, Sinai and Pal. App. § 84), such as constitutes an Arab village or small town. (See Topographical Terms).

(1.) The earliest notice of the Havoth-jair is in  Numbers 32:41, in the account of the settlement of the trans-Jordanic country, where Jair, son of Manasseh, is stated to have taken some villages (A.V. "the small towns;" but there is no article in the Hebrew) of Gilead, which was allotted to his tribe, and to have named them after himself, Havvoth-jair.

(2.) In  Deuteronomy 3:14 it is said that Jair "took all the tract of Argob unto the boundary of the Geshurite and the Maacathite, and called them [i.e. the places of that region] after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair." (3.) In the records of Manasseh in  Joshua 13:30, and  1 Chronicles 2:23 (A.V., in both "towns of Jair"), the Havvoth-jair are reckoned with other districts as making up sixty "cities" ( עָרַים ). II  1 Kings 4:13 they are named as part of the commissariat district of Ben-geber next in order to the "sixty great cities" of-Argob, as the Eng.Vers. has it; but probably the latter designation is only added for definiteness, and refers to the same region.

(4.) No less doubtful is the number of the Havvoth-jair. In  1 Chronicles 2:22 they are specified as twenty-three, but in  Judges 10:4, as thirty. (See Jair).

From these statements some have inferred that there were two separate districts called Chavvoth-Yair (see Reland, Palcest. p. 483), one in Gilead, and the other in Bashan (Porter, Damascus, 2, 270). But in order to reconcile the different passages where they are spoken of; it is only necessary to suppose that having first been captured by the original Jair when they were mere nomad hamlets, and but 23 in number, they were afterwards occupied and increased to 30 by the judge Jair, and that they were usually regarded as part of the sixty considerable places comprised within the general tract of Bashan, including Gilead. (See Argob).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Ha′voth-jair. Havoth signifies 'cabins' or 'huts,' such as belong to the Arabians, and a collection of which is regarded as forming a hamlet or village. The district of Havoth-jair (Jair's hamlets), mentioned in , and , was beyond the Jordan in the land of Gilead, and belonged to the half-tribe of Manasseh.