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Bible Dictionaries
Bashan-Havoth-Jair
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or A name given to Argob after Jair's conquest of it. Reuben's and Gad's request to have the eastern Jordanic region followed immediately after Israel's conquest of Og and Sihon, and Jair immediately occupied Bashan The events in Numbers 22, etc., occurred between the occupation of Bashan and Moses' parting address (Deuteronomy 3:4-5; Deuteronomy 3:13-14). The name still adhering to it "unto this day," saith Moses, proves Jair's occupation of it in the face of so mighty a nation as Moab, and is a pledge of further conquests. Ηaoth means "dwelling places," from hawah "life"; as the German leben, "life," is a termination of many towns, e.g. Eisleben. The "Jair's lives" or "dwellings was the collective name given by Jair to all the 60 fortified towns of Argob (Numbers 32:41-42; Joshua 13:30; 1 Kings 4:13). The statement in 1 Chronicles 2:22-23, "Jair had 23 cities in Gilead (i.e. the whole eastern Jordanic region) with Kenath and the towns thereof, even threescore cities," is not at variance but in harmony with the preceding passages.
The 23 Havoth Jair, with Kenath and its dependent towns, 37, conquered by Nobah (a family of sons of Machir related to Jair), amounted to "threescore in all." Bashan or Argob was divided between two chief families of Machir the Manassite, namely, that of Nobah who conquered Kenath and her dependencies, and Jair who conquered and named the Havoth Jair. Jair being supreme, and Nobah a subordinate branch of the Jair family, Moses comprehends the whole 60 under the name Havoth Jair. The words "unto this day" do not imply a long interval between the naming and the time of Moses' address, but mark the wonderful change due to God's gift, that the giant Og's 60 fenced cities are now become Havoth Jair! In the time of the judges, 30 were in possession of the judge Jair (Judges 10:4), so that the old name, Havoth Jair, was revived. In undesigned coincidence the name Jair-us recurs in the same quarter in the New Testament, but W. of the sea of Galilee (Matthew 9:18).
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Bashan-Havoth-Jair'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/b/bashan-havoth-jair.html. 1949.
