Bible Dictionaries
Havoth-Jair

Holman Bible Dictionary

(hay' vahth-jay' ihr) Place name meaning, “tents of Jair.” Villages in Gilead east of the Jordan which Jair, son of Manasseh, captured (Numbers 32:41 ). Deuteronomy 3:14 says Jair took the region of Argob and named Bashan after himself—Havoth-Jair. This passage equates land of Rephaim, Argod, Bashan, and Havoth-Jair. Compare Joshua 13:30; 1 Kings 4:13 . Judges 10:3-4 concern Jair the Gileadite, a judge in Israel for 22 years. He “had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-Jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.” 1 Chronicles 2:18-23 describes the genealogy of Caleb and his father Hezron. In late life Hezron married the daughter of Machir, the father of Gilead. She bore Segub, the father of Jair, who had 23 towns in Gilead. “But Geshur and Aram took from them Havvoth-Jair, Kenath and its villages, sixty towns. All these were descendants of Machir, father of Gilead” ( 1 Chronicles 2:23 NRSV). Apparently a group of villages east of the Jordan, perhaps varying in number at different times, were called Havoth-Jair. Israel laid claim to them and connected the name to that of different Israelite heroes at various time periods.