HAVOTH-JAIR ( = "the tent-villages of Jair"):

Certain villages or towns on the east of the Jordan in Bashan and in Gilead, named after their conquerors. 1. The towns of Jair, son of Manasseh, which occupied the whole tract of Argob in Bashan (Num. xxxii. 41; Deut. iii. 14). They were sixty in number, and, contrary to the literal signification of their name, were towns well fortified with high walls and gates (Deut. iii. 4-5; Josh. xiii. 30; I Chron. ii. 23). In the time of Solomon they formed a part of Ben-geber's commissariat district (I Kings iv. 13). It appears from this passage that Jair hadvillages in Gilead, which also were called "Havothjair"; and according to 1 Chron. ii. 22 their number was twenty-three. 2. The villages of Jair the Gileadite, in Gilead, thirty in number (Judges x. 4).

E. G. H. M. Sel.
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