Havoth-jair

Havoth-jair (meaning the hamlets of the enlightener or villages of Jair) was a district of villages in the Bashan region east of the Jordan, in the territory of Gilead and northern Transjordan. The name derives from Jair son of Manasseh, who captured the district during the conquest period and named the villages after himself (Numbers 32:41; Deuteronomy 3:14). The number of villages is given variously in different passages — 23 (Judges 10:4) or 30 (1 Kings 4:13) or 60 (1 Chronicles 2:22) — reflecting different extents of territory at different periods or textual variants.

The judge Jair (Judges 10:3–5), a Gileadite who judged Israel for twenty-two years, had thirty sons who rode on thirty ass colts and had thirty cities in Gilead, also called Havoth-jair — connecting the judge to the same territory as the earlier Jair son of Manasseh, perhaps as a descendant. Solomon's administrative district (1 Kings 4:13) included the "towns of Jair" in Gilead, showing the region's continued significance as an organized administrative unit in the monarchy period.