HAVVOTH-JAIR hăv’ ŏth jā’ ər (חַוֹּ֥ת יָאִֽיר, tent villages of Jair). KJV usually HAVOTH-JAIR. A settlement of villages E of the Jordan on the border of Gilead and Bashan. They were taken by Jair, the son of Segub, and named after himself (Num 32:41), and were part of the inheritance allotted by Moses to the half-tribe of Manasseh. At one time they were a part of the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan (Josh 13:29, 30). In Deuteronomy 3:14 it is said that “Jair the Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villages after his own name, Havvoth-jair.” According to Joshua 13:29, 30, there were sixty of them. In 1 Kings 4:13 they are named as part of the commissariat district of Ben-geber, Solomon’s purveyor in Ramoth-gilead, but it is not clear whether “the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars,” refers to the villages of Jair, or are in addition to it. The precise meaning of 1 Chronicles 2:22, 23 is uncertain: “And Segub was the father of Jair, who had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead. But Geshur and Aram took from them Havvoth-jair, Kenath and its villages, sixty towns.” What is the relationship of the twenty-three cities and the sixty towns? Various conjectures have been made, but no consensus has been reached.

Judges 10:4 also mentions a Jair who was a Gileadite, and of whom it is said that he judged Israel twenty-two years, and that his thirty sons besides riding on thirty asses also had thirty cities called Havvoth-jair. This Jair was undoubtedly different from the other one. It is not known why only thirty cities are mentioned. It may be that this Jair ruled over thirty himself and had his thirty sons rule over the others.