Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 3:14
Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair, unto this day.
14. Archaeological Note. It begins with the last clause of Deu 3:13; see above. This reference of the conquest of Argob to Ya’r contrasts with Deu 3:4-6, which assign it to Israel under Moses, and differs from Num 32:41, which places the awwth-Ya’r in Gilead; cp. 1Ki 4:13, and 1Ch 2:22, and as we have seen, on Deu 3:13, Ya’r is assigned by Jdg 10:3 ff. to the time of the Judges. The phrase unto this day also implies a date for this note later than that of Moses, which is assumed through the rest of the discourse. The opinion, therefore, is reasonable, that the note is a harmonising insertion altered from Num 32:41. Note the awkward construction. The word them in called them awwth Ya’r, confirmed by Sam. and LXX., has no proper antecedent (it cannot of course be explained by the preceding border), while in Num 32:41 it correctly refers to the preceding tent-villages. Note, too, the awkwardness of all Bashan as it stands. Moreover, the characteristic of Argob was not tent-villages but fenced cities ( Deu 3:4). The G e shuri and Ma‘ a kathi are placed by Jos 12:5; Jos 13:11 between Gile‘ad and ermon to the W. of Bashan; that is the mod. Jaulan (Gaulanitis), but the Ma‘ a kathi spread across Jordan N.W. to Abel-beth-Ma‘ a kah in Naphtali, 2Sa 20:14 f., etc. These two were Aramean (Gen 22:24; 2Sa 15:8; 1Ch 19:6); Israel failed to expel them (Jos 13:3); David fought the king of Ma‘ a kah (2Sa 10:6, where the LXX is probably an error; the G e shur of 2Sa 3:3; 2Sa 13:37 f. may be another tribe of that name S. of Judah, Jos 13:2; 1Sa 27:8); 1Ch 2:33, where G e shur is said to have taken the . Ja’ir, and Deu 19:6, are corrupt. awwoth, cp. Ar. iwa‘at “a collection of tents.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
These Geshurites held territory adjoining, if not included within, Bashan. They are not to be confounded with those mentioned in Jos 13:2, who were neighbors of the Philistines 1Sa 17:8.
The exact position of Maachah like that of Geshur cannot be ascertained; but it was no doubt among the fastnesses which lay between Bashan and the kingdom of Damascus, and on the skirts of Mount Hermon.
Unto this day – This expression, like our until now, does not, as used in the Bible, necessarily imply that the time spoken of as elapsed is long. It may here denote the duration to the time then present of that which had been already some months accomplished.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. Bashan-havoth-jair] Bashan of the cities of Jair; see Nu 32:41.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Geshuri, or Geshurites, a people towards the north of Canaan, 2Sa 3:3; 15:8. See also Jos 13:13. Maachathi; of whom see 2Sa 3:3; 10:6. Unto this day: this must be put among those other passages which were not written by Moses, but added by those holy men who digested the books of Moses into this order, and inserted some very few passages to accommodate things to their own time and people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. Jair the son of Manasseh tookall the country of ArgobThe original inhabitants of theprovince north of Bashan, comprising sixty cities (De3:4), not having been extirpated along with Og, this people wereafterwards brought into subjection by the energy of Jair. This chief,of the tribe of Manasseh, in accordance with the pastoral habits ofhis people, called these newly acquired towns by a name whichsignifies “Jair’s Bedouin Villages of Tents.”
unto this dayThisremark must evidently have been introduced by Ezra, or some of thepious men who arranged and collected the books of Moses.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob,…. Or Trachonitis; the small towns belonging to Gilead, as in Nu 32:41
unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; these were little kingdoms in Syria, on which the country of Argob bordered, and had kings over them in the time of David, and came not into the possession of the Israelites; see Jos 13:13
and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day; see Nu 32:41.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The region of Argob, or the country of Bashan, was given to Jair (see Num 32:41), as far as the territory of the Geshurites and Maachathites (cf. Jos 12:5; Jos 13:11). “ Unto,” as far as, is to be understood as inclusive. This is evident from the statement in Jos 13:13: “The children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites nor the Maachathites; but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites until this day.” Consequently Moses allotted the territory of these two tribes to the Manassites, because it formed part of the kingdom of Og. “ Geshuri and Maachathi ” are the inhabitants of Geshur and Maachah, two provinces which formed small independent kingdoms even in David’s time (2Sa 3:3; 2Sa 13:37, and 2Sa 10:6). Geshur bordered on Aram. The Geshurites and Aramaeans afterwards took from the Israelites the Jair -towns and Kenath, with their daughter towns ( 1Ch 2:23). In David’s time Geshur had a king Thalmai, whose daughter David married. This daughter was the mother of Absalom; and it was in Geshur that Absalom lived for a time in exile (2Sa 3:3; 2Sa 13:37; 2Sa 14:23; 2Sa 15:8). The exact situation of Geshur has not yet been determined. It was certainly somewhere near Hermon, on the eastern side of the upper Jordan, and by a bridge over the Jordan, as Geshur signifies bridge in all the Semitic dialects. Maachah, which is referred to in 1Ch 19:6 as a kingdom under the name of Aram-Maachah (Eng. V. Syria-Maachah), is probably to be sought for to the north-east of Geshur. According to the Onomast. ( s. v. ), it was in the neighbourhood of the Hermon. “ And he called them (the towns of the region of Argob) after his own name; Bashan (sc., he called) Havvoth Jair unto this day ” (cf. Num 32:41). The word ( Havvoth), which only occurs in connection with the Jair -towns, does not mean towns or camps of a particular kind, viz., tent villages, as some suppose, but is the plural of , life ( Leben, a common German termination, e.g., Eisleben), for which afterwards the word was used (comp. 2Sa 23:13 with 1Ch 11:15). It applies to any kind of dwelling-place, being used in the passages just mentioned to denote even a warlike encampment. The Jair’s-lives ( Jairsleben) were not a particular class of towns, therefore, in the district of Argob, but Jair gave this collective name to all the sixty fortified towns, as is perfectly evident from the verse before us when compared with Deu 3:5 and Num 32:41, and expressly confirmed by Jos 13:30 and 1Ki 4:13, where the sixty fortified towns of the district of Argob are called Havvoth Jair. – The statement in 1Ch 2:22-23, that “ Jair had twenty-three towns in Gilead (which is used here as in Deu 34:1; Jos 22:9; Jos 13:15; Jdg 5:17; Jdg 20:1, to denote the whole of Palestine to the east of the Jordan), and Geshur and Aram took the Havvoth Jair from them, (and) Kenath and its daughters, sixty towns (sc., in all),” is by no means at variance with this, but, on the contrary, in the most perfect harmony with it. For it is evident from this passage, that the twenty-three Havvoth Jair, with Kenath and its daughters, formed sixty towns altogether. The distinction between the twenty-three Havvoth Jair and the other thirty-seven towns, viz., Kenath and its daughters, is to be explained from the simple fact that, according to Num 32:42, Nobah, no doubt a family of sons of Machir related to Jair, conquered Kenath and its daughters, and called the conquered towns by his name, namely, when they had been allotted to him by Moses. Consequently Bashan, or the region of Argob, with its sixty fortified towns, was divided between two of the leading families of Machir the Manassite, viz., the families of Jair and Nobah, each family receiving the districts which it had conquered, together with their towns; namely, the family of Nobah, Kenath and its daughter towns, or the eastern portion of Bashan; and the family of Jair, twenty-three towns in the west, which are called Havvoth Jair in 1Ch 2:23, in harmony with Num 32:41, where Jair is said to have given this name to the towns which were conquered by him. In the address before us, however, in which Moses had no intention to enter into historical details, all the (sixty) towns of the whole district of Argob, or the whole of Bashan, are comprehended under the name of Havvoth Jair, probably because Nobah was a subordinate branch of the family of Jair, and the towns conquered by him were under the supremacy of Jair. The expression “unto this day” certainly does not point to a later period than the Mosaic age. This definition of time is simply a relative one. It does not necessarily presuppose a very long duration, and here it merely serves to bring out the marvellous change which was due to the divine grace, viz., that the sixty fortified towns of the giant king Og of Bashan had now become Jair’s lives.
(Note: The conquest of these towns, in fact, does not seem to have been of long duration, and the possession of them by the Israelites was a very disputed one (cf. 1Ch 2:22-23). In the time of the judges we find thirty in the possession of the judge Jair (Jdg 10:4), which caused the old name Havvoth Jair to be revived.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(14) Jair took . . . unto this day.The last words of this chapter seem to point to a later hand, as of Joshua, describing the completion of the conquest. The expression unto this day is characteristically common in Joshua, or in the editorial notes inserted throughout that book. (See Introduction to Joshua, On the Style of the Book.)
Geshuri and Maachathii.e., the Geshurite and the Maachathite, the inhabitants of Geshur and Maachah. The Maachathites, near the Jordan springs (comp. Abel-Beth-maachah, 2Sa. 20:14-15), and the Geshurites, rather farther east (Conder, Bible Handbook, p. 254). Talmai, king of Geshur, was the grandfather of Absalom (2Sa. 3:3), who took refuge with him after he killed Ammon (2Sa. 13:37). Argob, Trachonitis, or El-Lejja, has been an asylum for all malefactors and refugees ever since (Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 92).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Jair the son of Manasseh Meaning, descendant of Manasseh. He was of the tribe of Manasseh on his mother’s side.
Coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi That is, the Geshurites and Maachathites. The Geshurites are often named in connexion with Bashan. David married the daughter of Talmai, king of the Geshurites. Absalom was born of this marriage. After the murder of his brother Amnon by his command, Absalom fled to Geshur, and lived three years in exile among his mother’s kindred. 2Sa 13:37. The precise location of Geshur is not decided. It was somewhere near Hermon, on the eastern side of the upper Jordan. The exact location of Maachathi is not settled. It was probably in the neighbourhood of Hermon, not far from Geshur.
Havoth-jair The dwellings or abodes of Jair. Havoth is from the Hebrew word which means life, as the Germans use Leben in such forms as Eisleben.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 14. Unto the coasts of Geshuri, and Maachathi A people of Assyria, to the north of the tribe of Manasseh, near the source of the river Jordan. Unto this day has been thought by some to have been inserted by Ezra, who added these words to certify the original of this name: but there seems little reason for this, the phrase being frequently used in Scripture to denote a very short time. We cannot have a stronger instance of it, than the manner in which the apostle speaks, Act 1:19. If Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy some months after the event whereof he here speaks, he might with great propriety use this expression.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
coasts = borders.
Bashan-havoth-jair = the villages (or cluster of villages) of Jair in Bashan. Hebrew. Havoth = towns, used only of Jair’s. Compare Num 32:41. Jos 13:30. Jdg 10:4. 1Ki 4:13. 1Ch 2:23.
unto this day: unto the time of writing. Here the time mentioned is from Num 21 to the eleventh month of the fortieth year (Deu 1:3).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jair: 1Ch 2:21-23
Argob: Deu 3:4
Geshuri: Jos 13:13, 2Sa 3:3, 2Sa 10:6, 2Sa 13:37, Bashan-havoth-jair, Num 32:41
Reciprocal: Deu 3:1 – Bashan Jos 12:5 – unto the Jdg 10:4 – called 2Sa 13:38 – General 1Ki 4:13 – the towns 1Ch 2:22 – Jair Jer 40:8 – Maachathite
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 3:14. Unto this day This must be put among those passages which were not written by Moses, but added by those holy men who digested the books of Moses into this order, and inserted some few passages to accommodate things to their own time and people.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto {e} this day.
(e) Meaning, when he wrote this history.