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, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(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 Maachathi—i.e., the Geshurite and the Maachathite, the inhabitants of Geshur and Maachah. “The Maachathites, near the Jordan springs (comp. Abel-Beth-maachah, 2Samuel 20:14-15), and the Geshurites, rather farther east” (Conder, Bible Handbook, p. 254). Talmai, king of Geshur, was the grandfather of Absalom (2Samuel 3:3), who took refuge with him after he killed Ammon (2Samuel 13:37). “Argob, Trachonitis, or El-Lejja, has been an asylum for all malefactors and refugees ever since” (Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 92).

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 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.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:12-20 This country was settled on the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh: see Nu 32. Moses repeats the condition of the grant to which they agreed. When at rest, we should desire to see our brethren at rest too, and should be ready to do what we can towards it; for we are not born for ourselves, but are members one of another.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These Geshurites held territory adjoining, if not included within, Bashan. They are not to be confounded with those mentioned in Joshua 13:2, who were neighbors of the Philistines 1 Samuel 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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob—The original inhabitants of the province north of Bashan, comprising sixty cities (De 3:4), not having been extirpated along with Og, this people were afterwards brought into subjection by the energy of Jair. This chief, of the tribe of Manasseh, in accordance with the pastoral habits of his people, called these newly acquired towns by a name which signifies "Jair's Bedouin Villages of Tents."

unto this day—This remark must evidently have been introduced by Ezra, or some of the pious men who arranged and collected the books of Moses.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Geshuri, or Geshurites, a people towards the north of Canaan, 2 Samuel 3:3 15:8. See also Joshua 13:13. Maachathi; of whom see 2 Samuel 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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob,.... Or Trachonitis; the small towns belonging to Gilead, as in Numbers 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 Joshua 13:13.

and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair, unto this day; see Numbers 32:41.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. Archaeological Note. It begins with the last clause of Deuteronomy 3:13; see above. This reference of the conquest of Argob to Ya’îr contrasts with Deuteronomy 3:4-6, which assign it to Israel under Moses, and differs from Numbers 32:41, which places the Ḥawwôth-Ya’îr in Gilead; cp. 1 Kings 4:13, and 1 Chronicles 2:22, and as we have seen, on Deuteronomy 3:13, Ya’îr 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 Numbers 32:41. Note the awkward construction. The word them in called them Ḥawwôth Ya’îr, confirmed by Sam. and LXX., has no proper antecedent (it cannot of course be explained by the preceding border), while in Numbers 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 (Deuteronomy 3:4).—The Geshuri and Ma‘akathi are placed by Joshua 12:5; Joshua 13:11 between Gile‘ad and Ḥermon to the W. of Bashan; that is the mod. Jaulan (Gaulanitis), but the Ma‘akathi spread across Jordan N.W. to Abel-beth-Ma‘akah in Naphtali, 2 Samuel 20:14 f., etc. These two were Aramean (Genesis 22:24; 2 Samuel 15:8; 1 Chronicles 19:6); Israel failed to expel them (Joshua 13:3); David fought the king of Ma‘akah (2 Samuel 10:6, where the LXX Ἀμαλήκ is probably an error; the Geshur of 2 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 13:37 f. may be another tribe of that name S. of Judah, Joshua 13:2; 1 Samuel 27:8); 1 Chronicles 2:33, where Geshur is said to have taken the Ḥ. Ja’ir, and Deuteronomy 19:6, are corrupt.—Ḥawwoth, cp. Ar. ḥiwa‘at “a collection of tents.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Jair, a descendant of Manasseh by the mother's side (his father was of the tribe of Judah, 1 Chronicles 2:22), obtained the Argob region unto - i.e., inclusive of (see Joshua 13:13) - the territory of the Geshuri and Maachathi. These were small Syrian tribes located to the east of Hermon. As Geshur signifies a bridge, it has been conjectured that the Geshurites were located near some well-known bridge across the Jordan, of which, perhaps, they were the keepers, and from this took their name. Maachah is called Aram (Syria) Maachah in 1 Chronicles 19:6. According to the 'Ono-masticon,' it was "a city of the Amorites, by the Jordan, near Mount Hermon" (s.v. Μαχαθί). It had in later times a king, who allied himself with the Ammonites against David (1 Chronicles 19:7). These tribes were subdued, but not destroyed, by the Israelites; and at a later period seem to have regained their independence, and to have formed one kingdom (comp. 2 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 10:6; 2 Samuel 13:37; 2 Samuel 15:8; 1 Chronicles 3:2). And called them after his own name, Bashan-havoth-jair. The word havoth (properly chavvoth, חַלֺוּת) is the plural of a word meaning life, and Char-voth-Jair probably signifies Jair's livings, not Jair's villages, for these were apparently fortified cities (vers. 4, 5; Joshua 13:30; 1 Kings 4:13). These were recaptured by the Geshurites, aided by the Arameans (1 Chronicles 2:23, "And Geshur and Aram took Chavvoth-Jair from them," etc.); at what time is unknown. From Numbers 32:42, it appears that Nobah, also a family descended from Machir, took certain towns, viz. "Kenath and her daughters" in this district; these, with the twenty-three Hay-voth-Jair, made up the sixty towns which "belonged to the sons of Machir the father of Gilead" (1 Chronicles 2:23). Nobah was probably in some way subordinate to Jair, and so in this rhetorical discourse, where it is not the purpose of the author to enter on minute details, the whole of these cities are included under the name Havvoth-Jair. Unto this day. "This does not necessarily imply a long time; and Moses himself may have used this expression, though only shortly after the event, in order to give prominence to the capture of the fortified cities of the giant' king Og, by the Manassites for the encouragement of the Israelites" (Herzheimer). Deuteronomy 3:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The region of Argob, or the country of Bashan, was given to Jair (see Numbers 32:41), as far as the territory of the Geshurites and Maachathites (cf. Joshua 12:5; Joshua 13:11). "Unto," as far as, is to be understood as inclusive. This is evident from the statement in Joshua 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 (2 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 13:37, and 2 Samuel 10:6). Geshur bordered on Aram. The Geshurites and Aramaeans afterwards took from the Israelites the Jair-towns and Kenath, with their daughter towns (1 Chronicles 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 (2 Samuel 3:3; 2 Samuel 13:37; 2 Samuel 14:23; 2 Samuel 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 1 Chronicles 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. Μαχαθί), 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. Numbers 32:41). The word חוּת (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 חוּה, life (Leben, a common German termination, e.g., Eisleben), for which afterwards the word חיּה was used (comp. 2 Samuel 23:13 with 1 Chronicles 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 Deuteronomy 3:5 and Numbers 32:41, and expressly confirmed by Joshua 13:30 and 1 Kings 4:13, where the sixty fortified towns of the district of Argob are called Havvoth Jair. - The statement in 1 Chronicles 2:22-23, that "Jair had twenty-three towns in Gilead (which is used here as in Deuteronomy 34:1; Joshua 22:9; Joshua 13:15; Judges 5:17; Judges 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 Numbers 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 1 Chronicles 2:23, in harmony with Numbers 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. 1 Chronicles 2:22-23). In the time of the judges we find thirty in the possession of the judge Jair (Judges 10:4), which caused the old name Havvoth Jair to be revived.)