JAIR (
= "He gives light"):
- 1. A contemporary of Moses, called in the Pentateuch "son of Manasseh," who in the beginning of the conquest took from the Amorites the whole tract of Argob, containing sixty fortified cities, which he called Havoth-jair (Num. xxxii. 41; Deut. iii. 14; Josh. xiii. 30; I Kings iv. 13). In I Chron. ii. 22, 23 Jair is mentioned as of mixed descent, he being the son of Segub, whose father was Hezron, a Judahite, and whose mother was the daughter of Machir, grandson of Manasseh and father of Gilead.
- 2. A Gileadite who judged Israel for twenty-two years. He had thirty sons; and thirty cities werecalled after him "Havoth-jair." He was buried at Camon (Judges x. 3-5). This Jair is probably the same as No. 1. According to another tradition the number of cities called after him was twenty-three (I Chron. ii. 22).
- 3. The father of Mordecai, a Benjamite (Esth. ii. 5).
- 4. (Ḳere,
; ketib, 
= "He awakens.") Father of Elhanan, one of David's heroes (I Chron. xx. 5). In the parallel narrative in II Sam. xxi. 19 his name is stated to be "Jaare-oregim."
E. G. H. M. Sel.
