Jair

Jair
יָאיר‎
Portrait of Jair from Bartolomeo Gai's Epitome historico-chronologica (1751)
Predecessor	Tola
Successor	Jephthah

In the Biblical Book of Judges, Jair or Yair (Hebrew: יָאִיר Yā’īr, "he enlightens") was a man from Gilead. He was of the Tribe of Manasseh and also descended from the Tribe of Judah (Numbers 32:39-41, 1 Chronicles 2:21-23). Jair judged Israel for 22 years, after the death of Tola, who had ruled of 23 years. His inheritance was in Gilead through the line of Machir, the son of Manasseh.

According to Judges 10:3–5, Jair had thirty sons, who rode thirty ass colts, and controlled 30 cities in Gilead which came to be known as Havoth-Jair (Judges 10:4; cf. 23 towns in 1 Chronicles 2:22). The word chawwoth ('tent encampments') occurs only in this context (Numbers 32:41; Deuteronomy 3:14; Judges 10:4). Jair died and was buried in Camon (or Kamon). W. Ewing suggests that Kamon probably corresponds to Kamun taken by the Seleucid king Antiochus III, on his march from Pella to Gephrun (Polybius Book V.70:12). After his death there were 18 years of infidelity to the God of the Israelites and oppression at the hands of their Philistine and Ammonite neighbours.^[1]

King David appointed a Jairite named Ira as his chief ruler or priest after Sheba's rebellion.^[2]