And Segub begat Jair, who had three and twenty cities in the land of Gilead.
Jair, who had three and twenty cities in the land of Gilead. Since the son of Segub and the grandson of Hezron, he was of the tribe of Judah; but from his maternal descent he is called, Numbers 32:41; Deuteronomy 3:14, "the son of Manasseh." This designation implies that his inheritance lay in that tribe in right of his grandmother; in other words, because his maternal and adopting great-grandfather was Machir, the son of Manasseh; and Jair, inheriting his property, was his lineal representative. And accordingly. this is expressly stated to be the case; because the village-group of "Havoth-jair" was awarded to him in that tribe, in consequence of his valiant and patriotic exploits. This arrangement, however, took place previous to the law (Numbers 34:1-29) by which it was enacted that heiresses were to marry in their own tribe. But this instance of Jair shows, that in the case of a man obtaining an inheritance in another tribe, the law required him to become thoroughly incorporated with it, as a representative of the family through which the inheritance was received. He had been adopted into Manasseh, and it would never have been imagined that he was other than 'a son of Manasseh' naturally, had not this passage given information supplementary to that of the passage in Numbers.