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Judges 10:3

in Judges 10

Tola was followed by Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And after him arose Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty and two years.

KJV

And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.

This verse in Judges 10

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
Jair the Gileadite was probably the same person as is named in Num 32:41; Deu 3:14, as having given the name of “Havoth-jair” to certain villages in Bashan.

This site's exposition

Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel

on Judges 10:3-5

What is recorded of Jair is a family: "thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys" and held thirty towns. Numbers 32:41 gives the name Havvoth-jair to an earlier Jair of Manasseh. Barnes takes the two men for one, and Henry reads an old family name revived by the conquest.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Jair bore the name of a very famous man of the same tribe who in Moses's time was very active in reducing this country, Num. xxxii. That which is chiefly remarkable concerning this Jair is the increase and honour of his family: He had thirty sons,
And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Jair, a Gileadite--This judge was a different person from the conqueror of that northeastern territory, and founder of Havoth-jair, or "Jair's villages" (Nu 32:41;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Thoroughbreds. עוּלִין, 1 This is Targum Yonasan’s translation. the choicest horses.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Judges 10:4:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

10 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיָּ֣קָםand he arose

    vaiyakomH6965 →628 times

  • אַחֲרָ֔יוafter him

    ʾacharavH310 →715 times

  • יָאִ֖ירJair

    yairH2971 →

  • הַגִּלְעָדִ֑יthe Gileadite

    hagiladiH1569 →11 times

  • וַיִּשְׁפֹּט֙and he judged

    vaiyishpotH8199 →202 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • עֶשְׂרִ֥יםtwenty

    ʾesrimH6242 →315 times

  • וּשְׁתַּ֖יִםand two

    ushetayimH8147 →768 times

  • שָׁנָֽה׃year[s]

    shanahH8141 →877 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 31:48

    Then Laban declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore the place was called Galeed.

    it leads to

    • Joshua 24:27

      And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD has spoken to us, and it will…

    • Deuteronomy 3:16

      and to the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the…

    • Deuteronomy 2:36

      From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead, not one city had walls too high for us. The LORD our God…

    • Joshua 13:8–9

      The other half of Manasseh, along with the Reubenites and Gadites, had received the inheritance Moses had given them beyond the Jordan to the east, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had…

    • Genesis 31:23

      So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

Where this verse is studied

About Judges

Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.
Jael, Deborah and Barak, Salomon de Bray, 1635. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.