_Machir_] the most important clan of Manasseh (compare Numbers xxvi. 29; Judges v. 14). The affinity of Judean Hezronites with members of the tribe of Manasseh, implied by this verse, is surprising. Whether the tradition has a basis in fact, or arose through some genealogical confusion, cannot as yet be determined. There is however considerable evidence in favour of the view that the relationship between Machir and Caleb is at least “no isolated detail, still less is it the invention of the Chronicler’s age,” and there may be real historical ground for a tradition that besides the northern movement of the Hezronites upwards to Judah there was also at some time a movement across the northern end of Edom into the lands east of Jordan, ending in the settlements of Machir and Jair in Gilead here recorded; compare Numbers xxxii. 39, and for discussion of the problem see Cook, _Notes on Old Testament History_, pp. 92, 93, etc. ²²And Segub begat Jair, who had three and twenty cities in the land of Gilead. =22.= _Jair_] one of the Judges (Judges x. 3, 4 where thirty cities, not twenty-three, are assigned him). _the land of Gilead_] This name is sometimes restricted to that part of the land east of Jordan which lies south of the wady Yarmuk. Here, as often, it is applied to all the land east of Jordan occupied by Israel. ²³And Geshur and Aram took the towns¹ of Jair from them, with Kenath, and the villages² thereof, even threescore cities. All these were the sons of Machir the father of Gilead. ¹ Or, _Havvoth-jair_. ² Hebrew _daughters_. =23.= _And Geshur and Aram_] Geshur was an Aramean kingdom east of Jordan on the north-east border of Manasseh. Aram, commonly translated “Syria” or “the Syrians,” probably here signifies the kingdom of which Damascus was the capital. The conquest of Manassite territory by the Arameans (“Syrians”) here described probably took place before the days of Ahab, for in his reign they were already established as far south as Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings xxii. 3). _the towns of Jair_] note margin _Havvoth-jair_, compare Deuteronomy iii. 14; Judges x. 4. The name perhaps means “the tent-villages of Jair” (Arabic _Ḥĭvâ_ = “a collection of tents near together”). ²⁴And after that Hezron was dead in Caleb-ephrathah, then Abijah Hezron’s wife bare him Ashhur the father of Tekoa. =24.= _And after that Hezron was dead in Caleb-ephrathah_] The Hebrew is certainly corrupt, but can easily be emended with the help of the LXX. Read =And after Hezron was dead Caleb went in to Ephrath= (verse 19) =his father Hezron’s wife and she bare him=, etc. Ephrath (= Ephrathah, verse 50, iv. 4) is a name of Bethlehem (Ruth iv. 11; Micah v. 2). “The taking of a father’s wife signified a claim to inherit the father’s possessions (compare 2 Samuel xvi. 22), and the phrase here expresses the legitimacy of Caleb’s residence in northern Judea” (see note on verse 42).