Deuteronomy 3:14

Summary

The verse reports that Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the entire region of Argob up to the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and named the territory of Bashan after himself, calling it "Havvoth-Jair" ("villages of Jair"), a name still in use at the time of writing.

Key words

• la.Kach ("he took", H3947G) — qal perfect, marks a completed action: the taking of the territory is presented as a finished historical fact.
• Che.vel ("region of", H2256M) — construct noun, links to 'ar.Go ("Argob"), defining the geographic scope of what was taken.
• va.yik.Ra' ("and he called", H7121H) — narrative form (vav + imperfect), continuing the story sequence after la.Kach; introduces the act of naming.
• she.M + o ("his name", H8034 + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, meaning "his own name," the basis for the new name given to the land.
• cha.Vot ("villages of", H2334) — feminine plural construct, forming the compound place-name cha.Vot ya.'Ir ("villages of Jair") together with the following proper name.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built in two narrative stages joined by va.yik.Ra' ("and he called"), a classic narrative-vav construction that moves the story forward: first Jair la.Kach ("took") the land, then he va.yik.Ra' ("called") it by his name. The object of the naming is introduced twice with the direct object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated): once for ha.Bashan ("the Bashan") and implicitly for the compound name that follows, cha.Vot ya.'Ir ("villages of Jair"). This double marking suggests that "Bashan" and "villages of Jair" refer to the same territory being renamed.

The construct chain Che.vel 'ar.Go ("region of Argob") specifies exactly what land is meant, while the two gentilic terms ha.ge.shu.Ri ("the Geshurite", H1651) and ha.ma.'a.kha.Ti ("the Maacathite", H4602) mark the outer boundary of the territory by naming the peoples adjacent to it rather than a geographic marker. The phrase 'ad ha.Yom ha.Zeh ("until this day") closes the verse, indicating that the name given by Jair remained in use up to the time of the text's composition.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Che.vel ("region of", H2256M) as περίχωρον ("surrounding region") and transliterates the gentilic names differently: ha.ge.shu.Ri becomes Γαρτασεί and ha.ma.'a.kha.Ti becomes Ὁμαχαθεί, forms that diverge notably from the Hebrew consonants. The LXX also adds τὴν Βασσεμάθ, a term not present in the Hebrew text, before Αὑὼθ Ἰαεὶρ. The Vulgate glosses cha.Vot ya.'Ir ("villages of Jair", H2334) explicitly as "id est, Villas Jair" ("that is, Villages of Jair"), making explicit the meaning that the Hebrew leaves implicit in the compound name.