Ja'ir. (enlightener).
1. A man who, on his father's side, was descended from Judah, and on his mother's, from Manasseh. (B.C. 1451). During the conquest, he took the whole of the tract of Argob, Deuteronomy 3:14, and in addition, possessed himself of some nomad villages in Gilead, which he called after his own name, Havoth-Jair. Numbers 32:41; 1 Chronicles 2:23.
2. Jair, the Gileadite, who judged Israel for two-and-twenty years. Judges 10:3-5. (B.C. 1160). He had thirty sons, and possessed thirty cities in the land of Gilead, which, like those of their namesakes, were called Havoth-jair.
3. A Benjamite, son of Kish, and father of Mordecai. Esther 2:5. (B.C. Before 598).
4. The father of Elhanan, one of the heroes of David's army. 1 Chronicles 20:6.